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From:
Subject: Re: Most recent common ancestors
Date: 15 Jan 2006 22:39:43 -0800
References: <1137338990.456458.231910@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com> <mo4ms15t5bs77ev0ds8bhs690882gdmb15@4ax.com>
In-Reply-To: <mo4ms15t5bs77ev0ds8bhs690882gdmb15@4ax.com>


First of all, the physical features you mention are not "racial" but
simply the result of gene pools. There is more variation within a given
"race" that there is between that group and another "race" (i.e., more
variation among Europeans, for example, than between Europeans and
Africans). "Race" is an idea, not a biological fact. The Human Genome
Project has shown us that we are remarkably alike physically; we are
just one genus or species, but a single subspecies as well. Finally,
Asia and North America were never actually separate. The Eskimo people
in Alaska (properly Inuit) called the tensions between the USA & the
USSR the "Ice Curtain" because it prevented them from traveling back
and forth between Alaska & Siberia in their umiaks (large versions of
kayaks). There are people on both sides who are of a single culture,
single language, and actually members of the same families. When the
USSR fell and the Ice Curtain came down, there were enormous parties
with a lot of publicity in Siberia, Canada, Alaska and Greenland. The
rise of sea level would only have affected the means of travel, not the
travel itself. Otherwise, I agree with the substance of your message. -
Bronwen

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