Partha P. Majumder
Summary:
South Asia — comprising India, Pakistan, countries in the sub-Himalayan region and Myanmar — was one of the first geographical regions to have been peopled by modern humans. This region has served as a major route of dispersal to other geographical regions, including southeast Asia. The Indian society comprises tribal, ranked caste, and other populations that are largely endogamous. As a result of evolutionary antiquity and endogamy, populations of India show high genetic differentiation and extensive structuring. Linguistic differences of populations provide the best explanation of genetic differences observed in this region of the world. Within India, consistent with social history, extant populations inhabiting northern regions show closer affinities with Indo-European speaking populations of central Asia that those inhabiting southern regions. Extant southern Indian populations may have been derived from early colonizers arriving from Africa along the southern exit route. The higher-ranked caste populations, who were the torch-bearers of Hindu rituals, show closer affinities with central Asian, Indo-European speaking, populations.
Current Biology, Volume 20, Issue 4, R184-R187, 23 February 2010
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Tuesday, February 23, 2010
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Majumder seems to be a die-hard fan of the Aryan Invasion Theory. He conveniently ignores studies that have repeatedly shown a very limited genetic influence from Central Asia, and that it's most likely that South Asia was the source and not the recipient. Strange, considering he accepts the southern migration theory and of South Asia being the earliest populated region outside Africa.
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