DOCSLIB.ORG

Toward a New History and Geography of Human Genes

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Toward a New History and Geography of Human Genes Feature Review Toward a new history and geography of human genes informed by ancient DNA 1,2 3,4,5 Joseph K. Pickrell and David Reich 1 New York Genome Center, New York, NY, USA 2 Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA 3 Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA 4 Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA 5 Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA Genetic information contains a record of the history of which propose that the present-day inhabitants of a region our species, and technological advances have trans- descend from people who arrived during periods of tech- formed our ability to access this record. Many studies nological or cultural change, replacing the previous inha- have used genome-wide data from populations today to bitants. learn about the peopling of the globe and subsequent In archaeology, this debate has played out around the adaptation to local conditions. Implicit in this research is issue of whether sudden changes in material culture ap- the assumption that the geographic locations of people parent in the archaeological record can be attributed to the today are informative about the geographic locations of spread of culture or to population movements: ‘pots versus their ancestors in the distant past. However, it is now people’ [1]. In physical anthropology, the debate has played clear that long-range migration, admixture, and popula- out around the issue of whether changes in morphological tion replacement subsequent to the initial out-of-Africa characters over time are due to in situ evolution or to the expansion have altered the genetic structure of most of arrival of new populations (e.g., [2]). the world’s human populations. In light of this we argue The same debate has also played out in genetics. On the that it is time to critically reevaluate current models of side of population replacements, there are the ‘wave of the peopling of the globe, as well as the importance of advance’ and ‘demic diffusion’ models, first proposed to natural selection in determining the geographic distri- describe the spread of agriculture through Europe. In these bution of phenotypes. We specifically highlight the models, the Neolithic transition was accompanied by the transformative potential of ancient DNA. By accessing spread of farmers from the Near East across Europe, who the genetic make-up of populations living at archaeolog- partially or completely replaced resident hunter-gatherers ically known times and places, ancient DNA makes it [3–6]. On the side of stasis, there are the ‘serial founder possible to directly track migrations and responses to effect’ models [7,8], which proposed that populations have natural selection. remained in the locations they first colonized after the out- of-Africa expansion, exchanging migrants only at a low Introduction rate with their immediate neighbors until the long-range Within the past 100 000 years anatomically modern migrations of the past 500 years [9–12]. humans have expanded to occupy every habitable area These genetic models – the wave-of-advance models on of the globe. The history of this expansion has been ex- the one hand, and the serial founder effect models on the plored with tools from several disciplines including linguis- other – were proposed before the availability of large-scale tics, archaeology, physical anthropology, and genetics. genomic data. The great synthesis of genetic data with These disciplines all can be used to ask the same question: historical, archaeological and linguistic information, ‘The how did we get to where we are today? History and Geography of Human Genes’ [13], was pub- Attempts to answer this question have often taken the lished in 1994 based on data from around 100 protein form of a dialectic between two hypotheses. On the one hand are arguments in favor of demographic stasis, which propose that the inhabitants of a region are the descen- Glossary dants of the first people to arrive there. On the other side Admixture: a sudden increase in gene flow between two differentiated are the arguments in favor of rapid demographic change, populations. Bottleneck: a temporary decrease in population size in the history of a Corresponding authors: Pickrell, J.K. ([email protected]); Reich, D. population. ([email protected]). Gene flow: the exchange of genes between two populations as a result of interbreeding. 0168-9525/ Heterozygosity: the number of differences between two random copies of a ß 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tig.2014.07.007 genome in a population. Trends in Genetics, September 2014, Vol. 30, No. 9 377 Feature Review Trends in Genetics September 2014, Vol. 30, No. 9 polymorphisms, and the papers that popularized the no- The observation of a smooth decline in human diversi- tion of a serial founder effect model were written based on ty with increasing geographic distance from Africa was data from around 1000 microsatellites. However, it is now interpreted as a window into demographic events deep in possible to genotype millions of polymorphisms in thou- our species’ past. Specifically, in the serial founder effect sands of individuals using high-throughput sequencing. and related models (Figure 1A) [12], the peopling of the Because of these technological advances, the past few years globe proceeded by an iterative process in which small have seen a dramatic increase in the quantity of data bands of individuals pushed into unoccupied territory, available for learning about human history. Equally im- experienced population expansions, and subsequently portant has been rapid innovation in methods for making gave rise to new small bands of individuals who then inferences from these data. We argue here that the tech- pushed further into unoccupied territory. This model has nological breakthroughs of the past few years motivate a two important features: a large number of expansions systematic reevaluation of human history using modern into new territory by small groups of individuals (and genomic tools – a new ‘History and Geography of Human concurrent bottlenecks), and little subsequent migration Genes’ that exploits many orders of magnitude more data [7–12]. As Prugnolle et al. [7] wrote: ‘what is clear...is that than the original synthesis. [this] pattern of constant loss of genetic diversity along In the first section of the paper we summarize what we colonisation routes could only have arisen through suc- see as major lessons from the recent literature. In particu- cessive bottlenecks of small amplitude as the range of our lar, it is now clear that the data contradict any model in species increased... The pattern we observe also suggests which the genetic structure of the world today is approxi- that subsequent migration was limited or at least very mately the same as it was immediately following the out- localised’. This qualitative conclusion was followed by of-Africa expansion. Instead, the past 50 000 years of more quantitative ones; in an explicit fit of the serial human history have witnessed major upheavals, such that founder effect model to data, Deshpande et al. [9] con- much of the geographic information about the first human cluded that ‘incorporation into existing models of ex- migrations has been overwritten by subsequent population change between neighbouring populations is essential, movements. However, the data also often contradict mod- but at a very low rate’. els of population replacement: when two distinct popula- This model has been influential in many fields. If it is tion groups come together during demographic expansions correct, then the difficult problem of identifying the geo- the result is often genetic admixture rather than complete graphic origin of all modern humans is reduced to the replacement. This suggests that new types of models – with simpler problem of finding the geographic region where admixture at their center – are necessary for describing people have the most genetic diversity [8]. This idea has key aspects of human history ([14–16] for early examples of been used extensively in discussions of human origins (e.g., admixture models). [27,28]). The model also provides a null hypothesis of In the second section of the paper we sketch out a way limited migration against which alternatives can be tested forward for data-driven construction of these models. We [29,30]. Outside genetics, the serial founder effect model specifically highlight the potential of ancient DNA studies has been used as a framework to interpret data from of individuals from archaeologically important cultures. linguistics [31], physical anthropology [32–35], material Such studies in principle provide a source of information culture [36], and economics [37]. about history that bypasses some fundamental ambigui- The serial founder effect model, however, is only one of ties in the interpretation of genetic, archaeological, or many models that can produce qualitatively similar pat- anthropological evidence alone. We discuss several poten- terns of genetic diversity (e.g., [38,39]). Producing the tial applications of this technology to outstanding ques- empirical pattern of a smooth decline in diversity with tions in human history. distance from Africa simply requires that the average time There are a number of excellent articles that have to the most recent common ancestor between two chromo- reviewed the literature on genome-wide
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Syntactic Changes in English Between the Seventeenth Century and The
    I Syntactic Changes in English between the Seventeenth Century and the Twentieth Century as Represented in Two Literary Works: William Shakespeare's Play The Merchant of Venice and George Bernard Shaw's Play Arms and the Man التغيرات النحوية في اللغة اﻹنجليزية بين القرن السابع عشر و القرن العشرين ممثلة في عملين أدبيين : مسرحية تاجر البندقيه لوليام شكسبيرو مسرحية الرجل والسﻻح لجورج برنارد شو By Eman Mahmud Ayesh El-Abweni Supervised by Prof. Zakaria Ahmad Abuhamdia A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Master’s Degree in English Language and Literature Department of English Language and Literature Faculty of Arts and Sciences Middle East University January, 2018 II III IV Acknowledgments First and above all, the whole thanks and glory are for the Almighty Allah with His Mercy, who gave me the strength and fortitude to finish my thesis. I would like to express my trustworthy gratitude and appreciation for my supervisor Professor Zakaria Ahmad Abuhamdia for his unlimited guidance and supervision. I have been extremely proud to have a supervisor who appreciated my work and responded to my questions either face- to- face, via the phone calls or, SMS. Without his support my thesis, may not have been completed successfully. Also, I would like to thank the committee members for their comments and guidance. My deepest and great gratitude is due to my parents Mahmoud El-Abweni and Intisar El-Amayreh and my husband Amjad El-Amayreh who have supported and encouraged me to reach this stage. In addition, my appreciation is extended to my brothers Ayesh, Yousef and my sisters Saja and Noor for their support and care during this period, in addition to my beloved children Mohammad and Aded El-Rahman who have been a delight.
    [Show full text]
  • Ancient DNA from Chalcolithic Israel Reveals the Role of Population Mixture in Cultural Transformation
    Corrected: Publisher correction ARTICLE DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05649-9 OPEN Ancient DNA from Chalcolithic Israel reveals the role of population mixture in cultural transformation Éadaoin Harney1,2,3, Hila May4,5, Dina Shalem6, Nadin Rohland2, Swapan Mallick2,7,8, Iosif Lazaridis2,3, Rachel Sarig5,9, Kristin Stewardson2,8, Susanne Nordenfelt2,8, Nick Patterson7,8, Israel Hershkovitz4,5 & David Reich2,3,7,8 1234567890():,; The material culture of the Late Chalcolithic period in the southern Levant (4500–3900/ 3800 BCE) is qualitatively distinct from previous and subsequent periods. Here, to test the hypothesis that the advent and decline of this culture was influenced by movements of people, we generated genome-wide ancient DNA from 22 individuals from Peqi’in Cave, Israel. These individuals were part of a homogeneous population that can be modeled as deriving ~57% of its ancestry from groups related to those of the local Levant Neolithic, ~17% from groups related to those of the Iran Chalcolithic, and ~26% from groups related to those of the Anatolian Neolithic. The Peqi’in population also appears to have contributed differently to later Bronze Age groups, one of which we show cannot plausibly have descended from the same population as that of Peqi’in Cave. These results provide an example of how population movements propelled cultural changes in the deep past. 1 Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. 2 Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. 3 The Max Planck–Harvard Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
    [Show full text]
  • THE TEXTS, POLITICAL HISTORY and ADMINISTRATION Till C. 200 BC
    History of Ancient India Volume III THE TEXTS, POLITICAL HISTORY AND ADMINISTRATION Till c. 200 BC Editors Dilip K. Chakrabarti and Makkhan Lal Vivekananda International Foundation New Delhi Aryan Books International New Delhi Cataloging in Publication Data—DK [Courtesy: D.K. Agencies (P) Ltd. <[email protected]>] History of ancient India / editors, Dilip K. Chakrabarti and Makkhan Lal. v. 3 cm. Contributed articles. Includes index. Contents: v. 3. The texts, political history and administration, till c. 200 BC. ISBN 9788173054822 1. India—History. 2. India—Politics and government. I. Chakrabarti, Dilip K., 1941- II. Makkhan Lal, 1954- III. Vivekananda International Foundation. DDC 954 23 ISBN: 978-81-7305-482-2 © Vivekananda International Foundation All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, utilised in any form or by any means, electronic and mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without prior permission of the authors and the publishers. Responsibility for statements made and visuals provided in the various papers rest solely with the contributors. The views expressed by individual authors are not necessarily those of the editors or of publishers. First Published in 2014 by Vivekananda International Foundation 3, San Martin Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi - 110 021 Tel.: 24121764, 24106698; Fax: 91-11-43115450 E-mail: [email protected] www.vifindia.org in association with Aryan Books International Pooja Apartments, 4B, Ansari Road, New Delhi - 110 002 Tel.: 23287589, 23255799; Fax: 91-11-23270385 E-mail: [email protected] www.aryanbooks.co.in Designed and Printed in India at ABI Prints & Publishing Co., New Delhi.
    [Show full text]
  • History Through the Ages (Solucionario) 3 SOLUTIONS
    Material AICLE. 5º de Primaria.: History Through the Ages (Solucionario) 3 SOLUTIONS Activity 2. Read and complete the chart Historical sources Oral Written Graphic Materials - Paintings - Ruins - Books - Songs - Maps - Monuments - Theatre plays - Photos - Graves - Poems - Sayings - Films - Coins - Letters - Newspappers Activity nº 3. Match the historical sources with the related words and the images 4 Material AICLE. 5º de Primaria.: History Through the Ages (Solucionario) Activity nº 4. Read the timeline carefully. Then listen and complete the text below AGES OF HISTORY History is divided into five different ages: Prehistory, Ancient History, the Middle Ages, the Modern Age and the Contemporary Age. PREHISTORY extended from the time the first human beings appeared until the invention of writing. ANCIENT HISTORY extended from the invention of writing until the fall of the Roman Empire. The MIDDLE AGES extended from the fall of the Roman Empire until the discovery of the Americas. The MODERN AGE extended from the discovery of the Americas until the French Revolution. The CONTEMPORARY AGE extended from the French Revolution until present day. Activity nº 6. Read the following text about Prehistory. Then choose the correct answers 1. Prehistory is divided in: Two periods: the Palaeolithic Age and the Neolithic Age. 2. The Palaeolithic Age extended: From the time the first human beings appeared until the development of livestock farming and agriculture. 3. During the Palaeolithic Age people were: Nomads. 4. During the Palaeolithic Age people: Hunted, fished and picked wild berries. 5. During the Palaeolithic Age: They have tools made of stone, wood, bones or shells. 6.
    [Show full text]
  • An Ancient DNA Pacific Journey: a Case Study of Collaboration Between Archaeologists and Geneticists
    World Archaeology ISSN: 0043-8243 (Print) 1470-1375 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rwar20 An ancient DNA Pacific journey: a case study of collaboration between archaeologists and geneticists Matthew Spriggs & David Reich To cite this article: Matthew Spriggs & David Reich (2020): An ancient DNA Pacific journey: a case study of collaboration between archaeologists and geneticists, World Archaeology, DOI: 10.1080/00438243.2019.1733069 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2019.1733069 Published online: 17 Mar 2020. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 29 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rwar20 WORLD ARCHAEOLOGY https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2019.1733069 ARTICLE An ancient DNA Pacific journey: a case study of collaboration between archaeologists and geneticists Matthew Spriggs a,b and David Reich c,d,e,f aCollege of Arts and Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia; bVanuatu National Museum, Vanuatu Cultural Centre, Port Vila, Vanuatu; cDepartment of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; dHoward Hughes Medical Institute, Boston, MA, USA; eMedical and Population Genetics Program, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA; fDepartment of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA ABSTRACT KEYWORDS We present a case-study of a collaboration between archaeologists and geneticists Ancient DNA; that has helped settle a long-standing controversy and opened up new research palaeogenomics; questions for the Pacific region. The work provided insights into the history of collaboration between human settlement and cultural changes in Vanuatu in the western Pacific, which in archaeologists and geneticists; interdisciplinary turn shed light on the origins of the cultural and linguistic diversity that charac- perspectives terizes the archipelago.
    [Show full text]
  • The History of Prehistoric Research in Indonesia to 1950
    The History of Prehistoric Research in Indonesia to 1950 Received 16 January 1968 R. P. SOE]ONO INTRODUCTION HE oldest description of material valuable for prehistoric recording in future times was given by G. E. Rumphius at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Rum­ T phius mentioned the veneration of historical objects by local peoples, and even now survivals of the very remote past retain their respect. On several islands we also notice a continuation of prehistoric traditions and art. Specific prehistoric relics, like many other archaeological remains, are holy to most of the inhabitants because of their quaint, uncommon shapes. As a result, myths are frequently created around these objects. An investigator is not permitted to inspect the bronze kettle­ drum kept in a temple at Pedjeng (Bali) and he must respect the people's devout feelings when he attempts to observe megalithic relics in the Pasemah Plateau (South Sumatra); these facts accentuate the persistence oflocal veneration even today. In spite of the veneration of particular objects, which in turn favors their preservation, many other relics have been lost or destroyed through digging or looting by treasure hunters or other exploiters seeking economic gain. Moreover, unqualified excavators have com­ pounded the problem. P. V. van Stein Callenfels, originally a specialist in Hindu-Indonesian archaeology, be­ came strongly aware of neglect in the field of prehistoric archaeology, and he took steps to begin systematic research. During his visit to kitchen middens in East Sumatra during a tour of inspection in 1920 for the Archaeological Service, he met with the digging of shell heaps for shell for limekilns.
    [Show full text]
  • Qnas with David Reich QNAS
    QNAS QnAs with David Reich QNAS Beth Azar, Science Writer Harvard Medical School geneticist David Reich feels lucky to have found paleogenetics, a field that com- bines his love of history with his love of science. Reich plumbs data, collected by transcribing ancient DNA, to learn about human history, including migration pat- terns, social structures, health, and disease. Paleoge- netics has exploded in the last few years, with massive increases in the world’s dataset of ancient DNA. For his work in this field, Reich won the 2019 National Acad- emy of Sciences Award in Molecular Biology. PNAS recently spoke with Reich about his role in invigorating the field. PNAS: How did you become interested in analyzing ancient DNA as a means to understand human history? Reich: I’ve always been interested in human history. I began college majoring in sociology and history. I switched to physics in my third year and then did a fifth undergraduate year in biochemistry at Oxford. I found work in a [laboratory] with David Goldstein (now at Columbia University) who was studying human his- David Reich. Image courtesy of Howard Hughes Medical tory with genetic data. It was immediately interesting. I Institute/Bizuayehu Tesfaye. ended up staying for what became a PhD. But I en- tered the field before its time had come. We were PNAS: Which of your findings have been the most trapped by the small amount of data, and we were surprising? trapped by the fact that our samples were from the ’ present. I left the field and went to medical school at Reich: I ll list three.
    [Show full text]
  • A STUDY of WRITING Oi.Uchicago.Edu Oi.Uchicago.Edu /MAAM^MA
    oi.uchicago.edu A STUDY OF WRITING oi.uchicago.edu oi.uchicago.edu /MAAM^MA. A STUDY OF "*?• ,fii WRITING REVISED EDITION I. J. GELB Phoenix Books THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS oi.uchicago.edu This book is also available in a clothbound edition from THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS TO THE MOKSTADS THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, CHICAGO & LONDON The University of Toronto Press, Toronto 5, Canada Copyright 1952 in the International Copyright Union. All rights reserved. Published 1952. Second Edition 1963. First Phoenix Impression 1963. Printed in the United States of America oi.uchicago.edu PREFACE HE book contains twelve chapters, but it can be broken up structurally into five parts. First, the place of writing among the various systems of human inter­ communication is discussed. This is followed by four Tchapters devoted to the descriptive and comparative treatment of the various types of writing in the world. The sixth chapter deals with the evolution of writing from the earliest stages of picture writing to a full alphabet. The next four chapters deal with general problems, such as the future of writing and the relationship of writing to speech, art, and religion. Of the two final chapters, one contains the first attempt to establish a full terminology of writing, the other an extensive bibliography. The aim of this study is to lay a foundation for a new science of writing which might be called grammatology. While the general histories of writing treat individual writings mainly from a descriptive-historical point of view, the new science attempts to establish general principles governing the use and evolution of writing on a comparative-typological basis.
    [Show full text]
  • Modernity: Religious Trends
    Universal Rights in a World of Diversity. The Case of Religious Freedom Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, Acta 17, 2012 www.pass.va/content/dam/scienzesociali/pdf/acta17/acta17-mouzelis.pdf Modernity: Religious Trends Nicos Mouzelis By conceptualising modernity in sociostructural rather than cultural terms, I will try (a) to show how modernity’s sociostructural features are linked to religious developments – particularly in the anglosaxon world; (b) to examine critically the ongoing secularization debate in the social sci- ences. Modernity can be seen as the type of social organization which be- came dominant in the west after the English industrial revolution and the French revolution. It entails three broad structural traits which render mod- ern society unique – unique in the sense that the above characteristics, in their combination, are not to be found in any pre-modern social formation. These characteristics are: – The demise of segmental localism and the mobilisation/inclusion of a whole population into the national centre/nation state; – The overall differentiation of institutional spheres; – The spread of individualization from the elite to the non elite level. 1. Massive inclusion into the national centre: The process of religious rationalization A) Employing Durkheimian terminology, one can argue that pre-modern, traditional communities had a non-differentiated, segmental social organiza- tion. In this respect they were self-sufficient, relatively autonomous vis-à-vis more inclusive social units. In the west, this localist self-containment/autonomy was first undermined by the absolutist model of governance which took its more developed form in Louis XIV’s France.1 Given technological develop- 1 The French monarchy and its administration, as it was finally shaped under Louis XIV, was the prototype of European absolutist rule, a model imitated all over Europe.
    [Show full text]
  • The Genomic History of Southeastern Europe
    bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/135616; this version posted September 19, 2017. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY 4.0 International license. 1 The Genomic History of Southeastern Europe 2 Iain Mathieson† (1), Songül Alpaslan Roodenberg (1), Cosimo Posth (2,3), Anna Szécsényi- 3 Nagy (4), Nadin Rohland (1), Swapan Mallick (1,5), Iñigo Olalde (1), Nasreen 4 Broomandkhoshbacht (1,5), Francesca Candilio (6), Olivia Cheronet (6,7), Daniel Fernandes 5 (6,8), Matthew Ferry (1,5), Beatriz Gamarra (6), Gloria González Fortes (9), Wolfgang Haak 6 (2,10), Eadaoin Harney (1,5), Eppie Jones (11,12), Denise Keating (6), Ben Krause-Kyora 7 (2), Isil Kucukkalipci (3), Megan Michel (1,5), Alissa Mittnik (2,3), Kathrin Nägele (2), 8 Mario Novak (6,13), Jonas Oppenheimer (1,5), Nick Patterson (14), Saskia Pfrengle (3), 9 Kendra Sirak (6,15), Kristin Stewardson (1,5), Stefania Vai (16), Stefan Alexandrov (17), 10 Kurt W. Alt (18,19,20), Radian Andreescu (21), Dragana Antonović (22), Abigail Ash (6), 11 Nadezhda Atanassova (23), Krum Bacvarov (17), Mende Balázs Gusztáv (4), Hervé 12 Bocherens (24,25), Michael Bolus (26), Adina Boroneanţ (27), Yavor Boyadzhiev (17), 13 Alicja Budnik (28), Josip Burmaz (29), Stefan Chohadzhiev (30), Nicholas J. Conard (31,25), 14 Richard Cottiaux (32), Maja Čuka (33), Christophe Cupillard (34,35), Dorothée G. Drucker 15 (25), Nedko Elenski (36), Michael Francken (37), Borislava Galabova (38), Georgi 16 Ganetovski (39), Bernard Gély (40), Tamás Hajdu (41), Veneta Handzhyiska (42), Katerina 17 Harvati (37,25), Thomas Higham (43), Stanislav Iliev (44), Ivor Janković (13,45), Ivor 18 Karavanić (46,45), Douglas J.
    [Show full text]
  • Aryan Migration: New Genetic Study Makes out of India Theory Backed by Hindutva Supporters Unlikely
    5/20/2018 Aryan migration: New genetic study makes Out of India theory backed by Hindutva supporters unlikely Sunday, May 20th 2018 Home Video The Latest The Reel The Field Magazine Pulse In Pictures Bookshop Trending Sections Newsletters Aryan migration: Everything you need to know about the new study on Indian genetics GENETICS The study says some sort of migration did indeed take place into India and that the Indus Valley civilisation is key to all South Asian populations. by Rohan Venkataramakrishnan Published Apr 02, 2018 · 10:59 am https://scroll.in/article/874102/aryan-migration-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-study-on-indian-genetics 1/8 5/20/2018 Aryan migration: New genetic study makes Out of India theory backed by Hindutva supporters unlikely Apr 02, 2018 · 10:59 am Rohan Venkataramakrishnan A new paper authored by 92 scientists from around the globe that was posted online this weekend could settle some major questions about the subcontinent’s history and what that means for various theories of Indian civilisation. The paper, titled “The Genomic Formation of South and Central Asia” which still has to go through peer review, uses genetics to examine the ancestry of ancient inhabitants of the subcontinent. Below is a quick summary of what you need to know. Who authored the study? There are 92 named authors on the study including scholars from Harvard, MIT, the Russian Academy of Science, the Birbal Sahni Institute of Paleosciences in Lucknow, the Deccan College, the Max Planck Institute, the Institute for Archaeological Research in Uzbekistan and the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad.
    [Show full text]
  • From Human Prehistory to the Early Civilizations Human Life in the Era
    Chapter I From Human Prehistory to the Early Civilizations One day in 10,000 B.C.E. a solitary figure walked by the edge of the Pecos River in the American Southwest. He may have been out hunting or traveling between settlements, but he stopped there to gather up some dead grass and driftwood into a pile. He used his sharpened spear to cut a dead twig from an overhanging cottonwood tree and took a long, dried yucca leaf from his leather belt. He knelt down and held the twig upright on the centerline of the leaf. Then, as he had done many times before, he twirled the stick between his hands until the friction between twig and leaf produced a gleam, or glowing ember, which he quickly transferred to the grass and wood he had gathered. He tended the flame until it grew into a fire that provided not only some warmth, but a means of cooking a meal. When he subsequently rejoined others of his kind, he may have talked about his journey and how he lost his yucca leaf fire-started at that campsite by the river. Of course we have no evidence of his conversation, just the yucca leaf he left behind, found by an archaeologist more than 9000 years later. Our Neolithic (New Stone Age) traveler sends us a number of messages about early world history. Most obviously, he was a tool user who not only picked up natural objects but deliberately crafted them to hunt for and prepare his food. As such, he differed from all other animals (a few other kinds of animals are tool users, but none make their tools).
    [Show full text]