Discovery of new human ancestor Homo naledi sparks racism row in South Africa

[compl3x]

ome prominent South Africans have dismissed the discovery of new human ancestor Homo naledi as a racist theory designed to cast Africans as "subhuman".

"No-one will dig old monkey bones to back up a theory that I was once a baboon. Sorry," said Zwelinzima Vavi, former general-secretary of the powerful trade union group Cosatu, which is a faithful ally of the ruling African National Congress (ANC).

Mr Vavi's comments came after last week's discovery of Homo naledi, described by scientists as a new distant ancestor of humans.

"I am no grandchild of any ape, monkey or baboon — finish en klaar [Afrikaans for 'that's it']," Mr Vavi said on his Twitter account, which is followed by more than 300,000 people.

His comments were backed by the South African Council of Churches (SACC), which was historically involved in the fight against apartheid.

Mr Vavi recalled being a target of racist remarks when South Africa was under apartheid rule: "I been also called a baboon all my life so did my father and his fathers."

Apartheid ended in 1994 after Nelson Mandela was elected as the country's first black president in a democratic South Africa.

The discovery of the ancient relative generated a huge amount of international interest.

We're all African apes: Dawkins

But the South African backlash has perplexed people around the world at a time when Darwin's theory of evolution is widely accepted as fact.

It "breathes new life into paranoia," prominent British biologist Richard Dawkins said on Twitter this week.

"Whole point is we're all African apes."

Lee Berger, an American working at Johannesburg's University of the Witwatersrand and overseeing the Homo naledi dig, tried to keep his distance from the charged debate, though he did specifically clarify that man did not descend from baboons.

"For our scientists, the search for human origins is one that celebrates all of humankind's common origins on the continent of Africa," he said.

"The science is not asking questions of religion nor challenging anyone's belief systems, it is simply exploring the fossil evidence for the origins of our species."

The body of Homo naledi resembles that of a modern man, but researchers say its orange-sized brain places it closer to Australopithecus, a group of extinct hominids that walked on two legs and lived around 2 million years ago.

Some 1,550 fossils were unearthed in the Rising Star, a cave located in the Cradle of Humankind, a site 50 kilometres north-west of Johannesburg that has proven over the years to be a rich source for palaeontologists.

The bones have not been dated, but researchers claim they will reveal more about the transition between the primitive Australopithecus and the Homo genus, the family tree of our direct ancestor.

 

Read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-17/new-human-sparks-racism-row-in-south-africa/6783844

 

 

Dunno whether to laugh or cry at this. 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Well...normally I would steer clear of this with a 100" pole, as it can be equated to getting through a field of land mines, full of razor blade bushes...not promising. but I will give you my take on this. I have been following ancient archaeology, since a youngster, as a hobby, and invariably, at times, get dragged into this "field", which is not pleasant, and find an exit as soon as possible.  Short answer...Blown out of proportion.

This will be my opinion only. You check with 1000 people, and will get 1000 alternate versions. With my science and physic's background, we are taught to rely on evidence...we use the scientific method, subject to peer review, develop "laws", "theories" and "models". Once we have an issue, we introduce a change, or new model...but it must pass strict peer review.

This field, in my opinion, has a different "standard" to what constitutes "proof", and I have real issues with a lot of statements and articles.

Every few months, someone finds something that tips the cart for the "family tree". Every year or so, someone wants to trim the branches of the "family tree". Some of these discoveries are based on as little as a fragment of bone, in an area, that some can easily present alternative reasons, for the specimen in question, for being there. Background location and artifacts are generally used for an approximate dating. Then we can delve into DNA, RNA, string pairs and gene splicing to make compatibility over great lengths of time. Then we find groups coexisted, some were phased out, and some groups were independent and coexisting. Alternative theories abound, and one is always questioning another.

The same can be said about the "domestication" of animals, and particularly, the "domestication" of vegetation, which takes, usually, a very long time. We have enough problems piecing information together for various civilizations, from 6000 years ago, and we want to delve back 6 million, or so, years, and create a tree. There are some compelling data, and a whole lot of assumptions in my opinion, and I don't loose any sleep over it. The human race is one, where country, religion, politics, or color, have no bearing. We could go back billions of years and state all known, and extinct life, originated from a common life form.

This article, one of many, past, present and future, is bound to bother someone, or some group. Not everyone is expected to have a background, which enables understanding. I put fault on the organisations, and media, for releasing poorly worded statements which cause more damage than creating interest.

This is just my opinion, and I'm out of here like a dirty shirt......... 

 

[compl3x]

The problem here is that, as usual, the people who don't understand the science are using inflammatory and ignorant arguments to make their case. The irony is that it is discovery like this that underline just how unreasonable and unfair racism is.

"For our scientists, the search for human origins is one that celebrates all of humankind's common origins on the continent of Africa," he said.

That's a pretty powerful idea, and it is one that, if you accept it, makes it horribly difficult to support or engage in racism. Racists seem more inclined to reject evolution.

 

[Torolol]

"For our scientists, the search for human origins is one that celebrates all of humankind's common origins on the continent of Africa," he said.

That's a pretty powerful idea, and it is one that, if you accept it, makes it horribly difficult to support or engage in racism. Racists seem more inclined to reject evolution.

Evolution theory has long track being used as racist agenda tools. As they trying to justifying that their racist agenda are backed with science.
One of their racist reasoning that different humans race evolved at different pace and thus certain race are more developed than others.

Edited September 18, 2015 by Torolol

[FloatingFatMan]

One of their racist reasoning that different humans race evolved at different pace and thus certain race are more developed than others.

Which of course ignores the fact that such a thing would make us different species entirely, and not capable of inter-breeding...

[dipsylalapo Supervisor]

I saw a tweet from BBC Breaking about this and what they failed to mention (which was kinda obvious) was remains of. The tweet read "Scientists discover new human-like species in South Africa cave which could change ideas about our early ancestors"

It made it seem like a new species had actually been discovered!

[+Zagadka Subscriber²]

People do realize how time works, right?

[compl3x]

Which of course ignores the fact that such a thing would make us different species entirely, and not capable of inter-breeding...

Which would be something entirely different. If people made claims that certain groups of people were at different rates of human evolution they'd be wrong. We know they'd be totally wrong.

The science, if being dishonestly used to push a racist agenda, is also a victim. It suffers set-backs and criticms like this.

[SoCalRox]

People do realize how time works, right?

I studied my watch to find out.

[Arachno 1D]

The trouble is most media outlets these days are about filling that days/hour/headline with new content no matter what it is.It doesnt matter to them if its 100% accurate they can always print a retaction at the bottom of page 3 or slew the facts to fill a viewpoint.Science is not one of their strongpoints as the reporters are not specialists in the field relying on press releases for information to fill the void.

[T3X4S]

I think this would be a non-issue if the one african didnt make stupid comments because he doesn't understand science and Evolution Theory (fact for the scientifically stunted)

For a while now it has been accepted that our ancestors came from Africa - that is our entire species.  So, how does that single out blacks ?

I am aware of the concept of "well some people haven't evolved as much as others", and there appears to be some real evidence of that where earlier primate traits are very visible to this day.

I would refer to Richard Dawkins for an explanation on this - 


But I dont think any peer-reviewed, scientifically accepted claim from any real scientist suggest that it is different species... maybe some of our inbred folks near me in the southern US ..

This would seem to fly in the face of that theory





 

[HawkMan]

I think this would be a non-issue if the one african didnt make stupid comments because he doesn't understand science and Evolution Theory (fact for the scientifically stunted)

For a while now it has been accepted that our ancestors came from Africa - that is our entire species.  So, how does that single out blacks ?

I am aware of the concept of "well some people haven't evolved as much as others", and there appears to be some real evidence of that where earlier primate traits are very visible to this day.

I would refer to Richard Dawkins for an explanation on this - 


But I dont think any peer-reviewed, scientifically accepted claim from any real scientist suggest that it is different species... maybe some of our inbred folks near me in the southern US ..

This would seem to fly in the face of that theory





 

Those first set of picturea are constructed though.

There are big bulky white men who have distinct neanderthal traits in their faces, or rather their entire head has that early hominid shape. You could just as well use a picture of one of these and a picture of a black photomodel to say that caucacan is a less evolved human. of course, all of this ignores that facial structure is not a defining factor of evolution or how evolved you are, it's just different faces. 

[T3X4S]

 

Those first set of picturea are constructed though.

There are big bulky white men who have distinct neanderthal traits in their faces, or rather their entire head has that early hominid shape. You could just as well use a picture of one of these and a picture of a black photomodel to say that caucacan is a less evolved human. of course, all of this ignores that facial structure is not a defining factor of evolution or how evolved you are, it's just different faces. 

Oh I totally agree with you - everyone has seen some big white guy that looks all knuckle-dragger.  And some of the inbred toothless KKK weirdos certainly have some jacked up genes (even without the recessive gene factor)

Those pics were just to give example as to the ridiculous comments about less evolved.  I even blacked out the comments that came with the pics as it was pretty bad.

We share a common ancestor w/ bonobo apes... all of us.  
If you get right down to it - we also share genetic ancestry w/ a freaking tree, a snail, a shark, and anything else alive - nobody is complaining about that.

For $200 you can submit a DNA sample to the Smithsonian and they will trace your genetic traits all the way back, and a quick google will show how we share a huge % of DNA with some pretty outlandish stuff.
 

[The Evil Overlord]

People do realize how time works, right?

That depends, do you mean time as a linear concept?

[Buttus]

well, if there's one way to get evolution banned (in the US anyways) is to get people to say it's racist!