Mankato Critical Thinking Club

The Human Family Tree and the Impact on Race, Relationships, and Ourselves

The National Geographic Society's Project Geno has been mapping the history of human migration since 2005. More than 560,000 people have participated in the project which uses advanced DNA analysis to help answer fundamental questions about where we originated and how we came to populate the Earth.

Through the project, Jerry Oman discovered that while his Finnish Northern European lineage was correctly identified, the results also showed a likely ancestral maternal/paternal migration path and connections to Mediterranean, Southwest Asia, Northwest Asia, Africa and even some Neanderthal populations along the way. "It’s been extremely powerful to realize how deeply connected I am to so many people," Jerry said.

In this introductory meeting of the Mankato Critical Thinking Club, we will be viewing “The Human Family Tree”, a documentary on the project, Jerry will be sharing the results of his test, and we’ll discuss larger implications in how this type of information forces us to question our ideas about race, relationships, and ourselves.