An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder, or a forebear, is a
parent
A parent is either the progenitor of a child or, in humans, it can refer to a caregiver or legal guardian, generally called an adoptive parent or step-parent. Parents who are progenitors are First-degree relative, first-degree relatives and have ...
or (
recursively) the parent of an
antecedent (i.e., a
grandparent
Grandparents, individually known as grandmother and grandfather, or Grandma and Grandpa, are the parents of a person's father or mother – paternal or maternal. Every sexually reproducing living organism who is not a genetic chimera has a maxi ...
,
great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from whom one is descended. In law, the person from whom an
estate has been
inherited."
Relationship
Two individuals have a
genetic relationship if one is the ancestor of the other or if they share a common ancestor. In
evolution
Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...
ary theory, species which share an evolutionary ancestor are said to be of
common descent. However, this concept of ancestry does not apply to some
bacteria
Bacteria (; : bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one Cell (biology), biological cell. They constitute a large domain (biology), domain of Prokaryote, prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micr ...
and other organisms capable of
horizontal gene transfer
Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) or lateral gene transfer (LGT) is the movement of genetic material between organisms other than by the ("vertical") transmission of DNA from parent to offspring (reproduction). HGT is an important factor in the e ...
. Some research suggests that the average person has twice as many female ancestors as male ancestors. This might have been due to the past prevalence of
polygynous relations and female
hypergamy.
Assuming that all of an individual's ancestors are otherwise unrelated to each other, that individual has 2
''n'' ancestors in the ''n''th generation before them and a total of 2
''g''+1 − 2 ancestors in the ''g'' generations before them. In practice, however, it is clear that most ancestors of humans (and any other species) are multiply related (see
pedigree collapse). Consider ''n'' = 40: the human species is more than 40 generations old, yet the number 2
40, approximately 10
12 or one trillion, dwarfs the
number of humans who have ever lived.
Some cultures confer reverence to ancestors, both living and dead; in contrast, some more youth-oriented cultural contexts display less veneration of elders. In other cultural contexts,
ancestor worship or, more accurately,
ancestor veneration is when people seek
providence from their deceased ancestors.
See also
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Archaic humans
''Homo'' () is a genus of great ape (family Hominidae) that emerged from the genus ''Australopithecus'' and encompasses only a single extant species, ''Homo sapiens'' (modern humans), along with a number of extinct species (collectively calle ...
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Collateral descendant
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Consanguinity
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DNA
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Mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA and mDNA) is the DNA located in the mitochondrion, mitochondria organelles in a eukaryotic cell that converts chemical energy from food into adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA is a small portion of the D ...
**
Y chromosome
The Y chromosome is one of two sex chromosomes in therian mammals and other organisms. Along with the X chromosome, it is part of the XY sex-determination system, in which the Y is the sex-determining chromosome because the presence of the ...
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Ethnic group
An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, re ...
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Family
Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...
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Genealogy
Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kin ...
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Genetic genealogy
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Kinship
In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that ...
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Lineage (anthropology)
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Lineal descendant
A lineal or direct descendant, in legal usage, is a blood relative in a person's direct line of descent – the children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc. In a legal procedure sense, lineal descent refers to the acquisition of estate ...
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Most recent common ancestor
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Progenitor
Citations
External links
United States Census Bureau
{{Authority control
Kinship and descent