Humanity, alone among living species, is capable of reconstructing its own biological history. On the one hand, all human beings belong to a single species; on the other, no two human beings are alike due to the vast genetic variability observed among individuals. Just as unique is our complex cultural history. The two evolutions - biological and cultural - share convergent traits, but are also divergent. One of the key features of our cultural evolution is the role played by the migrations that allowed Homo Sapiens to populate all lands over 2,500 generations, adapting to local circumstances in ways that complicate the understanding of our ancestry and contributed to the development of the misleading concept of race.

Luciano Terrenato teaches Population Genetics at the Tor Vergata University in Rome.