People have avoided inbreeding from 3,000 years ago

Right from 34,000 years ago, our ancestors knew that inbreeding was a bad idea. Analysis of the ancient human remains discovered in Russia shows that even in an extremely small society, inbreeding does not happen.

Research conducted by the University of Cambridge and the University of Copenhagen shows that prehistoric people have built surprisingly sophisticated social and mating networks and sought out partners outside their families in a masterful way. I mean.

This study may partly explain why anatomically modern humans are more successful in survival than other species such as the Neanderthals that do not avoid inbreeding.

Picture 1 of People have avoided inbreeding from 3,000 years ago
People in the post-stone age lived in small groups and understood the importance of avoiding inbreeding.(Illustration).

The researchers examined genetic samples of four modern human remains in terms of anatomy from Sunghir, a former Paleolithic relic in Russia. Unlike the findings of this period, these remains are in the same grave together.

And what surprised the researchers was that they were not genetically closely related. The closest relationship between them may be only the second generation cousins. This is true even in the case of two sets of child remains buried in the same tomb.

The objects and jewelry buried according to them may have built rules, rituals and rituals for the exchange of mates between groups of people, which may later develop into rituals Modern kiss.

Professor Eske Willerslev of St John's College, Cambridge, said: "This means that even people of the post-stone age live in small groups understand the importance of avoiding inbreeding . "

'The data we have showed that they deliberately avoided this, and they built a system for this purpose. If hunter groups - small gatherers randomly mix together, we will see more evidence of inbreeding than we have here. "

By comparing, the sequence of a Neanderthal genome that lived 50,000 years ago in the Altai Mountains shows that they do not avoid inbreeding.

That makes researchers speculate that an early and systematic approach to preventing inbreeding may have helped modern people prosper more than others.