Normally I find anything to do with the DNA concept of 'deep ancestry' seriously boring, as I take it for granted that we all came from Africa aeons ago. However, there is quite an interesting article on the origins of marriage available at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3083418/, entitled Evolutionary History of Hunter-Gatherer Marriage Practices.
I'm not quite sure if it is entirely written in English, but stick with it! Amongst the authors' conclusions is the statement that "Our phylogenetic results support a deep evolutionary history of limited polygyny and brideprice/service that stems back to early modern humans and, in the case of arranged marriage, to at least the early migrations of modern humans out of Africa. It is conceivable that marriage involved some level of arrangement, regulation, and reciprocal relationships from the very earliest inception of marriage-like cultural institutions."
I'm now wondering if those who feel as if they have been married forever might be experiencing some kind of race memory....!
(With thanks to the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation newsletter)
Chris
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