[Y-Indology] "Europeans"

[Guest guest]

Vidyashankar wrote:

> Informally speaking, the male ancestors of contemporary Indians (all

> castes) were close cousins of the ancestors of contemporary Slavs. The

> male ancestors of Greeks and Italians were slightly more removed, and

> those of contemporary English, French and German populations were even

> more distant. Also, Indians (all castes) are closer to Slavs than they

> are to other Asians. Indeed, they are closer to S. Europeans and W.

> Europeans also, than to other Asians.

This is not too surprising -- I posted to the old Indology list the results

of a recent genetic analysis of European population published in Nature

earlier this year (unfortunately I can't access the original msg/references

now as they are on a dead computer). The upshot of this study was that

there a a total of just 10 genetic lines on Europe and 80% of European males

are descended from just 2 lines which are dated to early Paleolithic times.

About 18% of the remainder come from 4 later Neothilic lines of NE orgin and

the remaining 2% from the other 4 lines (This fits quite well with Renfrew's

theories about the introduction of agriculture which would be linked to the

18% Neolithic incomers). This would explain the genetic distance you

highlight between West Europeans and East / South Europeans. Basically most

West European males are descendents of primitive stone age folk -- explains

a lot really :-)

 

Best wishes,

Stephen Hodge