Hello everyone! Would really appreciate any help to my questions on how Adam/Eve (created de novo ~ 10000 years ago in the Middle East) could be genealogical ancestors of everyone alive by 1 AD.
Based on our current understanding, the first humans left Africa ~ 60,000 years ago, arrive in Australia ~ 50,000 years ago and the Americas ~ 35,000 years ago. Suppose that Adam/Eve existed 10,000 years ago, has any scientist commented about the plausibility that their descendants could plausibly follow the same migration paths and interbreed with humans that already live in these remote parts of the world?
Would you say that a potential challenge for the genealogical hypothesis to work is to have a conceivable framework to show that it’s possible for Adam/Eve’s descendants to actually repeat those migration paths from ~ 8,000 BC to 1 A.D.?
There has been regular contact across the Bering Strait for quite a long time, including at least three major migrations from Asia (Amerindian, Na-Dene, Inuit). Similarly, there has been contact across the Torres Strait for a long time too. The only major problem is Tasmania. You should ask @swamidass about his geographical model. (Perhaps a graphic representation would be good here.)
As @John_Harshman notes, let’s leave aside Tasmania for a moment.
Yes, many have. None of these places (except maybe Tasmania) were totally isolated over the last 10,000 years. The fact that some people, for example, crossed to Australia 60,000 years ago does not mean that more did not follow later. In many cases we have evidence that they did.
Thanks much for the replies, guys! OK I have found my way to some earlier threads at the Biologos forum and this forum on Tasmania’s isolation. Interesting debate there…
Would you kindly point me to any resources or articles on evolutionary anthropology that explain how these migrations occurred in the last 10K years? Curious to learn more.
On the Rohde 2004 paper… assume it’s this one?
From the blurb, it seems that the mathematical model ignores isolation of geographically separated groups. Wouldn’t that have a negative impact on GAE hypothesis?
Sorry I haven’t read the book yet.
Heard about it from Unbelievable podcast/Christianity Today, and my first knee jerk reaction is to wonder about the plausibility (not just possibility) of their descendants reaching those far-reaching places in a few thousand years…
No, it explicitly incorporates that structure. That’s the second model “designed to capture historical population dynamics in a more realistic way”. Note that they’re talking not about complete isolation but about “relative isolation”. There are no human populations that have been completely isolated for thousands of years, with the probable exception of Tasmania.
