Indians aren't Aryans (or Dravidians)?

[Guest guest]

, "kishore mohan"

<kishore_future> wrote:

IndiaArchaeology, JK <tiptronicus@g...> wrote:

http://www.gnxp.com/MT2/archives/002712.html?entry=2712

 

There is a important new paper (you can view the full PDF if you

follow the link) out that surveys the genetics of South Asians viewed

from the angle of mtDNA, that is, the direct female lineage. If you

follow this stuff, you won't be surprised to find out that the authors

conclude that "Since the initial peopling of South and West Asia by

anatomically modern humans, when this region may well have provided

the initial settlers who colonized much of the rest of Eurasia, the

gene flow in and out of India of the maternally transmitted mtDNA has

been surprisingly limited." Why surprising you say? Well, about 3/4 of

South Asians speak Indo-Aryan languages which have an affinity with

other branches of the Indo-European family, and likely derive from the

environs of the eastern Black Sea. The "conventional model" was that

such a linguistic dominance implied a volkswanderung where the fair

skinned Aryans enslaved the dark skinned natives (Dasas), and the

broad spectrum of coloration that expresses itself in some concordance

with caste was the result of intermarriage between the two groups.

 

The problem with the model in light of the data above is that most of

the South Asian mtDNA pool seems to have diverged from the lineages of

Iran before 10,000 years ago, with many coalescence times on the order

of 30,000-50,000 years. Philological analysis makes South Asia an

implausible ur-heimat for Proto-Indo-European (PIE), so that seems to

scratch out the possiblity of a volkswanderung outward. But even a

possible expansion of "Dravidian" farmers during the Neolithic from

the Middle East (some linguists postulate an affinity between

Dravidian and an ancient language of Southwestern Iran, Elamite) seems

to have been moderate in its impact.

 

The work of Toomas Kivisild, one of the primary authors of this paper,

is the linchpin of the argument presented by Stephen Oppenheimer in

The Real Eve that India is the mother of all Eurasian lineages.

Oppenheimer's argument demands very little mixing between

subpopulations since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM).

 

I did note that Oppenheimer seemed to ignore research headed by

Spencer Wells which pointed to a strong exogenous element in the

Indian genetic structure that displays a Northwest-Southeast cline.

Additionally, he did not publish late enough to read a more recent

paper that makes the argument for the expansion of a supermale lineage

in Northern India 3,500 years ago. These papers focused on the Y

chromosome, which seems to show more signatures of the "invasion" and

"immigration" that is characteristic of histories of the subcontinent,

but seeing as this is the male lineage and disruptive migrations are

likely "male mediated," this would not be surprising. Unlike the mtDNA

papers, there are those who dispute the exogenous origins of the

haplogroups in question, so I tend to think that a predominantly

indigenous (that is, lineages extent in South Asia prior to 10,000

years ago) narrative is more probable (that is, the case for mtDNA

being indigenous is stronger than that of the Y being exogenous).

 

Addendum: The authors note that Cochin Jews carry mtDNA lines that are

predominantly Indian. Unpublished data indicates that the Bene Israel

Jews of India have a high frequency of the Cohen modal haplotype, that

is, they share ancestry with other Jewish groups. Traditionally the

Cochin Jews have been more Jewishly aware than the Bene Israel and

maintained their contacts with the world Jewry, so I would be

surprised if their Y line was non-Jewish where the more outwardly

non-Jewish Bene Israel retain the Cohen signature.

--- End forwarded message ---

 

Other related messages :1) connection of Mizos with Israel

http://www.the-week.com/24sep12/currentevents_article1.htm

2)Connection of South Korea with Ayodhya through her princess

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/847880.cms

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