The Origins of Wizardkind (+How They Compare to Humans) - Harry Potter Explained

Hey everyone,

Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In this video, we’re going to be discussing both wizardkind and humankind- with the former of course being a subset of the latter. First, we’ll be taking a look at the history of humankind and the first instances of witch/wizards, and then we will be taking a look at the physiological differences between a regular human and a magical being.

While the original ancestors of humans were thought to have first existed about 6 million years ago- the more modern form of humans, the ones that we’re accustomed to, have only been around for 200,000 years or so. The first link to humanity began with a primate group called Ardipithecus- a group based out of Africa that were revolutionary in that they were the first group to begin the path of walking upright, as we do now.

As you can see, as time passed, these pre-humans developed more and more of the traits that we see in more modern day humans. However, It wasn’t until just over 2 million years ago that the Homo Group- the group which contains our own species - Homo Sapiens, first arose. The Homo group can be most notably distinguished from the other groups by their bigger brains, tool-making, and ability to expand their territory- reaching far beyond the confines of Africa. Homo Sapiens, which WE ARE, didn’t pop up until 200,000 years ago, and were particularly resilient in that they were able to survive and thrive despite climate change. Over the course of the last 200,000 years, humans have continued to develop, evolve, and adapt- and I think that wizardkind, which is course a subset of humankind and not an entirely different species altogether, is just another one of these natural developments - achieving, in some ways, a newer and more advanced form of humanity. But, when did wizardkind enter the mix? At what point in history did witches and wizards first come to prominence- or show signs of life?


Unfortunately, In the Harry Potter universe at least, the origins of wizardkind are unknown, or undefined. HOWEVER, we do have some information about the first witches/wizards to have appeared in certain parts of the world. The first known member of wizardkind to exist in Europe was a witch named Cliodna who first presided there sometime in the middle ages.

She was an animagus with the ability to turn into a sea bird, and she actually has her own chocolate frog card. While the middle ages were a long long time ago, the period between the 5th and 15th century, I would have still expected the first member of European wizardkind to have popped up much sooner. However, while Cliodna was the first to appear in Europe, there is one known wizard that lived much sooner than her in another part of the world. The first known wizard, across all continents, was a wizard by the name of Jajamanekh who hailed from Egypt as far back as 2600 BC. There is little to no information available of Jajamanekh, other than where he was from and the period in which he lived, but I do wonder if wizardkind went back further than that, or if he was truly the first.

The origins of magic are still unclear to this day. No one knows whether the inception of wizardkind was born from humans randomly discovering their magical abilities - or if it was created in some form - by way of pact, ritual, or potion. I find the first theory more intriguing, however, as it aligns with the concept of muggle-borns and how they would first develop their magical abilities. So, the first known magical being didn’t appear until 2600 BC- however, members of wizardkind are of course a kind of subspecies of human- meaning they possess many of the same physical characteristics. However, in subtle, perhaps non-visual ways, they also differ physiologically to some extent. One of the largest ways that wizardkind differs from humankind is life expectancy. According to a figure reported by the ministry of Divine Health, the average wizarding life expectancy was reported at an average of 137 ¾ years old- whether that’s down to purely their physiology is up for us to decide- but they do live considerably longer than their human counterparts.


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Music by:
Juan Naranjo
Jacob A. Cadmus
Samuel Kim

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