Ancient genetic imprint unites the tribes of India

New Scientist ^ | September 11, 2008 | Anil Ananthaswamy

[SunkenCiv]

The first humans to arrive on the Indian subcontinent from Africa about 65,000 years ago left a genetic imprint that can still be found in the tribes of India...

"Whether the original inhabitants of India were replaced by more modern immigrants or contributed to the contemporary gene pool has been debated," says Michael Bamshad of the University of Washington in Seattle, who has studied the genetic diversity of India.

One way researchers have used to figure this out is to use linguistic groups.

The tribes speaking Indo-European languages, for instance, are known to be descendants of the people who migrated into India relatively recently from Central Asia and the Caucasus. It was also thought that the Austro-Asiatic speakers were direct descendants of the original settlers.

To determine which groups can trace their ancestry to the founding population of India, Vadlamudi Raghavendra Rao of the Anthropological Survey of India in Kolkata and his colleagues analysed 2768 samples of mitochondrial DNA taken from 24 tribes all over India...

The new study shows that both the Dravidian and Austro-Asiatic language groups share these same genetic markers.

Rao agrees. "Biologically, there are no castes and tribes, there are only communities," he says.

[SunkenCiv]

"We've discovered a lineage which survived, and therefore it must be the original one."

[SunkenCiv]

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[wendy1946]

The first humans to arrive on the Indian subcontinent from Africa about 65,000 years ago left a genetic imprint that can still be found in the tribes of India...

There weren't any humans 65,000 years ago. In India or anywhere else.

[Coyoteman]

There weren't any humans 65,000 years ago. In India or anywhere else.

Earliest Evidence Of Modern Humans Detected

ScienceDaily (Oct. 17, 2007) — Evidence of early humans living on the coast in South Africa, harvesting food from the sea, employing complex bladelet tools and using red pigments in symbolic behavior 164,000 years ago, far earlier than previously documented, is being reported in the journal Nature.

Earliest Known Human Had Neanderthal Qualities

Aug. 22, 2008 -- The world's first known modern human was a tall, thin individual -- probably male -- who lived around 200,000 years ago and resembled present-day Ethiopians, save for one important difference: He retained a few primitive characteristics associated with Neanderthals, according to a series of forthcoming studies conducted by multiple international research teams.

[MyTwoCopperCoins]

Deep common ancestry of Indian and western-Eurasian mitochondrial DNA lineages

http://jorde-lab.genetics.utah.edu/elibrary/Kivisild_1999.pdf

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Bump for later. Thanks.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

Biologically, there are no castes and tribes, there are only communities

Truer words were never spoken. The notion of 'racism' stems from an evolutionary premise that there were multiple 'starts' of the human race, rather than a single created one that has decended through the lineages of Adam and Noah.

No true Bible-believing person, by definition, CAN be racist in the Jackson/Farrakhan Wright/Obama hatemongering, race-baiting sense of the word. More accurately, one can certainly be an ethnic supremacist and even make a good living at it, as these have unfortunately shown.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Sopater]

Well said. The one question that I cannot stand being asked on a form is "RACE". Especially since "human" is never an option. The "Human race" is the only one that I belong to.

and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, - Acts 17:26

[John Valentine]

There weren't any humans 65,000 years ago. In India or anywhere else.

Say WHAT?

Where do you come up with that nonsense?

[aruanan]

There weren't any humans 65,000 years ago. In India or anywhere else.

Your wayback machine goes back that far?

[colorado tanker]

Interesting that the Dravidians share the marker. My understanding is Dravidian is not an Austro-Asiatic language and they were thought to have been later arrivers than the first out of Africa.

[martin_fierro]

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[Verginius Rufus]

According to Kenneth Katzner, The Languages of the World, the Munda languages of India are sometimes linked with the Mon-Khmer languages as the "Austro-Asiatic" family, but the Munda family seems to be entirely distinct from the Dravidian family (about 20 languages including 4 major ones, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada/Kanarese). There are over 200 million speakers of the Dravidian languages but only 9 million or so of the Munda languages.

[SunkenCiv]

Dravidian is an unrelated agglutinative language. :’)

[colorado tanker]

Thanks for the info. I wonder why the Dravidians are showing the same marker as the Munda speakers when they seem to be unrelated groups?

[colorado tanker]

Can you say that on a family-friendly board? :-))

[SunkenCiv]

Have you *seen* the coprolite topic? ;’)

[SunkenCiv]

Whoops, I think there were two or three more in the past few days or a week, forgot to ping you.

[martin_fierro]

Iz Hokay.