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Science and Humanity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2009

Dorothy Lippert
Affiliation:
Repatriation Office, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. Email: [email protected]

Extract

The Genographic Project is a fantasy of an idea. It represents the instinct of humankind to seek to understand ourselves, right down to the smallest pieces of our essential being. To follow this longing for knowledge is to be in the company of every great explorer that has ever been, from the first hominid moving beyond the boundaries of African Eden to the intrepid women, men, and children who sailed the seas beyond the mainland of Southeast Asia to become the first occupants of the continent of Australia, to the men and women perhaps not yet born who will seek to land on and inhabit planets other than this one. Such journeys reveal ways of relating to new worlds and, in that process, instruct us in new ways of being human. As another great journey of exploration, this search within ourselves may teach us equally as much. To be certain, none of our journeys thus far have been without hardship, and it is naive to think that this or any exploration is free from challenges.

Type
Commentaries
Copyright
Copyright © International Cultural Property Society 2009

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References

Heizer, Robert F., and Kroeber, Theodora, editors. Ishi the Last Yahi: A Documentary History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979.CrossRefGoogle Scholar