Migration Of Modern Humans

[Ayinde]

Source: Stanford University
Date: 2003-05-28

Scientists Use DNA Fragments To Trace The Migration Of Modern Humans

Human beings may have made their first journey out of Africa as recently as 70,000 years ago, according to a new study by geneticists from Stanford University and the Russian Academy of Sciences. Writing in the American Journal of Human Genetics, the researchers estimate that the entire population of ancestral humans at the time of the African expansion consisted of only about 2,000 individuals.

"This estimate does not preclude the presence of other populations of Homo sapiens sapiens [modern humans] in Africa, although it suggests that they were probably isolated from one another genetically, and that contemporary worldwide populations descend from one or very few of those populations," said Marcus W. Feldman, the Burnet C. and Mildred Finley Wohlford Professor at Stanford and co-author of the study.

The small size of our ancestral population may explain why there is so little genetic variability in human DNA compared with that of chimpanzees and other closely related species, Feldman added.

The study, published in the May edition of the journal, is based on research conducted in Feldman`s Stanford laboratory in collaboration with co-authors Lev A. Zhivotovsky of the Russian Academy and former Stanford graduate student Noah A. Rosenberg, now at the University of Southern California.

"Our results are consistent with the `out-of-Africa` theory, according to which a sub-Saharan African ancestral population gave rise to all populations of anatomically modern humans through a chain of migrations to the Middle East, Europe, Asia, Oceania and America," Feldman noted.

Ancient roots

Since all human beings have virtually identical DNA, geneticists have to look for slight chemical variations that distinguish one population from another. One technique involves the use of "microsatellites" - short repetitive fragments of DNA whose patterns of variation differ among populations. Because microsatellites are passed from generation to generation and have a high mutation rate, they are a useful tool for estimating when two populations diverged.

In their study, the research team compared 377 microsatellite markers in DNA collected from 1,056 individuals representing 52 geographic sites in Africa, Eurasia (the Middle East, Europe, Central and South Asia), East Asia, Oceania and the Americas.

Statistical analysis of the microsatellite data revealed a close genetic relationship between two hunter-gatherer populations in sub-Saharan Africa - the Mbuti pygmies of the Congo Basin and the Khoisan (or "bushmen") of Botswana and Namibia. These two populations "may represent the oldest branch of modern humans studied here," the authors concluded.

The data revealed a genetic split between the ancestors of these hunter-gatherer populations and the ancestors of contemporary African farming people - Bantu speakers who inhabit many countries in southern Africa. "This division occurred between 70,000 and 140,000 years ago and was followed by the expansion out of Africa into Eurasia, Oceania, East Asia and the Americas - in that order," Feldman said.

This result is consistent with an earlier study in which Feldman and others analyzed the Y chromosomes of more than 1,000 men from 21 different populations. In that study, the researchers concluded that the first human migration from Africa may have occurred roughly 66,000 years ago.

Population bottlenecks

The research team also found that indigenous hunter-gatherer populations in Africa, the Americas and Oceania have experienced very little growth over time. "Hunting and gathering could not support a significant increase in population size," Feldman explained. "These populations probably underwent severe bottlenecks during which their numbers crashed - possibly because of limited resources, diseases and, in some cases, the effects of long-distance migrations."

Unlike hunter-gatherers, the ancestors of sub-Saharan African farming populations appear to have experienced a population expansion that started around 35,000 years ago: "This increase in population sizes might have been preceded by technological innovations that led to an increase in survival and then an increase in the overall birth rate," the authors wrote. The peoples of Eurasia and East Asia also show evidence of population expansion starting about 25,000 years ago, they added.

"The exciting thing about these data is that they are amenable to a combination of mathematical models and statistical analyses that can help solve problems that are important in paleontology, archaeology and anthropology," Feldman concluded.

###

The research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research.

Relevant Web URLs:

http://www-evo.stanford.edu/

http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2003/january8/genetics-18.html

http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/november8/chromosome-1108.html

http://www.neanderthal-modern.com/genetic1.htm

[Ras Mandingo]

Greetings Ayinde,

One question.

I remember you explaining how the melanin has the funtion of protecting the body from the sunlight, absorbing also essential nutrients from the sunlight.

White people got their amount of melanin reduced to adapt to the lack of sunlight, to make them able to use all the light they could get.

Am I right in this interpretation?

Well, so my question is, do black people suffer from the lack of light by living in places in cold paces with short light presence, like in the north emisphere like Europe and US? If so, how does this happen?

Give thanks,

Mandingo.

[RasIene]

Iance and Greetings, Brethren Ayinde. Much Raspect to the I continued academic research. I feel that Information is power...parth of the Rasta mantra: word, sound and Power. Now! I want to know if the research intend to show that all races are result of certain African Tribe migration. And that  migration may have caused the spin off of other race from Africa, but over time were able to adopt to climatic condition. All of that happen when the less successful pygmy against the Bantu-s who out maneuvored them. I want to know why you think given Africa's vast land why would they have left Africa for other world? And too why is that one Tribe could succedd while the other fail- considering that they both are from the same Africa land.
"In their study, the research team compared 377 microsatellite markers in DNA collected from 1,056 individuals representing 52 geographic sites in Africa, Eurasia (the Middle East, Europe, Central and South Asia), East Asia, Oceania and the Americas." I have not heard any of the African countries I and I know today mention here.
Brethren Ayinde! how could Idren such as yourself obtain soem of these funds so that we can carry out our own research and gather information of this calibre?
I shall read up more on the links you have provided. It is an interesting point. I would like to know more about that aspect of the DNA. A lot of time brethrens submit to Blood test or paternity test, yet they do not overstand what goes into the interpretation of those results. but give that they only took a "1056 people from 52 different geographic area in Africa. Would not that make the research not a full conclusion or a representative of the African population. I know that Africa has a lot of Tribe, but why just the two mentioned in your post? I'Yah, I hope that you will shed more light as you go Idren. Iance

RasIene.  

[Ayinde]

Greetings Ayinde,
I remember you explaining how the melanin has the funtion of protecting the body from the sunlight, absorbing also essential nutrients from the sunlight.
White people got their amount of melanin reduced to adapt to the lack of sunlight, to make them able to use all the light they could get.
Am I right in this interpretation?

Yes you are correct.

The skin is the place where Vitamin D is synthesized using ultraviolet rays to catalyze the reaction. So you need some ultraviolet light to penetrate the skin in order to make Vitamin D. Vitamin D turns out to be critical to your body because it provides the means whereby you absorb calcium from your food in your digestive system. So if you don't have Vitamin D, you can't absorb calcium from your food and you can't build strong bones.

Making the proper skin color turns out to be a balancing act between having enough natural sunscreen to prevent a lot of damage to the contents of the blood system. On the other hand, you have to let in enough ultraviolet light to still permit the formation of Vitamin D in your skin. So people who live in conditions of lower ultraviolet light, away from the tropics and toward the poles, have to have lighter skin than those people who live closer to the tropics or closer to the equator. Those people really have to have darker skin to protect themselves from ultraviolet light.

Those who are sort of in the middle, like inhabitants of most of North America and most of Eurasia, have to have skin that is capable of some level of tanning so that we can protect ourselves from lots of ultraviolet radiation in the late spring and summer. But we can de-pigment ourselves as ultraviolet light becomes less intense in the winter so we can take advantage of the ambient ultraviolet radiation that does exist.

If we look at our earliest Homo sapiens ancestors (about 100 to 150 thousand years ago in eastern Africa), we can reconstruct that those ancestors would have had dark skin to protect themselves from the deleterious effects of ultraviolet light. But those populations began to move out of the tropics and colonize areas that were much less intense in terms of ultraviolet light. As they first moved into the Circum Mediterranean, Western Asia, then onward into Eastern Asia, Europe, Southeast Asia, Australia and so forth, these populations would have to undergo some depigmentation in order for them to be able to synthesize enough Vitamin D in their skin.

Why Skin Comes in Colors

[Ayinde]

Another article for consideration

by Clyde Winters

In ancient times a wonderful civilization existed in the Highland regions of Middle Africa. In this wonderful civilization 6000 years ago lived the ancestors of the Dravidians, Black Africans, Elamites and the Sumerians. Today we call this Proto-Saharan civilization the "Fertile African Crescent", because the highland regions in which the Proto-Saharans l lived formed a crescent shape across the Saharan region of middle Africa.

Pastoralism and fishing preceded food production in the ancient Sahara. It appears that a hunter-fisher-gatherer group which clearly specialized in the hunting of animals (as evidenced by the arrowheads) became animal herders, since they were keenly aware of the habits of game and therefore made the shift from hunter-fisher-gatherer to animal husbandry rapidly once climatic conditions in the Sahara made it impossible to collect grains.

Moderate climatic conditions made it possible for the Proto-Saharans to engage in intensive plant domestication. Food surpluses led to the rise of towns and cities, complex political organization. social ranking of individuals in society, and craft specialization as certain clans and ethnic groups became more sedentary.

The linguistic evidence indicates that the Proto-Saharans practiced a form of intensive agriculture characterized by the use of the hoe, related water storage and irrigation techniques plus the application of fertilizers to the cultivated land.

The ability to produce surplus food led to an increase in population, changes in social organization and class distinctions. Naturally, population increases forced the ancestors of the Proto-Saharans to spill over into more marginal areas. This population pressure probably forced many Proto-Saharan clans to domesticate plants and animals to preserve traditional levels of food production.

The ancestors of the Dravidians, Manding and Sumerians were organized into a federal system during the neolithic subpluvial. These early Proto- Saharans made adequate uses of local game and plant life and they established permanent and seasonal settlements around well stocked fishing holes. They lived on plains, punctuated by mountains and numerous points of inundation due to the frequency of rain in the ancient Sahara.

The early ability to find permanent sources of food and shelter during the neolithic by the Proto-Dravidians, and other Proto-Saharans led to increased domestic functioning of the woman, since hunting wild game and the constant need of the Proto-Saharans to provide food and the search for herds of game, as a source of food was no longer that important. The stability of the hearth maintained by the women led to the development of a matriarchal system. In addition to a matrillineal pattern of inheritance among these people, women had equal rights to the men.

Women created agriculture. Thus, the term"Ma",appears in the languages spoken by the descendants of the Proto-Saharans to denote both "mother" and "earth area".

The Proto-Saharans claimed descent from the Maa or Fish Confederation. The Maa Confederation includes the Egyptians, Elamites, Dravidians, Manding and Sumerians. In honor of the great ancestor: Maa, they worshipped a god called: Amun, Amon, or Amma. In honor of this great ancestor the descendants of the Proto-Saharans use the term Ma, to denote greatness or highness, e.g., Manding " Maga" and Dravidian Ma. Other Proto-Saharan tribes claimed direct descent from the great Maa, founder of the Fish Confederation. For example, the Manding call themselves Ma-nde: children of Ma, while the Sumerians were called Ma-Gar-ri (exalted God's children).

The Proto-Saharans share place names. Evidence for shared place names has been discovered by Dr. Vamos-Toth Bator. Dr. Vamos-Toth Bator, calls this ancient civilization ---root culture-- Tamana. The term Tamana can be interpreted in the Manding and Dravidian language as "Strongplace","Stronghold" or "Original Settlement". The term Tamana is one of over 1,000,000 place names Dr. Vamos-Toth has found which link Africa, Asia, and Europe.

The term Tamana, was a popular place name for the Proto-Saharans, as they expanded out of the nuclear Proto-Saharan region, to signify a colonial city or trade center established among hostile alien tribes.

The Proto-Saharans also had their own writing system. This writing system was used by the Dravidians in the Indus Valley, the Manding in the Western Sahara, and the Egyptians.

The ancient Proto-Saharan script was a logo syllabic system. The words used to write this script were monosyllabic.

This writing was engraved on rocks, a stylus was used to engrave wet clay. This view is supported by the fact that the term for writing in Dravidian and Egyptian has supported by the fact that the term for writing in /l/, /r/ or /d/. For a U attached to initial consonants usually /l/, /r/ or /d/. For example, writing in Sumerian was Ru and Shu, Elamite: Talu, Dravidian: Carru and Egyptian: Mdu. These terms agree with the Manding terms for excavate or hollow out: du, do, kulu, tura, etc. This shows that the Proto-Saharan term for writing denoted the creation of impressions on wet clay or hard rock. The Sumerians term for carving was du.

A comparative study of the Proto-Saharan languages (PS), gives us a very clear indication of their cultural traits, at the time of separation. Suzanne Romaine, makes a good case for the separability of the linguistic area of research and that of socio-cultural research and the synchronic with the diachronic historical areas. This use of linguistic data to highlight the cultural history of related groups of speakers, was also supported by Labov , who suggested that people having similar scoio-cultural traits, would also be linguistically similar. As will soon be illustrated in this book, this theory is supported by the analogy between the Dravidian, Manding and Sumerian languages.

It is interesting to note that although the Dravidians, Manding and Sumerians live in varying topography and climate, and in self supporting semi-isolated regions they used the same terms to denote the earliest elements of civilization. Terms which show little phonological divergence. Moreover, these terms are mutually intelligible. This shows that the speakers of these languages came from a common ancestral language: Bafsudraalam.

The early contact between the Dravidians, Manding and Sumerians in the Proto-Sahara led to great resemblances in the area of the cultural lexicon. This is particularly evident in the affinity between culture terms referring to the Proto- civilization of the speakers of these languages. The sedentary lifestyle of the Proto-Saharans emphasize the role of culture as a determinant of linguistic structure and vocabulary.

An examination of the Proto-Saharan languages illustrates that the speakers of these languages lived in cities PS *uru, and had chiefs PS *sar. In addition to living in cities the Proto-Saharans had built extensive roads called PS *sila.

The PS term for people or humanity was PS *oku. The mother of the family was called PS *amma or *ma. and the father was called PS *pa. The children both boys and girls were usually referred to as PS *de/di/du. They lived in houses called PS *-u/*lu.

The Proto-Saharans used the suffix PS *-ta to indicate a place of habitation. Cultivation was called PS *ga(n); cultivatable barren land near water was referred to as PS *de/i(n).

The Proto-Saharans were great sailors. They used celestial navigation to make long voyages. The Proto-Saharans also used boats called PS *kalam.

Hunting was an important aspect of Proto-Saharan life. As a result the bow and arrow was a popular weapon, e.g., arrow PS *kaka.

Many of the long distance voyages made by the Proto-Saharans were made in search of precious metals. The Proto-Dravidians dominated trade in lapis lazuli for hundreds of years. As a result they were familiar with mining. They therefore share the term for digging: Dravidian tulai, Manding du, tyolo, and Sumerian dul, tul,: PS*tul.

These people probably knew about blacksmithy e.g., Tamil: irumbu,Telugu : inamu, Manding: numu, umu "forge". These Proto-Saharans were familiar with many metals including copper: Dravidian uruttiran, Sumerian urdu, and Manding: kura, kuta: PS *urut; gold: Dravidian: kaani, Kaanam, Sumerian: Gush-kin, and Manding: saani, PS *aani; and Steel, Dravidian: alavu, urukku, Elamite: ufat and Manding tuufa PS *ufa.

Above we have discussed many of the cultural first which the Proto-Saharans created in ancient Africa. The linguistic evidence clearly indicates that the Dravidians, Elamites, Black Africans and Sumerians formerly lived in the Highland regions of the Sahara until after the Sahara began to dry up. As the highland regions of the Sahara became a desert the Proto-Saharans spread from middle Africa to America, Europe, Asia and throughout Africa.

http://homepages.luc.edu/~cwinter/proto2.htm

[Ras Mandingo]

Give Thanks for the Informations Ayinde.

I've learned a lot, it has cleaned I perception regarding melanin.

Respect,

Mandingo.

[Ayinde]

Biophysical Properties of Melanin Pigments

To elucidate the mechanism of photoprotective action of retinal and skin melanin, and to understand biological functions of neuro-melanin in the Substantia nigra of the human brain, antioxidant properties of natural and synthetic melanins are studied both in model systems and in pigment cells in vitro. Free radical scavenging properties of melanin are analyzed by pulse radiolysis, ESR spin trapping and salicylate hydroxylation products using HPLC with electrochemical detection. Antioxidant efficiency of melanin is determined by measuring its ability to inhibit peroxidation of lipids, induced in melanotic systems by iron ions, thermolabile azo-compounds and photosensitized oxidation reactions. To identify conditions that may modify antioxidant capacity of melanin, we study the effects oxidative degradation of melanin, its saturation with metal ions and presence of exogeneous metal-ion chelators on melanin's ability to lower the yield a hydroxyl radical production via Fenton reactions, to quench photosensitized oxidation reactions and to inhibit lipid peroxidation. From: http://www.mol.uj.edu.pl/staff/sarna/

Neuro-Melanin

This pigment is present in the leptomeningeal cells and in the pigmented nuclei of the brainstem. Melanin-containing cells in the leptomeninges are most plentiful over the ventral aspect of the brain-stem; this is the area in which the rare primary malignant melanomas most often develop. Two major accumulations of pigmented neurons occur in the brainstem: in the substantia nigra of the midbrain and in the much smaller locus ceruleus of the pontine tegmentum. The cells of the substantia nigra and locus ceruleus are dopaminergic and noradrenergic  respectively.  Other brainstem nuclei, including the motor nucleus of the vagus, also contain melanin in small amounts.

Comments

Without Melanin there would be no ability to absorb solar energy, Life force energy, vibration energy and other Electromagnetic energies. The pineal gland would calcify. If your pineal gland (which awakens the third eye) calcifies you would not be able to intuit spiritual things. You would feel disconnected. Your Pineal gland secretes melatonin naturally at night when you sleep. This helps to soothe the nerves and allows you to dream in color and communicate in other realms.

Melanin acts as a precursor for all neuro-transmission activity. Melanin has many other interesting properties such as ultraviolet absorption. So Melanin is more than skin deep. Melanin functions with the Pineal gland. Melanin keeps time with the natural body clock.

I am not seeing good info on Neuro-Melanin on the Internet.
A good book on this subject is:
The Science And The Myth Of Melanin by T. Owens Moore

More Info:
Cellular function of neuromelanin

[Ayinde]

30 Sept, 1998 UK - BBC

Genetic researchers say they have found fresh evidence that Chinese people are descended from Africans.

The findings also add new weight to theories that all human life began in Africa.

Academics from the University of Texas and their colleagues in China studied 28 population groups in China and concluded that most - if not all - had their genetic origins in Africa.

They looked at pieces of DNA known as microsatellites, which are short, repeating DNA segments that yield information about genetic variation among people.

The researchers found that all Chinese have a great deal in common genetically, although there are some regional variations.

The findings, published by the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, supports what has come to be known as the "Out of Africa theory".

This theory contends that homo sapiens, the modern form of human life, is descended from a population of ancestors who migrated out of Africa about 100,000 years ago.

The new data also supports the idea of an "African Eve" who is an ancestor of all living humans.

The Eve hypothesis, first published in 1987, suggests that all human DNA can be traced back to a single female. This "Eve" would have lived in Africa about 200,000 years ago.

The latest research challenges an alternative theory which holds that several different groups of humans evolved separately at the same time in several places around the world.

Chinese mythology holds that the Chinese are descended from a single ancestor, the Yellow Emperor.

More recent Chinese scholarship has argued that the Chinese evolved separately from other races.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/183392.stm

[Ayinde]

10 May, 2001, UK - BBC

by BBC News Online's Ivan Noble



The theory that the ancestors of all modern humans came from Africa received a boost on Thursday with the publication of supporting research.

Scientists based across Asia, in the US and the UK examined the Y-chromosomes of more than 12,000 people from across Asia and found no traces of any ancient non-African influence.

"This result indicates that modern humans of African origin completely replaced earlier populations in East Asia," the researchers write in the journal Science.

The main alternative explanation of human origins - that modern humans are descended from separate populations which developed in different places - is known as multiregionalism.

"This really puts the nail in the coffin of multiregionalism," R Spencer Wells, co-author of the research, told BBC News Online. The value of the new research lies in the scale of the project, he said.

"That's the real power of the analysis. There has been data before but here you're really sampling all of the extant diversity in Asia," he said.

Genetic markers

Spencer Wells and his colleagues, led by Li Jin of Fudan University in Shanghai, spent months collecting DNA samples from a total of 163 different populations as diverse as Karakalpaks in central Asia, American Samoans and Nagas in India.

They tested the samples for a set of three markers associated with a mutation of the Y-chromosome known to have originated in Africa an estimated 44,000 years ago.

If they had found anyone without any of the markers, it would have indicated that the individual might not have been descended from Africans. But they did not, lending weight to the "Out of Africa" theory.

Only men have a Y-chromosome, and so the study looked only at the male line.

'Historical science'

The researchers suggest that investigations of mitochondrial DNA, which is only passed down the female line, might add to the evidence.

Spencer Wells added: "This is historical science. We're limited to studying the diversity which is extant today and examining the pattern.

"It's a question of how many times you have to look at the pattern.

"This is another step down the road to completely debunking the myth of multiregionalism. It's difficult to say when the final nail goes in the coffin, but I think we're getting close," he said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1323485.stm

[RasIene]

You see I was feeling Irate about the negative new coming out of Africa. But the I have given I some posting on African seed. Yeah! this do help to know that African has contributed its seed to the world. Your research are real academic and commendable. I like the picture too-it do boost the message you are blazing here. Roots up I'Yah Elder.


RasIene

[Ayinde]

Told in Modern Genes, Experts Say

By Robert Cooke, Newsday
San Francisco Chronicle, 26 May, 1999  

Like an indelible signature enduring through a hundred generations, genes that entered India when conquering hordes swooped down from the north thousands of years ago are still there, and remain entrenched at the top of the caste system, scientists report. Analyses of the male Y chromosome, plus genes hidden in small cellular bodies called mitochondria, show that today's genetic patterns agree with accounts of ancient Indo-European warriors' conquering the Indian subcontinent.  

The invaders apparently shoved the local men aside, took their women and set up the rigid caste system that exists today. Their descendants are still the elite within Hindu society.  

INVADING CAUCASOIDS  

Thus today's genetic patterns, the researchers explained, vividly reflect a historic event, or events, that occurred 3,000 or 4,000 years ago. The gene patterns "are consistent with a historical scenario in which invading Caucasoids -- primarily males -- established the caste system and occupied the highest positions, placing the indigenous population, who were more similar to Asians, in lower caste positions.''  

The researchers, from the University of Utah and Andhra Pradesh University in India, used two sets of genes in their analyses.

One set, from the mitochondria, are only passed maternally and can be used to track female inheritance. The other, on the male-determining Y chromosome, can only be passed along paternally and thus track male inheritance.  

The data imply, then, "that there was a group of males with European affinities who were largely responsible for this invasion 3,000 or 4,000 years ago,'' said geneticist Lynn Jorde of the University of Utah.  

If women had accompanied the invaders, he said, the evidence should be seen in the mitochondrial genes, but it is not evident.  

According to geneticist Douglas Wallace of Emory University in Atlanta, the work reported by Jorde and his colleagues "is very interesting, and is certainly worth further study.''  

Along with Jorde, the research team included Michael Bamshad, W.S. Watkins and M.E. Dixon from Utah and B.B. Rao, B.V.R. Prasad and J.M. Naidu, from Andhra Pradesh University.  

UPWARDLY MOBILE WOMEN  

By studying both sets of genetic markers, the research team found clear evidence echoing what is still seen socially, that women can be upwardly mobile, in terms of caste, if they marry higher-caste men. In contrast, men generally do not move higher, because women rarely marry men from lower castes, the researchers said.  

"Our expectations in this natural experiment are borne out when we look at the genes," said Jorde. "It's one of the few cases where we know the mating situation in a population for 150 generations. So it's kind of a test for how well the genes reflect a population's history."  

The ancient story holds that invaders known as Indo-Europeans, or true Aryans, came from Eastern Europe or western Asia and conquered the Indian subcontinent. The people they subdued descended from the original inhabitants who had arrived far earlier from Africa and from other parts of Asia.  

During the genetic studies, in 1996 and 1997, researchers took blood samples from hundreds of people in southern India. The analyses compared the genes from 316 caste members and 330 members of tribal populations, looking for signs of Asian, European and African ancestry.

In the mitochondrial genes passed along by females, Jorde said, they could see the clear background of Asian genes. "All of the caste groups were similar to Asians, the underlying population" that had originally been subdued.  

But, he added, "when we look at the Y chromosome DNA, we see a very different pattern. The lower castes are most similar to Asians, and the upper castes are more European than Asian."  

Further, "when we look at the different components within the upper caste, the group with the greatest European similarity of all is the warrior class, the Kshatriya, who are still at the top of the Hindu castes, with the Brahmins," Jorde said.  

"But the Brahmins, in terms of their Y chromosomes, are a little bit more Asian."  

So the genetic results are "consistent with historical accounts that women sometimes marry into higher caste, resulting in female gene flow between adjacent castes. In contrast, males seldom change castes, so Y chromosome" variation occurs only as a result of natural mutations, Jorde said.  

CASTE SYSTEM STILL ALIVE  

He added that even though India's ancient caste system was abolished legally in the 1960s, it is still entrenched socially.  

"People are very well aware of their caste membership," he said, noting that in some cities the housing is still arranged along caste lines. So "one might argue, unfortunately so, that it (the caste system) does exist in people's minds."  

In terms of who marries whom, the researchers described the Hindu caste system as "governing the mating practices of nearly one-sixth of the world's population."  

The blood samples taken from tribal people in southern India are still being analyzed, Jorde added.  

But so far, "the tribal populations are more similar to the lower castes than to anyone else, similar to the original residents of India," he said.

Africoid Involvement in Asian Spirituality

[Ayinde]

Posted: Wednesday, December 11, 2002
Author: Nicholas Wade
Filed: 12/11/2002
Source: The New York Times

Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands, a remote archipelago east of India, are direct descendants of the first modern humans to have inhabited Asia, geneticists conclude in a new study.

But the islanders lack a distinctive genetic feature found among Australian aborigines, another early group to leave Africa, suggesting they were part of a separate exodus.

The Andaman Islanders are "arguably the most enigmatic people on our planet," a team of geneticists led by Dr. Erika Hagelberg of the University of Oslo write in the journal Current Biology.

Their physical features — short stature, dark skin, peppercorn hair and large buttocks — are characteristic of African Pygmies. "They look like they belong in Africa, but here they are sitting in this island chain in the middle of the Indian Ocean," said Dr. Peter Underhill of Stanford University, a co-author of the new report.

Adding to the puzzle is that their language, according to Joseph Greenberg, who, before his death in 2001, classified the world's languages, belongs to a family that includes those of Tasmania, Papua New Guinea and Melanesia.

Dr. Hagelberg has undertaken the first genetic analysis of the Andamanese with the help of two Indian colleagues who took blood samples — the islands belong to India — and by analyzing hair gathered almost a century ago by a British anthropologist, Alfred Radcliffe-Brown. The islands were isolated from the outside world until the British set up a penal colony there after the Indian mutiny of 1857.

Only four of the dozen tribes that once inhabited the island survive, with a total population of about 500 people. These include the Jarawa, who still live in the forest, and the Onge, who have been settled by the Indian government.

Genetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA, a genetic element passed down only through women, shows that the Onge and Jarawa people belong to a lineage, known as M, that is common throughout Asia, the geneticists say. This establishes them as Asians, not Africans, among whom a different mitochondrial lineage, called L, is dominant.

The geneticists then looked at the Y chromosome, which is passed down only through men and often gives a more detailed picture of genetic history than the mitochondrial DNA. The Onge and Jarawa men turned out to carry a special change or mutation in the DNA of their Y chromosome that is thought to be indicative of the Paleolithic population of Asia, the hunters and gatherers who preceded the first human settlements.

The mutation, known as Marker 174, occurs among ethnic groups at the periphery of Asia who avoided being swamped by the populations that spread after the agricultural revolution that occurred about 8,000 years ago. It is found in many Japanese, in the Tibetans of the Himalayas and among isolated people of Southeast Asia, like the Hmong.

The discovery of Marker 174 among the Andamanese suggests that they too are part of this relict Paleolithic population, descended from the first modern humans to leave Africa.

Dr. Underhill, an expert on the genetic history of the Y chromosome, said the Paleolithic population of Asia might well have looked as African as the Onge and Jarawa do now, and that people with the appearance of present-day Asians might have emerged only later. It is also possible, he said, that their resemblance to African Pygmies is a human adaptation to living in forests that the two populations developed independently.

A finding of particular interest is that the Andamanese do not carry another Y chromosome signature, known as Marker RPS4Y, that is common among Australian aborigines.

This suggests that there were at least two separate emigrations of modern humans from Africa, Dr. Underhill said. Both probably left northeast Africa by boat 40,000 or 50,000 years ago and pushed slowly along the coastlines of the Arabian Peninsula and India. No archaeological record of these epic journeys has been found, perhaps because the world's oceans were 120 meters lower during the last ice age and the evidence of early human passage is under water.

One group of emigrants that acquired the Marker 174 mutation reached Southeast Asia, including the Andaman islands, and then moved inland and north to Japan, in Dr. Underhill's reconstruction. A second group, carrying the Marker RPS4Y, took a different fork in Southeast Asia, continuing south toward Australia.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/10/science/10ISLA.html