Travis Vocino Experiments in Art, Science & Technology.

Human migration denotes any movement by humans from one locality to another, often over long distances or in large groups. Humans are known to have migrated extensively throughout history and prehistory.

The Wikipedia article on human migration is fairly extensive but getting interested in the subject does spark some questions.

There were several migrations through Asia. What is it about Asia that produces such powerful evolutionary effect as the pronounced similarities between Chinese and Japanese? And just how complex were the Asian and American migrations? Was there interbreeding between first wave and second wave Asians?

Two Separate Large Migrations

According to these images, there were two separate great migrations to Eastern Asia and Oceania, separated by a difference of several thousand years. The first migration yielded such races as South Chinese, Native Australians and Polynesians.

Before the second migration occurred however, two more closely related populations diverged, and one of these populations migrated to Eastern Asia and the Americas and yielded such races as Japanese, Native Americans and Koreans, whereas the other population migrated to Europe and the Middle East, and yielded such races as Indians, Europeans and Iranians.

Explanations

This has made me think about convergent evolution.

You’ll notice that the first migration into Asia yielded, among others, South Chinese and Native Australians. There are obvious superficial differences between these two races, perhaps the most striking being the epicanthal folds of Chinese people. Despite being more closely related, one would say that Chinese are more closely related to Japanese than to Native Australians.

There are two explanations that I can think of for this, one being convergent evolution, and one being interbreeding between first wave Asians and second wave Asians. Both of these happenings are the resultant effects of spending time in Eastern Asia.

Convergent Evolution?

First, convergent evolution. What’s so special about Eastern Asia that makes epicanthal folds so useful to have? Is it high winds? High altitude? There must’ve been some very strong pressure on selecting for epicanthal folds in this part of the world.

Interbreeding?

If it’s not convergent evolution, then is it interbreeding between races? Did the second wave of Asians have sex with the first wave of Asians as they made their way through Asia to the further Eastern reaches and to the Americas? If so, then surely it’s not so easy to draw a family tree and it’s absurd to suggest that there’s such a thing as pure races occupying their own hefty stub on the great human family tree.