[INDOLOGY] How ancient DNA may rewrite prehistory in India

[Herman Tull]

Although this is a discussion I enter into with great hesitancy, I highly
recommend Asko Parpola's recent work, The Roots of Hinduism, for those
wishing to delve deeply into these issues. Parpola's remarkable synthesis
of the archaeological record with millennia of cultural evidence
anticipates Reich's DNA work  -- as cited in the BBC article. However,
Parpola's analysis focuses not on divisiveness (between Indus and Vedic,
etc.) in Indian culture ... but rather on the fact that India today still
reflects a cultural patrimony of great variety (likely drawn from genetic
and cultural connections stretching from India to the steppes and to
western Asia). This trend to see cultural continuity is not unknown in
recent scholarship (Biardeau; Hiltebeitel, etc.); Parpola's work, however,
carries it very far forward.

(By way of full disclosure; I recently reviewed Parpola's book.)

Herman Tull
Lafayette College

On Sun, Dec 30, 2018 at 5:00 AM Madhav Deshpande via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> Dear Jarrod,
>
>      Thanks for posting the link for this interesting article.  Research
> and politics will both continue unhindered.  Not to worry.  I am curious as
> to how the politics in Pakistan responds to such new findings about the
> Indus Valley.  With best wishes,
>
> Madhav M. Deshpande
> Professor Emeritus
> Sanskrit and Linguistics
> University of Michigan
> [Residence: Campbell, California]
>
>
> On Sun, Dec 30, 2018 at 6:20 AM Whitaker, Jarrod L. via INDOLOGY <
> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>
>> BBC.com article (with link to academic article) on the topic of ancient
>> Indian migration and DNA:
>>
>> https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-46616574
>>
>> Hopefully it won't start the New Year off with an Indological bang.
>>
>> JW
>>
>> --
>>
>> Jarrod Whitaker, Ph.D.
>> Associate Professor,
>> Graduate Program Director,
>> Department for the Study of Religions.
>>
>> Wake Forest University
>> P.O. Box 7212
>> Winston-Salem, NC 27109
>> whitakjl at wfu.edu
>> p 336.758.4162
>>
>>
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-- 
Herman Tull
Princeton, NJ


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