Hunters and Gatherers to Farmers (03:20)

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The San people of the Kalahari Desert are among the poorest in the world yet have the richest genetic diversity as a result of an extremely long lineage. Mark Horstman and Vanessa Hayes are on a journey to collect blood samples from the three tribal groups of the Kalahari Desert people.

Ju/'hoansi Tribe (03:28)

At a small village in Namibia, the San people have an innate understanding of ancestry. Hayes travels to collect blood samples from the San people who are among the earliest inhabitants of Southern Africa.

The Great Thirst (02:46)

The Ju/'hoansi tribe still hunts and gathers food each day, specially equipped with light bodies. They are able to survive up to seven days without food because of genetic changes in their salt channels that allow them to retain water.

Looking for Forefathers (03:05)

Hayes is careful to inform the San people why she wants to collect their blood and allows any volunteer to back out if they so choose. They are not resistant to modern day diseases like smallpox and malaria because they have not been exposed.

Cattle Herders (03:17)

Horstman and Hayes travel to the Waterberg Plateau to take blood samples from a group of Herero people. The Herero people were killed and colonized by Germans in the 20th century.

Growing Blood Collection (03:05)

A significant change in genetics is present in agropastoralists in the form of lactose tolerance. Peoples practicing agriculture are also physically stronger than hunter-gatherers.

Dating Divergence (03:36)

The average European person has 3.2 million nucleotide variants in a genome while the average Ju/'hoansi person has 5.2 million variants. Otzi the iceman is related to European people.

Indigenous People in Modern Medicine (03:38)

The Nama people of the Namib Desert are herder-gatherers, possibly explaining the genetic link between hunter-gatherers and agropastoralists. The people of the three tribes Hayes visited in the Kalahari are happy to be involved in modern medicine.

Research on the Ground (02:10)

Most of the drug research done today is done on the least diverse, Euro-centric genome. Drugs that are produced via this method of research often fail to work in Africa. Hayes argues that research should be done in Africa to develop drugs used in Africa.

Credits: Out of Africa: Catalyst (00:38)

Credits: Out of Africa: Catalyst