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'Neanderthals Among Us' review

69 points · 58 comments · pepys

  1. ericmcer · · focus · HN ↗
    The Neanderthal extinction always made me think that erasure of races in our modern times will follow a similar pattern. People think of the Native Americans as getting wiped out by disease/violence over a few years, but their ultimate end (and every other races end) probably will be similar to Neanderthals: slowly getting bred out of existence until finding someone with >2% DNA is a novelty. Same thing will probably happen to any smaller populations as globalization/interbreeding means massive populations like China/India will end up being the majority of the DNA.
    1. naet · · focus · HN ↗
      I'm always surprised at the opposite. We have such distinct ethnicities. It feels like everyone should be mixed race, but so few are.

      I will grant that by some historic definitions you could consider many people mixed race as neighboring cultures combine. But there are still very large and distinctly separate ethnic groups like black, white, asian, etc.

      (I am not mixed race by my wife and son are)

      1. senderista · · focus · HN ↗
        We are all mixed race.

        <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.goodreads.com&#x2F;en&#x2F;book&#x2F;show&#x2F;35749414-who-we-are-and-how-we-got-here" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.goodreads.com&#x2F;en&#x2F;book&#x2F;show&#x2F;35749414-who-we-are-a...

        1. 453yuh46 · · focus · HN ↗
          We all are the same species, but we also all are mixed races. Some more different than others.
          1. kypro · · focus · HN ↗
            All these are arbitrary. The genetic distance between a European with a high percentage of neanderthal DNA and that of some African populations is probably more comparable than some might expect. And whether we should consider Neanderthals a separate species, is again, probably more debatable than some might expect.

            What makes a &quot;race&quot; is basically just total nonsense. Arguably there should be many &quot;races&quot; in Africa given the genetic diversity.

            &gt; We all are the same species, but we also all are mixed races.

            We&#x27;re also all mixed-species.

            1. senderista · · focus · HN ↗
              Indeed, &quot;race&quot; is a folk concept and has at best limited correspondence to genetic population structure.
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