Synopsis:
You
and your neighbor are closer than you think. Despite our physical,
psychological and cultural differences, every living person has
at least one thing in common: We are all related to one woman
who lived in eastern Africa more than 150,000 years ago: the so-called
"real Eve."
Narrated by
actor Danny Glover, THE REAL EVE reveals that humankind's shared
genetic heritage links every living person on earth. The program
also traces the expansion of modern humans throughout the world,
from our fragile beginnings in Africa to our exodus through South
Asia, down to Australia, up into Europe and finally into the Americas.
Unfolding
like a scientific detective story, THE REAL EVE enlists top scientists
and cutting-edge research to prove that everyone on the planet
today can trace one part of his or her genetic heritage back to
one woman who lived in Africa, more than 150,000 years ago, through
a unique part of our DNA.
Unlike the
DNA that dictates height or eye color, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)
provides the chemical energy in nearly all human cells; humans
cannot survive without it. The mtDNA of "mitrochondrial Eve" has
come down through evolution, from mother to daughter (men are
carriers but don't pass it on). Although she was not the only
woman living at the time, nor necessarily the most fertile, this
"Eve" had the one successful mtDNA type - it was the only strain
to survive.
Genetic evidence,
combined with recent archaeology and oceanography, shows that
a small group of modern human ancestors, including later female
descendants of this "Eve," left Africa 80,000 years ago (earlier
than was originally thought) - and that from this exodus, the
rest of the world was populated. And that's only the beginning
of the story.
THE REAL EVE
presents new information that dramatically changes the common
perception of humanity's global migration. Recent discoveries
in archaeology, climatology and anthropology, together with the
latest DNA research, help piece together the story of exactly
which route our ancestors took out of Africa.
Oxford University's
Dr. Stephen Oppenheimer, a tropical pediatrician with more than
20 years experience working in genetic research in Asia and a
leading expert in using DNA to track migrations, presents a breakthrough
conclusion. Until now, the commonly held perception was that modern
humans left Africa to populate the world via two routes, north
into Europe and south into Asia. Oppenheimer contends that modern
humans left a drought-stricken Africa only once, by the southern
route, through Yemen. He refutes the theory that our ancestors
could have taken a northern route across the Suez and into the
Middle East because the Sahara Desert, at that time, was impassable
and there is no genetic evidence to support that route.
In THE REAL
EVE, top scientists combine genetic and archaeological evidence
to explain what happened next. After sojourning in Yemen, southern
Arabia, and India, our ancestors journeyed down to Malaysia, and
then across 160 kilometers of shark-infested waters to Australia.
Once they could push up to the Middle East from the Arabian Gulf,
descendents of the African group ultimately moved north into Europe
(where they displaced the Neanderthals).
In providing
new information about why our ancestors arrived in Europe so late,
Dr. Oppenheimer helps rewrite European pre-history. They also
spread north into Central Asia and China, enjoying the temperate
climate until the Ice Age pushed them off the Central Asian plateau
and further eastward. With humans crossing the Bering Strait from
Siberia into the Americas, they made the final step in colonizing
the globe.
The program
dramatizes how early humans faced terrible dangers throughout
the epic journey out of Africa - the droughts, floods, volcanoes,
ice, natural disasters and geological upheavals of an evolving
world.
In addition
to tracing the genetic diaspora, THE REAL EVE enlists scientists
to explain the parallel origins of variation in skin tone. Dr.
Nina Jablonsk, of the California Academy of Sciences in the United
States, explains how skin color evolved as a means of preventing
birth defects because pigmentation, by shielding against ultraviolet
radiation, alters blood levels of folate - a biomolecule critical
to fetal development.
Depending
on their proximity to the sun, fertile women needed more or less
pigmentation in order to bear healthy babies - and their skin
evolved accordingly. Dr. Jablonski's research helps explain why
we see darker-skinned people in equatorial regions with high ultraviolet
levels and significantly lighter-skinned people as we move towards
the poles.
As the film
makes clear, although it took more than 7,000 generations for
Homo sapiens to penetrate every corner of the globe, our common
genetic past lives on today.
THE REAL
EVE travels to present-day Chicago, Illinois, USA, where simple
mtDNA swab tests of a diverse group of people yield surprising
results. A woman of Greek descent and a Native American find that
they share a common female ancestor from 30,000 years ago.
Although in
the melting pot of modern society such a link seems improbable,
THE REAL EVE explains that there is less variation in all human
mtDNA than there is in a small group of chimpanzees.
Filmmakers
for THE REAL EVE achieved a cinematic feel for this television
special in using the latest computer generated imagery, morphing,
animation and scenario reconstruction. The film was also shot
on location amidst the sweeping vistas of Africa and the exotic
settings of Australia and Malaysia, where modern human's development
actually took place. (courtesy
Discovery Channel)
Production
Info: THE REAL EVE is produced for the Discovery Channel by Granada
Productions in association with Libra Films. Paul Ashton and Amanda
Theunissen are producers. Andrew Piddington is director. For Discovery
Channel, Steve Burns is executive producer. Stephen Oppenheimer
is series consultant, based on his upcoming book The Peopling
of the World.
Airdates:
Debuted on Discovery Channel, Sunday, April 22nd, 2002.
Visit Our Partners: AllYourSoaps.com A
complete guide to both daytime and primetime soaps.
The AllYourTV Weblog Beyond the news and reviews, this weblog is a concise, sometimes snide look at the world of TV, the media & technology.
The Archives
Related Links
