<<

636 F current anthropology

References Cited trade, genetic, and cultural exchanges; objective findings indicate that the demic-diffusion model of cultural and douglas, mary. 1966. Purity and danger: An analysis of concepts of pollution and taboo. London: Penguin. population replacement does not hold. dumont, louis. 1970. Homo hierarchicus: The caste system To discuss these issues, a meeting was held in , and its implications. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. sponsored by the Fundacio´ n de Estudios Gene´ticos y Lin- durkheim, emile. 1912. The elementary forms of the relig- gu¨ı´sticos, November 16–17, 1998. Participants from the ious life. London: Allen and Unwin. fields of genetics, , anthropology, and lin- evans-pritchard, e. e. 1940. The Nuer. Oxford: Clarendon Press. guistics adopted a multidisciplinary approach. fortes, meyer. 1955. Radcliffe-Brown’s contributions to the Antonio Arnaiz-Villena (Immunology, Universidad study of social organization. British Journal of Sociology 6: Complutense, and Fundacio´ n de Estudios Gene´ticos y 28–29. Lingu¨ı´sticos, Madrid) presented data suggesting that, ac- fuller, chris. 1999. An interview with M. N. Srinivas. An- thropology Today 15(5):3–9. cording to the HLA genes (A30-B18), paleo–North Afri- marriott, mc kim. Editor. 1955. Village India. Chicago: cans () were related to , including the University of Chicago Press. Basques. An old genetic substratum in Iberia (marked by radcliffe-brown, a. r. 1922. The Andaman Islanders. A29-B44) parallels the Rh(-) frequencies and is shared by Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. western European populations from Ireland, southern shah, a. m. 1996. “M. N. Srinivas: The man and his work,” in Social structure and change, vol. 1, Theory and method—An , and England. Portuguese and Basques show less evaluation of the work of M. N. Srinivas. Edited by A. M. Mediterranean HLA gene flow than other Iberians. Fur- Shah, B. S. Baviskar, and E. A. Ramaswamy. New Delhi: Sage. thermore, populations (Jewish, smith, raymond. 1956. The Negro family in British Guiana. Lebanese, Cretan) tend to cluster together, and western London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. srinivas, m. n. 1952. and society among the Coorgs ones (Berber, , Portuguese, Algerians, Basques) of South India. Oxford: Clarendon Press. also tend to be more similar among themselves when all ———. Editor. 1955. India’s villages. Calcutta: West Bengal Gov- of the Mediterranean gene frequencies are compared. ernment Press. However, all Mediterranean populations cluster together ———. 1966. Social change in modern India. Berkeley: Univer- when compared with , who represent an outgroup sity of California Press. ———. 1976. The remembered village. Berkeley: University of with a genetic distance similar to that of the Japanese. California Press. Arnaiz-Villena concluded that, in the past few thousand weber, max. 1950. The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capi- years and especially in periods of milder , there talism. London: Routledge. were circum-Mediterranean contacts and gene flow and whyte, william f. 1943. Street corner society: The social structure of an Italian slum. Chicago: University of Chicago that the Greeks are relatively “recent” Mediterraneans Press. (pre-Mycenaeans, 2000 b.c.) who conquered the Cretan empire and adopted its writing (Linear A) and culture (Arnaiz-Villena et al. 1999). Vicente M. Cabrera (Genetics, Universidade de la La- guna, ) showed that the maternally inherited (mitochondrial) genes of the present-day : Genetics, population came from the North African Berbers and its 1 paternally inherited genes from Europeans. This is con- Anthropology, and Linguistics cordant with historical facts. Berber-speaking people populated the Canary Islands in prehistoric times; this 2 has been documented by inscriptions found in caves and antonio arnaiz-villena and david lubell by archaeological data. In the 14th century, Europeans Department of Immunology and Molecular Biology, H. invaded the Canary Islands, killed (or sold in Iberia) most 12 de Octubre, Universidad Complutense, Avda. of male aborigines (), and mixed with female Andalucia s/n, 28041 Madrid, (antonio.arnaiz@ aborigines. inm.hl2o.es)./Department of Anthropology, University Alicia Sa´nchez-Mazas (Anthropology and Ecology, of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2H4. University of Geneva) presented genetic data on Berbers 31 viii 99 (Imazighen, the first white North African population), showing that HLA data grouped northern and southern Mediterraneans together and supported a northward mi- Evidence for an autochthonous development of culture gration of prehistoric Berbers to Iberia, Italy, and the in prehistoric Iberia comes from genetics, anthropology, Mediterranean islands, where they mixed with the au- and linguistics. Pre- and Neolithic circum- tochthonous populations. The migration may have oc- Mediterranean contacts, mostly by sea, probably pro- curred when the North African climate became hotter duced a community of Mediterraneans who had frequent and drier after 6,000 b.p. Most of the present North Af- rican populations speak Arabic but are Berber in origin. 1. ᭧ 2000 by The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological The genetic information supports the view that the 7th- Research. All rights reserved 0011-3204/2000/4104-0007$1.00. 2. On behalf of Jorge Alonso Garcı´a, Vicente M. Cabrera, Jose´ Luis century Arab invasions of Iberia and North in- Escacena, Mary Jackes, Christopher Meiklejohn, Pedro del Moral, cluded Arab leaders and aristocrats from the Middle East Peter Rowley-Conwy, Merritt Ruhlen, and Alicia Sa´nchez-Mazas. but consisted mainly of recently recruited Berbers. Blood Volume 41, Number 4, –October 2000 F 637 groups (ABO and Rh) show that North African () tomically modern Homo sapiens have been associated Arabic-speaking and Berber-speaking people did not dif- with this culture, a more robust Mechta-Afalou and a fer in genetic background. Tuaregs (Berbers living in the more gracile Mechtoid, but the distinction is based on southern ) show more differences and are probably metric traits which are not necessarily reliable. By 11,000 more closely related to the people of the Sudan Beja. b.p., just before the Younger Dryas, the northern border Pedro del Moral (Anthropology, Universidad de Bar- of the Sahara had shifted south, opening a zone of Med- celona) showed that a mitochondrial DNA analysis iterranean scrub across the interior of the Maghreb. By yielded a west-east gradient of haplotype frequencies 9,000 b.p. there were bands of grassland north and south with the highest value of V and H haplogroups around of the Sahara (then only a semidesert), and the inland Iberia (more frequent in Basques). This gradient also in- regions were populated by groups responsible for the cluded North Africans from the Maghreb. This supports Capsian. By 8,000 b.p. the Sahara was a grassland widely a pre-Neolithic migration from Iberia (or ) populated by both pastoralists and hunter-gatherers. This eastward, probably during the second European intergla- period extended until about 5,000 b.p., when modern cli- cial. However, chromosome-Y data provide a completely matic conditions were established. The anatomically different picture, one of north-to-south discontinuity, modern populations responsible for the Capsian were the particularly in the Strait of (although only one same as those found with the . Analyses Moroccan population has been analysed). Differences in of craniometry, , and lithic industries show no gene genealogies between mitochondrial and Y DNA clear sign of new immigration. A series of indig- data are found all over the world. To interpret these dif- enous developments occurred approximately along the ferences it will probably be necessary to correlate the Tropic of Cancer, in both the eastern and the western archaeological, historical, and sexual-behavioural data Sahara, between 9,000 and 7,000 b.p. (, do- on the various ethnic groups with the genetic data. In mestication, collection of grasses) which could have addition, the degree of isolation should be taken into crossed the Sahara to the Mediterranean littoral and pos- account. Further complexity was introduced by the anal- sibly Iberia, although at present there is no evidence to ysis of less polymorphic genetic systems. In these cases, substantiate this. The Capsian way of life became the it will be necessary to consider bootstrap values of re- “Neolithic of Capsian Tradition” (as yet poorly under- latedness dendrograms and differential analysis for each stood with the exception of one site). All these circum- set of data, including the degree of polymorphism and Saharan cultural changes are regarded as autochthonous. differences in the degree of isolation of ethnic groups. Mary Jackes (Anthropology, University of Alberta) dis- Christopher Meiklejohn (Anthropology, University of cussed the difficulties of generalizing about past lifeways Winnipeg) argued that according to craniometric data the on the basis of archaeological skeletal samples. She -Neolithic transition in the showed that while DNA extraction is of paramount im- was not accompanied by detectable population replace- portance, the work of skeletal biologists is critical to ment. This does not support the demic-diffusion model, establishing a context for the interpretation of the work according to which agriculturalists from the Middle East of geneticists, particularly those who are extrapolating were gradually reaching Western and replacing backward through time. Furthermore, in cases in which existing populations. Morphological patterns in Portu- ancient DNA cannot be amplified because of the micro- guese crania were similar in Mesolithic and Neolithic bial destruction of bone, the information provided by samples. In addition, Mesolithic and Neolithic samples skeletal biologists becomes crucial. She argued that it is from , , Italy, and Corsica showed a sep- essential to understand the possibility of sampling bias aration between East and West Mediterranean skeletons, and the reality of demographic constraints and that den- and therefore the arrival in the west of new populations tal morphology is probably the best means by which skel- from the east should have been noticed if it occurred. etal biologists can discuss the genetic relationships of The only exception was an indication of similarity be- past populations. Within the limits of the data available tween early Neolithic groups in Greece and Anatolia. In at present, she used dental morphology to show that summary, east-west demic diffusion in the central and there was no dramatic change of population at the Mes- western Mediterranean cannot be demonstrated by cra- olithic-Neolithic transition in Iberia. This is in accord niometric analysis (Jackes, Lubell, and Meiklejohn 1997). with the interpretation of the Mesolithic shell middens David Lubell (Anthropology, University of Alberta) at Muge (Moita do Sebastia˜o, Cabec¸o da Arruda) as in- summarized both his and other studies on Maghreb ar- dicating a fairly sedentary population which was slowly chaeology and palaeoenvironments during the past changing through time, with indications from dental pa- 20,000 years, asking whether connections between the thology of a trend towards the Neolithic, and a slowly Maghreb and Iberia could be demonstrated prior to the changing dietary regime. Work on the human skeletal widespread appearance of Cardial ceramics in the west- samples from these sites and several Neolithic Portu- ern Mediterranean around 7,000 b.p. Significant climatic guese ossuaries (Casa de Moura, Feteira, Furninha, Mel- variations occurred between 20,000 b.p. and 7,000 b.p. in ides) indicates a slowly increasing population, one in western North Africa: the Iberomaurusian culture ap- which there is no dramatic change in terms of health or peared in coastal areas ca. 20,000 b.p., when sea level demography. The available osteological data do not sup- was 110 m below modern levels and the interior high port a scenario of population replacement at Mesolithic- plateaus were inhospitable and dry. Two types of ana- Neolithic transition in Iberia and thus contradict the 638 F current anthropology demic-diffusion model. While there is no evidence of family has five branches: (1) the Caucasian family, spo- population change (and it must be recognized that be- ken in the Caucasus Mountains of southern Russia, (2) cause of the biological limits to human fertility a small the Burushaski language, spoken in the mountains of number of immigrants will not alter the gene pool dra- northern Pakistan, (3) the Ket language, the sole surviv- matically), the question of cultural diffusion and mul- ing member of an earlier Yeniseian family, spoken on tiple contacts along Mediterranean coasts as the expla- the Yenisei River in central Siberia, (4) the Sino-Tibetan nation for the appearance and subsequent intensification family (Chinese, Burmese), spoken in East Asia, and (5) Neolithic lifeways is of course outside the realm of com- the Na-Dene family, spoken in the New World, primarily petence of the osteologist. Archaeological and osteolog- in Alaska and western Canada (Ruhlen 1998). The dis- ical data need to be reconciled, perhaps by increased continuous distribution of the six branches of the family, study of ancient DNA. three of whose members are protected by their location Peter Rowley-Conwy (Archaeology, University of Dur- in a mountainous region, suggests that they are all that ham), citing his and others’ study of faunal remains from remains of what must have once been a much larger numerous archaeological sites throughout the circum- family. It thus appears that an early Dene-Caucasian mi- Mediterranean, showed that and cattle were do- gration into Eurasia was later in large measure overrun mesticated early in the Neolithic, in the Middle by a different expansion, that of the Eurasiatic family Neolithic, and in the late Neolithic. All four types (including Indo-European, Uralic, and Altaic). In Europe, of animals go with in a single package, Basque remains the sole language from the initial ex- each species making its own contribution to the en- pansion, all the others having been replaced by Indo- hancement of this new way of life. Thus, animal do- European languages within the past 6,000 years. mestication probably occurred in Iberia when agriculture reached the Peninsula from Europe; this does not nec- essarily mean population replacement but only that the Iberian indigenous groups adopted the new technology. References Cited Claims for the existence of late Mesolithic and early arnaiz-villena, a., and j. alonso-garcı´ a . 1999. Mi- Neolithic domestic in southern Spain and their noicos, cretenses y vascos. Madrid: Editorial Complutense. North African origin are not substantiated by the avail- arnaiz-villena, a., p. iliakis, m. gonza´ lez-he- villa, j. longas, e. go´ mez-casado, j. trapaga, able evidence. c. silveira-redondo, ch. matsouka, and j. mar- Jose´ Luis Escacena (Archaeology, Universidad de Se- tı´nez-laso. 1999. The origin of Cretan populations as de- villa) presented archaeological data from the La Maris- termined by characterisation of HLA alleles. Tissue Antigens milla settlement (at the ancient mouth of the Guadal- 53:213–26. quivir River) that he considered to demonstrate that jackes, m., d. lubell, and c. meiklejohn. 1997. Healthy but mortal: Human biology and the first farmers of ceramics and other cultural items (dating to about 2000 . Antiquity 71:273–91. b.c.) were very similar to those of the Egyptian predyn- ruhlen, m. 1998. The origin of the Na-Dene. Proceedings of astic El-Badari culture. He postulated a common origin the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A. 95:1394–96. for Egyptian and Iberian cultures, suggesting that Sahar- ans emigrated to both Iberia and the Nile Valley because of increasing aridity. Further studies will be necessary to assess this idea. Complex Societies of Central Jorge Alonso Garcı´a (Fundacio´ n de Estudios Gene´ticos y Lingu¨ı´sticos, Madrid) presented a translation of a pre- Eurasia from the 3d to the 1st viously undeciphered Iberian-Tartesian language based on Basque-Spanish equivalences. The theory that pre- Millennia b.c.: Regional Specifics sent-day Basque represents the language of ancient Ibe- in the Light of Global Models1 rians has been advanced by many writers, including Wil- liam von Humboldt in 1821. The “Rosetta Stone” was an inscription in both Latin and Iberian from Tarragona ludmila koryakova and philip l. kohl p p (Spain): Heic. est. sit (Latin) Aqui yace (Spanish) Department of Archaeology, Ural State University, 51, “Here is buried” (English); Are-tace-ce(u)-sakarlin (Ibe- Lenin Ave., Ekaterinburg 620083, Russia/Department p p rian) Aratze-zeu-sakar-ilun (Basque) Aquı´ yace el di- of Anthropology, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass. p funto desecho para la oscuridad (Spanish) “Here is 02481, U.S.A. 29 x 99 buried the deceased, debris for darkness.” Also, the Tar- tesian language, spoken in southern Spain and , has been shown to be similar to Iberian with minor pho- An international archaeological conference entitled netic and alphabet variants (Arnaiz-Villena and Alonso- “Complex Societies of Central Eurasia from the 3dto Garcı´a 1999). the 1st Millennia b.c.: Regional Specifics in the Light of Merritt Ruhlen (Stanford, California) presented evi- Global Models” was held in Ekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, dence, based largely on the work of John Bengtson, that Basque belongs to a recently delineated language family 1. ᭧ 2000 by The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological known as Dene-Caucasian. In addition to Basque, this Research. All rights reserved 0011-3204/2000/4104-0008$1.00.