The new picture that the aDNA evidence is painting for Indo-European expansions is indeed grim and disturbing. I feel there is an urgent duty upon us – especially upon those of us who are also Indo-Europeanists – to be vigilant against attempts to co-opt these narratives of violence and oppression in the distant prehistoric past to justify violence and oppression in the present day. I do not hesitate to add that in today’s political climate where forces are actively pushing back and attempting to undermine the hard-fought advancements in human rights protections and progress towards gender equality achieved in the last decades, this seems more important than ever.
While the picture *does* look very bad, I suppose popular science articles whose headline brands the Yamnaya peoples as 'the most murderous people of all time' (admittedly a more nuanced take in the actual text of the article) is perhaps not the best way of communicating the results of this research to the general public.
Kind regards to all,
Matthew
On 2019-04-14 19:14, Dominik Wujastyk via INDOLOGY wrote:
:-(--
Professor Dominik Wujastyk,
Singhmar Chair in Classical Indian Society and Polity,
University of Alberta, Canada.
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