If 100 people were gathered in one great global Talking Circle representing all humanity, approximately:
59 or 60 would live in Asia
19 would live in Africa
9 would live in Europe
8 would live in North America
5 would live in South America
Fewer than 1 would live in Oceania
About 6 would be Indigenous
About 21 or 22 would be African or of African descent
About 6 would be Arab, living across both Africa and Asia
About 18 would live in India
About 17 would live in China
A little more than 1 would be Iranian
Approximately 11 to 13 would be primarily of European ancestry
Jewish members of our human family are approximately 15.8 million, about 1 out of every 525 people, about 0.19%
The deepest lesson is striking. Although European states and European-descended societies exercised enormous political, military, economic, and cultural power over much of the world during the colonial period, people of primarily European background are today only about one-eighth of our human family. They are an important part of humanity, but they are not the numerical majority. The overwhelming majority of humanity, approximately seven out of every eight people, are Indigenous, African, Asian, Middle Eastern, Pacific, Latin American, of blended ancestry, or otherwise not primarily European.
Indigenous Peoples and people of African descent together represent close to 2.2 billion demographic identities before accounting for overlap, more than one-quarter of humanity. Arab peoples represent another 450 to 500 million of our human relatives spanning Africa and Asia, although they are already present within those continental and ancestry totals. India and China together represent another 2.9 billion national populations, although Indigenous and other ancestries exist within them. Iran, with fewer than 100 million people worldwide, possesses profound historical, spiritual and geopolitical importance, but accounts for only slightly more than one percent of the human family.
These figures help us understand why the unification of humanity cannot mean that everyone becomes absorbed into one dominant culture. True unity must protect the identities, knowledge systems, languages, histories and spiritual gifts of all peoples. The human family is not a field that becomes beautiful by growing only one kind of flower. It is a living garden whose strength comes through relationship, reciprocity and diversity.
In this great turning of the ages, Indigenous Peoples carry indispensable knowledge about our sacred relationship with Mother Earth. African peoples and their descendants carry immense spiritual, cultural and civilizational gifts born through ancient wisdom, survival, creativity and transformation. Arab peoples carry ancient traditions of kinship, hospitality, poetry, scholarship, spiritual devotion and civilization across Africa and Asia. Asian civilizations contain the majority of humanity and some of its oldest continuous spiritual and philosophical traditions. Iranian civilization, distinct from but deeply interrelated with Arab civilization, has served for millennia as a bridge among East, West, Central Asia and the spiritual histories of humankind. European peoples likewise carry gifts that must be disentangled from the destructive legacy of colonial domination and placed in service to the whole.
The numbers do not tell us that one people is more valuable than another. They tell us that no lasting global civilization can be constructed through the domination, exclusion, or invisibility of any part of our human family. All members of our Human Family are needed. Every culture possesses something to offer. Every wound requires healing, and every human being must have a rightful place within the Sacred Circle of Life.