Genealogy Books - Journey of Man

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Summary: Color Me Skeptical
Comment: I've just seen this video on Maryland Public Television. It's very good.

However, I
have reservations about the certainty with which Dr. Wells approaches his subject, and most
particularly the sermonizing at the end about how "we are all one." This is Barack Obama territory;
Scientists should stick to science, IMHO.

Leslie Marmon Silko, in her book, "The
Almanac of The Dead," strongly objects to the western scientific view that all Native Americans came
from a few hardy souls who crossed the Bering Sea during the last ice age. So, apparently, do the
Navajo, who politely told Dr. Wells in the video that their founding myth says they emerged from the
earth right there in Arizona. In the video, Dr. Wells blithely dismisses their myth as unscientific,
and therefore not worth considering. He offered photos to prove it. To me, this revealing episode
smacked of nothing less than the same old white man's imperialism, in its self-evident superiority
sweeping away all resistance before it.

It may well be that Dr. Wells' and his
colleagues' theory about the origin and then spread of mankind is dead on and therefore the case is
closed. Based on 3,000 or so blood samples from 2 billion potential donors, and assuming 100%
accuracy of the lab results (hope the FBI's lab wasn't involved!). Talk about bold! Nevertheless, I
would be willing to bet the ranch that in 50 years this DNA-based theory will have been
superceded--or perhaps complemented is a better word--by other discoveries and that Dr. Wells' will
not be the accepted scientific wisdom. After all, that's how science works--someone posits a theory,
and offers proof, and that theory lasts until someone comes along with another one, and so on. I
would have been happier if in the video (the book may be more nuanced) Dr. Wells had admitted that
he was offering a theory only, not the definitive view of human life's origins.

One of
the least credible portions of the video was the effort of the scientific lady who struggled to
explain how northern Europeans gained their appearance (in a mere geologic blink)--as fair skinned
and ended up looking like--well, like Dr. Wells. In sum, I thank Dr. Wells for his efforts, which
were not small, but color me skeptical about swallowing whole the story he put together.

Customer Rating:

Summary: WE . . .who are anthropologists
Comment: WE . . . did not want to see Dr. Wells' face; we could have missed most of that all together. WE .
. . did not want to hear so much of Dr. Wells' speech, we could have missed that and everyone on
Earth could have done without his arrogance and imperialistic stance as he trotted all over the
indigenous peoples on earth. He appeared to my senses like a bull in a china shop; he would easily
just knock them down and kept going without a care. He was never one of them, never was with them
and he never tried to be with them as a human while others have gone and learned the language and
the customs. He took from the people and left.

He appeared not as a "teacher"
teaching something; he appeared as a force stuffing his position down their throats just as it was
done centuries ago. ("You will accept this or else!") I found it more to the point, if you get my
drift, to watch the socalled educated man in the midst of the socalled uneducated ignorant people
but people who have lived in their environments for what: 50-100,000 years (so they must have known
something very important) and they never went to Europe or anywhere else tracing anything to prove
it! They never sent millions of species into extinction by their globe trampling and never
annihilated strains of human existence. They stayed home and lived within their means with other
life-forms, killing a few for food and killing a few humans in war (and we still don't know why that
happens) but they stayed home and life flourished. We owe the indigenous people a debt of gratitude
for all the beautiful animals in Nature we see today.

I found it more to the point that
Spencer drove a fancy jeep around and flew in a fancy plane and wore extraordinary clothing to face
the elements but the true pioneering, adventuresome humans used their bare feet for thousands and
thousands of miles. They carried a stick, maybe a bow and arrow, and headed out to conquer the
world as people. Just as people; as a legacy to us; they spread the human genome to every
environment on earth. IN WHAT ORDER? We don't know that. (Most of us don't even care about that.)
We probably will never, ever really know that for sure. In the meantime, we create! We create
stories and myths we don't even bother to prove and we still live in our environments forever! />
What we know, from academics, is a Western World Creation Story called the Evolutionary
Theory and before that we used a basic creation story called Genesis in the Bible. (That's why the
two of them should be taught in schools; they enhance the need for people to create a creation
story; that behavior is a universal act among humans.) OUR creation stories are just two stories
among many just like the Native Americans said when they said they knew about creation stories. The
Native American man asked the "teacher", "Why do our sacred stories have to be myths and yours have
to be facts?" Spencer responded with a definite, quiet force, "Because we are scientists and
require proof. These are your relatives . . ." he went on with his worldview jamming it into their
native reality. (I FOUND THIS MOST INTERESTING.) I don't think native people have to be taught
that other people are people just like them. I think they have known that all along. It has been
Western thought in recent centuries that promoted and believed otherwise.)

At this
moment in the documentary the Native Americans HAD TO DO WHAT PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD HAVE HAD TO DO
WHEN THEY ARE FACED WITH A FORCE LIKE SPENCER . . . they have to go along with it and talk about it
later. (And laugh too.) The Native Americans did not respond, "Wasn't science an idea just like
our myths?" They will learn to do this and they will come to know like other people around the
world, like the most beautiful people on Earth: the People of the Kalahari Desert, that the whole
point in having a Creation Story (in the first place) is the creation of it with your friends and
family and tribesman in your orb or world. It is a bonding ritual. And, what's to say it isn't
true? Huh? What's to say it isn't true? Whatever, whichever . . . ! Life has gone on forever
without the Western version of everything and the world will go on after the Western version dies
out and no longer exist. That much I do know. And, so does everyone else who is indigenous. />
I don't think this documentary does much to end racism because people already know that
races do not exist when two people can reproduce by having sex with each other if they are not
prevented - now, that's racism!

And, why is this a "Journey of Man"? That's an
erroneous title. This journey would not have gone very far if man left woman at home. She was on
the journey too . . .giving birth all the way.

I don't think this documentary was
complimentary to Dr. Wells' craft and expertise. I found it to be a regular market presentation but
I never tire of the pictures of people from all over the world and I never tire of the earth's
scenery (the little bits and pieces we did see). I give it 3 stars for that.
--Margaret
Opine

Customer Rating:

Summary: Origin of Species for a New Millenium
Comment: While Dr. Wells' delivery in the documentary can be occasionally a bit hyperbolic to compensate for
a wide audience, the material is fascinating. The people he encounters along his journey are
intelligent and articulate individuals, presented respectfully with varying opinions in regards to
their own beliefs. Dr. Wells' gradually becomes more comfortable with what he calls his "blood
speech," the explanation of his genetic research and his purpose for seeking those individuals
specifically, and he is patient to give equal emphasis to their stories as well supporting his
own.

What I truly respected about this video is that it doesn't beat the Creation vs.
Evolution argument into the ground. That isn't the point of the documentary. What it does do is
re-emphasize that no one ethnic group is superior over another, and that, regardless of skin color
or ethnic background, we are all brothers and sisters. With documentaries such as this one, and
proper education, we can eradicate the false idea of "race," and just start seeing family. />
For an interesting website on more of this information, check out The Bradshaw Foundation
at www.bradshawfoundation.com.

Customer Rating:

Summary: The best documentary I've seen in years!
Comment: Last night we got this DVD and that was something! My wife stopped studying, my 8 year old daughter
missed her go to bed time by a couple hours because we just couldn't stop watching. It's a great
film for the whole family. Travel to exotic places, cutting edge science, great music - a perfect
mix!

Customer Rating:

Summary: cdp man
Comment: I found this very fasinating and it left me with the desire to learn more.

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