DNA study opens a window into African civilisations that left a lasting legacy

Phys dot org ^ | April 16, 2023 | Nancy Bird, The Conversation

[SunkenCiv]

We analyzed 1,300 newly collected genomes of people from across Africa...

We modeled a person's genome as a mixture of segments of DNA inherited from their ancestors. If a person had DNA segments closely matching two groups of people—for example, Europeans and west Africans—it suggested that this person descended from mixing between those two groups.

Present-day human groups that were formed from a recent mixture of Europeans and west Africans should have long sections of DNA from both populations. Those ancestral DNA segments get shorter as the genetic material of their descendants is shuffled with each new generation...

Genetic studies have also found evidence of a continent-wide migration known as the expansion of Bantu-speaking peoples. "Bantu" is a language group, now spoken by around one-quarter of Africans.

There has been debate about whether the Bantu languages spread largely as a transmission of culture, or whether large-scale migration was involved. The latest research shows that the latter explanation is the likeliest. This migration started in a small area of western Cameroon roughly 4,000 years ago, before rapidly spreading south and east. It covered more than 4,000 kilometers in less than 2,000 years.

Bantu speakers mixed with local groups, changing patterns of genetic diversity in Africa forever. We showed that migrations not only occurred to the south and east of Cameroon, but also to the west. Why so much movement took place at this time is unknown, but climate change may have played a role.

It's vital that scientists analyze more DNA from genomes of African people. As we do so, it will undoubtedly reveal an intricate picture of the continent's rich past.

[SunkenCiv]

More information: Nancy Bird et al, Dense sampling of ethnic groups within African countries reveals fine-scale genetic structure and extensive historical admixture, Science Advances (2023). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abq2616

Journal information: Science Advances

The Kanem-Bornu empire at its greatest extent. Credit: Tourbillon / Wikipedia Project

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

[Craftmore]

Dey wuz kangs!

[Paladin2]

“It’s vital that scientists analyze more DNA from genomes of African people.”, they said without evidence....

[AndyJackson]

It covered more than 4,000 kilometers in less than 2,000 years.

Arriving in South Africa at about the same time the European colonialists did.

[Right Wing Vegan]

This migration started in a small area of western Cameroon roughly 4,000 years ago, before rapidly spreading south and east.

Linguistics might suggest otherwise, since the closest extant language to original or proto Bantu is Luganda, unless the Baganda originated in West Africa.

[SunkenCiv]

The McWhorter stuff on Great Courses discusses the problems with figuring out migrations (and cultures, and genomes) from language changes, in one spot in his lectures it pertains to the click languages, and how Miriam Makeba used some click vocab in at least one of her songs and it was deemed controversial (Khoisan language families are found in southern Africa, where she was from).

Clicks don’t seem to arise in most languages, and don’t seem to pass as loan words, so they could be diagnostic of descent from populations which spoke them and have hung onto them. The other click languages are in eastern Africa, meaning it’s possible all of them came from there, migrating with the speakers into the south.

[SunkenCiv]

It’s vital because (as the article notes) human genome in Africa has been little studied.

[Paladin2]

Why can’t the Africans do the studies?

[Racism?]

[sit-rep]

primate DNA??

[SunkenCiv]

It could be, they just don’t give a ****.

Africans also have more opportunities than most to get suckered into joining up with paramilitaries in order to get properly fed, and clothed in failed brand name logo’d shirts, pants, and shoes that had been intended for sale in the west but were made in the far east.

[Right Wing Vegan]

Mixing of groups does happen.

[himno hero]

Lol...

[himno hero]

More evidence that climate change and drought are not new.

Egypt was a bristling thriving civilization, then climate change struck.

Modern day inhabitants blame the jews.

[FarCenter]

Agriculturalists with a superior technological culture replace more primitive agriculturalists and especially hunter gatherers.

It’s all about diffusion of high population density cultures.

It’s not different from the spread of agriculturalists out of Asia Minor into the Danube basin and then into western Europe.

Or the spread of Central Asian pastoralists into Europe bringing the Indo European languages.

[Red Badger]

There has been debate about whether the Bantu languages spread largely as a transmission of culture, or whether large-scale migration was involved. The latest research shows that the latter explanation is the likeliest.

Rap........................