[INDOLOGY] "How genetics is settling the Aryan migration debate"

[Dean Michael Anderson]

Thanks for posting this. It looks like a good summary. I do have one comment, however, about interpreting the findings.
Unfortunately,  because this situation has become very politicized, I have to begin with a disclaimer: I have no political agenda nor do I have any problem with the existing theory -- scholars feel that that is where the evidence leads us.
The article says: "Indo-European language speakers, who called themselves Aryans, stream into India sometime around 2,000 BC – 1,500 BC..."
It has been many years since I studied genetics so please correct me if I make a mistake. There are two points:
1) Genetics does not deterministically identify languages or cultures. Following Michael Witzel's dictum that, "pots don't speak", we can say that "genes don't speak" either.
2) Unless there's been a major revolution that I missed (which is possible), these genetic studies don't allow a very accurate dating like "sometime around 2,000 BC – 1,500 BC".
So what this research tells us is that at some time in an indeterminate past a group of people speaking a language we don't know entered India in significant enough numbers to affect the genetic record.
This can be used in conjunction with other studies to validate the theory but, by itself, it is not clinching. It does, however, appear to argue against the Out of India Theory, if by that you mean a significant population outflow.

Best,
Dean


      From: Dominik Wujastyk via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info>
 To: Indology <indology at list.indology.info> 
 Sent: Saturday, June 17, 2017 8:21 PM
 Subject: [INDOLOGY] "How genetics is settling the Aryan migration debate"
   
An interesting article in yesterday's The Hindu about the latest discoveries on the genetics of Indian populations:

"The thorniest, most fought-over question in Indian history is slowly but surely getting answered: did Indo-European language speakers, who called themselves Aryans, stream into India sometime around 2,000 BC – 1,500 BC when the Indus Valley civilisation came to an end, bringing with them Sanskrit and a distinctive set of cultural practices? Genetic research based on an avalanche of new DNA evidence is making scientists around the world converge on an unambiguous answer: yes, they did."



Continue reading:How genetics is settling the Aryan migration debate by Tony Joseph (The Hindu, June 16 2017).

​--
Professor Dominik Wujastyk,
Singhmar Chair in Classical Indian Society and Polity,
Department of History and Classics,University of Alberta, Canada.
South Asia at the U of A:  sas.ualberta.ca ​​
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