Posted on 08/03/2013 3:18:58 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Why are the Kalash important?There are three reasons why the Kalash are important in the study of Eurasian prehistory:
(Excerpt) Read more at dodecad.blogspot.com ...
ChromoPainter/fineSTRUCTURE analysis of select South Asian/West Eurasian populations
February 22, 2012
http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2012/02/chromopainterfinestructure-analysis-of.html
This is the final result of the analysis mentioned in this previous post on the Kalash, using all 22 chromosomes.
Due to the quadratic running time of ChromoPainter, I took a random sample of 15 individuals from every included population with more than15 individuals. The final set included 392 individuals. It appears that a set of ~400 individuals/~260k SNPs can be processed in about 2 weeks on a single thread.
Alexander’s soldiers left no mark
By Razib Khan | July 30, 2013 12:28 am
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/?p=22140#.Ufq-cqwpgZ8
[snip] In the case of a group such as the Kalash of Pakistan this conjecture is supported by the exotic nature of their religion, which seems to be Indo-European, and similar to Vedic Hinduism, with minimal influence from Islam. [/snip]
I wonder if the Kalash are just “Crackers” to Rev. Al.
The obvious fact is, one generation of Macedonian or Greek paternity would be expected to entirely or nearly vanish after more than 2000 years of local hookups, and there’s nothing that these DNA studies can do but confirm that fact — they can’t be used to refute these legends, which originate *with* the Kalash themselves. Also, they claim to worship Apollo, which is pretty hard to explain, what with literally no one else still doing that. :’)
Kalash “A Lost Greek Tribe”
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kalash-A-Lost-Greek-Tribe/326627204121081
The Kalash People — A Lost Greek Tribe
http://n1999k.blogspot.com/2012/08/nikos-deja-vu-kalash-people-lost-greek.html
Alexander’s lost children
http://mondediplo.com/2010/08/12macedonia
KALASH - THE LOST TRIBE OF HINDU KUSH
http://aribi-world.blogspot.com/2010/12/kalash-lost-tribe-of-hindu-kush.html
Roman Mithraic Mysteries and Armenia cult of Mithra
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PIEreligion/message/2456
Harappa Ancestry Project sounds cool, but I don’t understand the website contents.
They’re called the Black Pagans of Hindu Kush, but that wouldn’t stop Not-Too-Sharpton.
Kalash tribal girl (South Asia).
Fascinating stuff, even though much of it’s beyond me.
http://indoeuro.bizland.com/tree/indo/dardic.html
Though Dardic and Nuristani languages are considered by the majority of linguists as two separate groups of languages, they are very close in structure and in vocabulary, and can be described together. Moreover, they have common origin and they are both spoken in one mountainous region in the Gindukush mountains.
In fact, Dardic and Nuristani languages originate back to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European family. Nowadays their speakers, mainly peasants in Northern Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, make about 4 million people (Dardic) and 150 thousand people (Nuristani).
New Indo-European Language Discovered
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2898019/posts
...Burushaski, which is spoken by about 90,000 people who reside in a remote area of Pakistan, is Indo-European in origin... based on a comprehensive grammatical, phonological, lexical and semantic analysis... most likely descended from one of the ancient Balkan languages... most probably ancient Phrygian... according to ancient legends of the Burushaski (or Burusho) people, they are descendants of Alexander the Great.
[singing] they call it Harappa, ah ah ah, you know what they’re aftah...
Intriguing mix.
“Kalash religion is similar to the religion that was practiced by Rigvedic aryans. Kalash have retained most of the Proto-Indo-Iranian religion (Indo-European religion).”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalash_people#Religion
cite: “pace FUSSMAN 1977”
Wow, what a treasure to study these people. My friend learned Quichua so he could speak to those people.
If they did come from Alexander’s army, then judging by the picture of the girl—this would confirm reports that the greeks were a much more aryan people in the 1st millenium than they are today.
The Vedic religion revolved around the use of soma (a plant that grows in Central Asia where it’s dry, no monsoons), cannibis, and opium (that should fire up some people around here). If the Kalash do that, I’ll buy that Wikiclaim. :’) Otherwise, nah, not so much. The religious life of India (and their language is Indo-European after all) has been a polyglot riot for three thousand years, at least, so it’s not surprising that they’d have picked up a few things. The reverence for the horse was also characteristics of the Aryans
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalash_people#Genetic_origins
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indra
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysos
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalash_people#Ritual
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo#Etymology
[snip] Apollo would be the god of flocks and herds. [/snip]
The much older (and deeper in the interior) Urumchi Mummies also show fair hair and fair skin (and are tall) — also, a lot of people have, uh, had liaisons in Central Asia over the course of recent centuries. IOW, it’s difficult to believe such a thing would endure over 2000 years, not least because that’s not a typical look for a Kalash.
Fair haired characteristics among the Homeric Greeks — Helen of Troy/Sparta is described that way, fwiw — is rare.
The Celts had entered Europe as early as 1000 BC (perhaps much earlier) and around 400 BC expanded into Gaul (France), Germany, Poland, etc, and down into the Balkans, and finally into Anatolia, taking the old Phrygian area which was called Galatia as a consequence.
Alexander’s soldiers left no mark
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2013/07/alexanders-soldiers-left-no-mark/
It is well known that Alexander the Great invaded the Indus river valley. Coincidentally in the mountains shadowing this region are isolated groups of tribal populations whose physical appearance is at at variance with South Asians. In particular, they are much lighter skinned, and often blonde or blue eyed. Naturally this led to 19th and early 20th century speculation that they were lost white races, perhaps descended from some of the Macedonian soldiers of Alexander. This was partly the basis of the Rudyard Kipling novel The Man Who Would Be King. Naturally over time some of these people themselves have forwarded this idea. In the case of a group such as the Kalash of Pakistan this conjecture is supported by the exotic nature of their religion, which seems to be Indo-European, and similar to Vedic Hinduism, with minimal influence from Islam.
Kalash girl, Credit: Dave Watts
The major problem with this set of theses is that they are wrong. And the reason I bring up this tired old idea is that many people, including Wikipedia apparently, do not know that this is wrong. I’ve had correspondents sincerely bringing up this model, and, I’ve seen it presented by scholars offhand during talks. There are many historical genetic issues which remain mysterious, or tendentious. This is not one of them. There are hundreds of thousands of SNPs of the Kalash and Burusho distributed to the public. If you want to know how these populations stack up genetically, analyze them yourself. I know that they aren’t related to Macedonians because I have plenty of European population data sets, and I have plenty of South Asian ones. The peoples of the hills of Pakistan are clearly part of the continuum of the latter, albeit shifted toward Iranian peoples.
Those seeking further proof, and unable to analyze the data themselves for any reason, can check out my posts on the topic:
- The Kalash in perspective
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2012/02/the-kalash-in-perspective/#.UfdK69__5KA
- Kalash on the human tree
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2012/02/kalash-on-the-human-tree/#.Uf2ppGS9Kc1
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