Hi Bonnie, Happy Holidays. The donation link didn't work for me. An error said the page didn't exist ... Let me know ... Al On Wed, Dec 23, 2015 at 8:19 PM, Bonnie Schrack via < genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com> wrote: > Dear Andreas, > > Thanks for your email! There is just one really good source of > information about the Bangwa that I know of, http://www.lebialem.info/. > That site collects some of the key works of scholarship on them. There > are videos worth seeing on YouTube, too, such as > https://youtu.be/DtSzd5qvjh8, which is long, but can be fascinating if > you are a good observer. > > There are a lot of questions in science that are not ready to be > resolved, so one can't yet say, "this is considered to be the case," as > one could if it were a settled question. Thus, I cannot answer your > question per se, "Is Cameroon now considered to be the birth place of > Adam?" No one knows where the most recent common paternal ancestor of > today's human population lived, and if anyone tells you they do know, I > would look at that with a very skeptical eye. I have not seen any recent > scientific paper that claims to be able to answer this question yet. > > The most interesting passage in a fairly recent paper, that I know of, > is this, from "An unbiased resource of novel SNP markers provides a new > chronology for the human Y chromosome and reveals a deep phylogenetic > structure in Africa," by Rosaria Scozzari et al, Genome Research, Jan. > 2014. > > "This geographical confinement of deep lineages is at odds with the > mainly eastern African position of sites providing fossils of > comparable ages (McDougall et al. 2005, but see Tattersall and > Schwartz 2008). The question then becomes: when did these lineages > reach central-western Africa? Two hypotheses can be put forward: > first, ancient residence of A1b and A1a in eastern Africa, followed > by relocating to central-western Africa and extinction in the > motherland eastern Africa (possibly together with other yet unknown > deep rooted branches), or second, ancient residence of A1b and A1a > in central-western Africa, with loss of fossil record there. The > finding of the oldest lineage recorded so far (A00, 338 kya) in > Cameroon (Mendez et al. 2013), adds to our phylogeographic results > in suggesting centralwestern Africa as a broad region populated by > deep MSY lineages earlier than 160 kya." > > There may have been further interesting statements published since then, > but this is the best I can offer tonight! > > One factor that has not been mentioned much by studies of human > prehistory is that this area of Cameroon has been a refugium during > periods of harsh climate change, resulting in its becoming a > biodiversity hotspot, where today the rarest species of Chimpanzees and > Gorillas can be found, among other animals. > > Thus one scenario that could be explored is that humans, like these > other primates, could have ended up in Cameroon during one of the dry > periods when it provided a haven. If there were other branches dating to > the same or earlier period as A00, they could have been lost during > those adversities. > > Since the model that has been gaining the most prominence is the > "Braided Stream," with many small and diverse populations of early > humans in Africa repeatedly separating and re-joining, it would not be > as surprising that one region contributed the oldest Y lineages, while > another has the oldest mtDNA, or autosomal DNA. > > That being said, there is much that cries out to be studied right there > in Cameroon, which has some of the greatest ethnic diversity of any > country in the world. Due to limited funding, we currently have no > short-term plans to study the mtDNA of our samples, but I think it would > be a mistake to overlook that angle in the longer term. > > We are in conversations with Melissa Wilson Sayres, of Arizona State, > who hopes to be assisting us in analyzing the data we collect. She > thinks, and I agree, that autosomal studies of these Cameroonian > populations would be very important and interesting to do in the > future. But new samples, collected under a distinct protocol, would > have to be gathered for that project, so that we'd have even stronger > mechanisms in place to protect the privacy of the sample donors, because > of the far greater medical implications of autosomal variation. > > I would be surprised to hear of any larger concentration of A00 samples > being discovered in another country, but of course there are many > unstudied, remote or dangerous corners of Africa where very little is > known of the people's DNA, compared with the very thorough sampling of > European populations. > > Although I must say it is still hard for me to wrap my head around what > could have happened, I would guess that the relatively tiny number of > A00 living today suggests that a combination of genetic drift, and > perhaps warfare, or subjugation of indigenous peoples by more aggressive > warriors, with lack of ideal agricultural land and access to markets > creating difficult conditions for subsistence, must have kept A00 from > attaining a substantial population size, with isolation in the very > rugged and inaccessible mountains of Cameroon allowing them to just > barely hang on and survive over so many centuries and millennia. We > often see little pockets of rare genetic groups in small, high mountain > valleys, as some recent studies on the Caucasus have shown. > > I hope all who find this really interesting will stop to consider that > we are not able to fund our research out of our own pockets, as the cost > of testing hundreds of samples at even the most inexpensive prices > becomes very high. This can only be done if many people come together > to share the burden and make it light. We have so little time left > before our deadline. As soon as the Christmas festivities allow, I hope > a good number of our kind readers will stop by our website at > http://experiment.com/a00west, to support this project financially, > allowing us to pay our bills and gather more essential data, for the > benefit of all. > > Bonnie > > -- > *Farther Back We All Connect* > > > On 12/23/2015 9:41 PM, Andreas West wrote: > > Dear Bonnie, > > > > > > Thank you for keeping us informed about the progress. I've tried to > lookup information about the Bangwa on Wikipedia but couldn't find > anything. Only information available is on the Mbo, it's article mentions > the Bangwa but there is no standalone article. > > > > Maybe someone attached to the project would like to write it, especially > now from the Adam background. > > > > Just for my understanding. Is Cameroon now considered to be the birth > place of Adam or is that unlikely until a higher percentage of A00 samples > are found anywhere else in a location? > > > > As E1b1a is so much more present there does it mean that most A00 lines > unfortunately died out? > > > > Andreas > > ** > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > GENEALOGY-DNA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >

The hyperlink in Bonnie's message included the asterisk. If you copy the URL and paste it into your browser, then erase the asterisk, it takes you to this page: https://experiment.com/projects/go-west-young-man-in-search-of-the-a00-haplogroup-among-peoples-of-western-cameroon Ann Turner On Wed, Dec 23, 2015 at 8:47 PM, Al Aburto via <genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com> wrote: > Hi Bonnie, > Happy Holidays. > The donation link didn't work for me. An error said the page didn't exist > ... > Let me know ... > Al >

Thank you Bonnie & Ann ... I have donated! Good luck with your great project Bonnie & Matthew! Al On Thu, Dec 24, 2015 at 9:26 AM, Ann Turner <dnacousins@gmail.com> wrote: > The hyperlink in Bonnie's message included the asterisk. If you copy the > URL and paste it into your browser, then erase the asterisk, it takes you > to this page: > > > https://experiment.com/projects/go-west-young-man-in-search-of-the-a00-haplogroup-among-peoples-of-western-cameroon > > Ann Turner > > On Wed, Dec 23, 2015 at 8:47 PM, Al Aburto via <genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com > > wrote: > >> Hi Bonnie, >> Happy Holidays. >> The donation link didn't work for me. An error said the page didn't exist >> ... >> Let me know ... >> Al >> > > >