Progenitor
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A progenitor is person or thing from which others are descended or originate.[1] For example, it is used to refer to the ancestor who started the line of a noble family.
In a wider sense today it is used to refer to the person who originates a movement[1] or way of life.
Genealogy
The progenitor (Template:Lang-de or Ahnherr) is the (sometimes legendary) founder of a family, line of descent, clan or tribe, noble house or people group.[2] Genealogy (commonly known as family history), understands a progenitor to be the earliest recorded ancestor of a consanguineous family group of descendants. The progenitor is at the root of a family tree or is the highest individual in a family list or table.
Aristocratic and dynastic families often look back to an ancestor who is seen as the founder and progenitor of their house (i.e. family line). Even the old Roman legal concept of agnates (Latin for "descendants") was based on the idea of the unbroken family line of a progenitor, but only includes male members of the family, whilst the women were viewed as "cognatic".
It is rarely possible to confirm biological parenthood, however, (see bastardy) in the case of ancient family lines; in addition the progenitor is often a distant ancestor, only known as a result of oral tradition. Where people groups and communities rely solely on a patrilinear family line, their common ancestor often became the subject of a legend surrounding the origin of the family. By contrast, families and peoples with a matrilinear history trace themselves back to an original female progenitrix. Matrilinear rules of descent are found in about 200 of the 1300 known indigenous peoples and ethnic groups worldwide, whilst around 600 have patrilineal rules of descent (from father to son).[3]
In the mythological beliefs of the Romans the god of war, Mars, was viewed as the progenitor of the Romans;[4] which is why the as Mars symbol (♂, a shield and spear), is used to refer to the male sex. Besides cities and countries, people groups may also have a progenitor (often a god) in their mythologies, for example, the Hellenistic Greeks look back to Hellen as their progenitor. In Indian Hinduism Manu is the progenitor of all mankind. In the Abrahamic religions, Adam, Noah, Abraham and others are described as progenitors (see also Biblical patriarchy).
In archaeogenetics (archaeological genetics) a human Y-chromosomal Adam has been named as the most recent common ancestor from whom all currently living people are descended patrilinearly. This Adam lived in Africa at a time variously estimated from 60,000 to 338,000 years ago.
See also
References
- ^ a b Soanes, Catherine and Stevenson, Angus (ed.) (2005). Oxford Dictionary of English, 2nd Ed., revised, Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York, p. 1406. ISBN 978-0-19-861057-1.
- ^
Duden-Redaktion (2013-01-19). "Stammmutter". Bibliographisches Institut, Berlin. Retrieved 2013-10-12.
Stammvater, der: Mann als Begründer eines Stammes, einer Sippe
. Ebenda: Ahnherr: „Stammvater eines Geschlechts“. - ^ J. Patrick Gray: Ethnographic Atlas Codebook. In: World Cultures. Vol. 10, No. 1, 1998, pp. 86-136, here p. 104: Table 43 Descent: Major Type (one of the few assessments of all 1,267 ethnic groups; pdf file; 2.4 MB; without page nos.): "584 Patrilineal […] 52 Duolateral […] 160 Matrilineal […] 45 Mixed". The Ethnographic Atlas by George P. Murdock contains data sets of 1,300 ethnic groups (as at December 2012 at InterSciWiki), of which often only samples were assessed.
- ^
Lexikoneintrag (2000–2013). "Mars (Mythologie)". wissen.de. Retrieved 2013-10-12.
Mars […] as father of Romulus and Remus, progenitor of the Romans
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