Ancient DNA reveals male diffusion through the Neolithic Mediterranean route

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) ^ | Tuesday, May 24, 2011 | Marie Lacana et al

[SunkenCiv]

The Neolithic is a key period in the history of the European settlement. Although archaeological and present-day genetic data suggest several hypotheses regarding the human migration patterns at this period, validation of these hypotheses with the use of ancient genetic data has been limited. In this context, we studied DNA extracted from 53 individuals buried in a necropolis used by a French local community 5,000 y ago. The relatively good DNA preservation of the samples allowed us to obtain autosomal, Y-chromosomal, and/or mtDNA data for 29 of the 53 samples studied. From these datasets, we established close parental relationships within the necropolis and determined maternal and paternal lineages as well as the absence of an allele associated with lactase persistence, probably carried by Neolithic cultures of central Europe. Our study provides an integrative view of the genetic past in southern France at the end of the Neolithic period. Furthermore, the Y-haplotype lineages characterized and the study of their current repartition in European populations confirm a greater influence of the Mediterranean than the Central European route in the peopling of southern Europe during the Neolithic transition.

[SunkenCiv]

"How Middle Eastern Milk Drinkers Conquered Europe" · Spiegel · 15 Oct 2010 · Matthias Schulz · Posted on 10/15/2010 7:56:47 AM PDT by Palter

[SunkenCiv]

· GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach · · join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe ·
	Antiquity Journal  & archive  Archaeologica  Archaeology  Archaeology Channel  BAR  Bronze Age Forum  Discover  Dogpile  Eurekalert  Google  LiveScience  Mirabilis.ca  Nat Geographic  PhysOrg  Science Daily  Science News  Texas AM  Yahoo  Excerpt, or Link only?	The initial story is in USA Yesterday, which is owned by Gannett, which wet their nests. Can't excerpt here, but the Gannetts allow sharing on social media sites. FR *is* a social media site! Don't make me use harsh suggestive abbreviations in replies by egging me on, it won't work. No cheese for Neolithic humans in France To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
· History topic · history keyword · archaeology keyword · paleontology keyword · · Science topic · science keyword · Books/Literature topic · pages keyword ·

[Silentgypsy]

And I just switched to almond milk. Drat.

[blueunicorn6]

So the Italians have always been hornier than the Austrians. Who knew?

[blam]

It would be nice if they would mention a haplogroup/type.

[blam]

Maps of Neolithic and Bronze Age migrations in Europe and the Near East

[Sherman Logan]

IOW, men who develop a technology that gives them an advantage, in this case probably food producing methods that allows them to maintain a more dense population, promptly invade their neighbors, kill the men and breed with their women.

History of the world in a nutshell. We are all descended from brutal conquerors and rapists. Because those who lost didn’t reproduce.

Not PC, so we have to pretend these interactions were peaceful. Why Darwinists in biology promptly abandon “survival of the fittest” when faced with human history is quite beyond me.

[Silentgypsy]

So this is why I have a mean streak?

[SERE_DOC]

and all this time I was under the impression that the Vespa was the advent for "male diffusion through the Neolithic Mediterranean route"

25 years of research down the drain...... Just, damn!

[Sherman Logan]

Probably. Truly sheep-like human male behavior probably only arose when true states came along and the predator males protected those who produced for them economically.

In more primitive societies, there is no place for the wimp.

[douginthearmy]

Wow.. strange conclusion. So you think that the brute with the biggest stick is the one who discovered animal husbandry?

[Silentgypsy]

Thanks! My mom always treated it as if it were a curse.

[SunkenCiv]

People who A) come up with a more reliable way of feeding themselves and B) defend their food supply from the dumb and lazy neighbors wind up breeding out and absorbing those neighbors. Usually warfare isn’t required.

Apparently it’s still fun though, because evidence of the sacking of a town goes back way into prehistoric times, in more than one site.

The riverine civilizations came about because of a steady water supply and/or the use of irrigation. Better and regular diets meant that family size increased, infant mortality decreased, and so-called genetic bottlenecks arose as a consequence.

Property rights became systematized — bookkeeping, recordkeeping, accounting, surveying, writing — pushing nomadic herders (they had replaced hunter-gatherers during the preceramic eras in most places on Earth) out of sodbuster territory.

Standing armies became both possible (because of food surpluses) and necessary (for town defense and to avoid idle layabouts and louts).

[Sherman Logan]

Nope.

I think the group that discovered animal husbandry could support a much more dense population and therefore had a military advantage over dispersed and sparse population of hunter-gatherers. Same thing with agriculture, around the same time.

IOW, he had a bigger stick because he discovered animal husbandry.

[Sherman Logan]

Better and regular diets

Actually, there is abundant evidence that early agriculturalists had a much less healthy diet than the preceding hunter-gatherer types.

Food producing societies have more people, not necessarily better-fed people.

[Sherman Logan]

Here are some general carrying capacities for different ways of feeding a human population.

Hunter-Gatherer 0.1 person / km2
Dry Farming 1-2 person / km2
Irrigation 6-12 person / km2

These rates vary wildly by soil, weather and other factors. There are a few favored regions where hunting and gathering can support dense populations. One being the American northwest coast.

But generally the hunters are likely to be outnumbered by 10 to 100 to 1 over the long haul. You may remember this happening in the American west.

[SunkenCiv]

That would have been a gouda dea.

[SunkenCiv]

That’s gotta be the pits.

/rimshot!

[Sherman Logan]

Apparently it’s still fun though

Goes back way before towns.

When Europeans first showed up in the Caribbean, the native Arawaks were in the process of being replaced by Carib tribes from S. America.

The Caribs had a regular procedure for warfare. They would attack an island, kill (and eat) all the men and children, impregnate the women and then leave. They'd come back five to seven years later, take the children with them be raised as members of the Carib tribe, impregnate the women again. Rinse and repeat.

The Arawaks would probably have lasted only another century or two. But of course European diseases and exploitation wiped them out in a couple of decades instead.

The New Zealand Maori got some European ships to take them to the Chatham Islands, where related but long separated peoples called the Moriori lived. These are perhaps the only example on record of a totally pacifist society.

The Maori promptly demonstrated why. They marched in, killed (and ate) whatever men they chose to, and raped and enslaved all the women. Pretty well exterminated the Moriori in less than 30 years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moriori_people

[douginthearmy]

Well, yes exactly. But that’s not what I gathered from your first post. Granted a “wimp” by today’s standard would certainly not have existed in early times. But simply judging by historical reference of inventors throughout time, the first guy to grow some corn or pick a potato was probably not the toughest guy in the tribe. To get those agricultural societies to support those large armies required some initial wimps to discover what turned out to be better food sources.