June 28, 2004
mtDNA and Y chromosomes and the peopling of the Americas
This new study disagrees with another recent study which proposed a single of Native Americans.
Am J Human Biol. 2004 Jul-Aug;16(4):420-39.
Mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome diversity and the peopling of the Americas: Evolutionary and demographic evidence.
Schurr TG et al.
A number of important insights into the peopling of the New World have been gained through molecular genetic studies of Siberian and Native American populations. While there is no complete agreement on the interpretation of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Y chromosome (NRY) data from these groups, several generalizations can be made. To begin with, the primary migration of ancestral Asians expanded from south-central Siberia into the New World and gave rise to ancestral Amerindians. The initial migration seems to have occurred between 20,000-15,000 calendar years before present (cal BP), i.e., before the emergence of Clovis lithic sites (13,350-12,895 cal BP) in North America. Because an interior route through northern North America was unavailable for human passage until 12,550 cal BP, after the last glacial maximum (LGM), these ancestral groups must have used a coastal route to reach South America by 14,675 cal BP, the date of the Monte Verde site in southern Chile. The initial migration appears to have brought mtDNA haplogroups A-D and NRY haplogroups P-M45a and Q-242/Q-M3 to the New World, with these genetic lineages becoming widespread in the Americas. A second expansion that perhaps coincided with the opening of the ice-free corridor probably brought mtDNA haplogroup X and NRY haplogroups P-M45b, C-M130, and R1a1-M17 to North and Central America. Finally, populations that formerly inhabited Beringia expanded into northern North America after the LGM, and gave rise to Eskimo-Aleuts and Na-Dene Indians.
Ethnic/racial attitudes and self-identification of Black Jamaican and White New England children
Cramer Phebe et al.
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. Vol 34(4), Jul 2003, pp. 395-416
A total of 411 children from urban and rural areas of Jamaica and from rural New England were examined by both White and Black interviewers for their skin color and body size preferences and for self-identification, using a modified dolls test, Overall, children from all three communities showed White favoritism and average body size favoritism. Within communities, there were age and gender differences. Kindergartners from rural Jamaica did not show skin color or body size bias, and White fifth/sixth graders from New England showed reverse, pro-Black and pro-chubby favoritism. In Jamaica, boys displayed more bias than girls. Correct racial self-identification was greater among New England than Jamaican children, possibly related to the choice of White as an ideal self among some Jamaican children. Examiner skin color influenced both color and body size preference; self-identification was influenced by examiner skin color only among the rural Jamaican children.
June 27, 2004
Origin of M214
The M214 polymorphism is shared by haplogroups N and O. According to a recent study on Chinese Y chromosomes:
Since haplogroup O*, apparently the immediate ancestor lineage, has not been reported outside China and all of the M175 lineages derived from haplogroup O* exist in China, we tentatively conclude that M214 originated in China and that haplogroup O mainly evolved in China.
Latitudinal variation in genetic divergence of populations and the potential for future speciation.
Evolution Int J Org Evolution. 2004 May;58(5):938-45. Related Articles, Links
Martin PR, McKay JK.
The increase in biological diversity with decreasing latitude is widely appreciated but the cause of the pattern is unknown. This pattern reflects latitudinal variation in both the origin of new species (cladogenesis) and the number of species that coexist. Here we address latitudinal variation in species origination, by examining population genetic processes that influence speciation. Previous data suggest a greater number of speciation events at lower latitudes. If speciation events occur more frequently at lower latitudes, we predicted that genetic divergence among populations within species, an important component of cladogenesis, should be greater among lower latitude populations. We tested this prediction using within-species patterns of mtDNA variation across 60 vertebrate species that collectively spanned six continents, two oceans, and 119 degrees latitude. We found greater genetic divergence of populations, controlling for geographic distance, at lower latitudes within species. This pattern remained statistically significant after removing populations that occur in localities previously covered by continental glaciers during the last glaciation. Results suggest that lower latitude populations within species exhibit greater evolutionary independence, increasing the likelihood that mutation, recombination, selection, and/or drift will lead to divergence of traits important for reproductive isolation and speciation. Results are consistent with a greater influence of seasonality, reduced energy, and/or glacial (Milankovitch) cycles acting on higher latitude populations, and represent one of the few tests of predictions of latitudinal variation in speciation rates using population genetic data.
June 26, 2004
Dinaric and Nordic Modal Haplotypes
The Dinaric Modal Haplotype (DMH: 16 –24–11– 11 –13, defined by DYS19 –390–391–392–393, respectively) has a focus of distribution in the Balkan peninsula and the Nordic Modal Haplotype (NMH: 14 – 23 – 10 – 11 – 13) has a focus of distribution in Scandinavia. It should be noted that two Y chromosomes having the same haplotype are not necessarily related, since the same haplotype may be observed on different backgrounds. The ancient ancestral origins of Y chromosomes are determined by unique event polymorphisms (UEPs) for which there are currently no open-access databases. By contrast, there are a few short-tandem-repeat (STR) databases, as STRs are heavily used in the forensic community. Both the DMH and the NMH are associated with Haplogroup I.
A search for the NMH in YHRD reveals as expected, a high frequency in Sweden (13%), Southern Norway (16%), Värmland, Sweden (12%), Northern Norway (16%), Oslo (9%), Östergötland/Jönköping, Sweden (10%), Uppsala (11%), Skaraborg, Sweden (13%), Central Norway (15%), Blekinge, Sweden (14%).
A search for the DHMH reveals it in Byelorussia (10%), Kiev (13%), Ljubljana, Slovenia (10%), FYROM (12.1%), Moscow (11%), Zagreb Croatia (16%).
A few other observations:
- NMH/DMH: European Americans from NYC (2/3%), Maryland (2/2%), Missouri (2/0%), Pennsylvania (3/0%)
- NMH/DMH: Athens (3/5%), Macedonian Greeks (0/7%), Peloponnesians (0/6%), Thessaliots (7/7%), Epirots (7/0%)
- NMH/DMH in Italy: Latium (4/0%), Liguria (2/0%), Lombardy (2/1%), Marche (2/2%), Puglia (3/0%), Sicily (1/0%), Tuscany (0/0%), Veneto (2/0%), Emilia Romagna (0/1%)
- NMH/DMH: Warsaw (4/4%), Moscow (2/11%), Vilnius (1/1%), Albania (1/5%), London, UK (2/1%)
NB: Sample sizes vary; see original data for sample sizes.
DNAOptions
DNA Heritage is offering a customizable Y-DNA test. Per each marker tested you pay $5.99, with a minimum of 23 markers and a maximum of 43 markers.
Suicide mortality in the European Union.
Eur J Public Health. 2003 Jun;13(2):108-14.
Chishti P et al.
BACKGROUND: There are an estimated one million completed suicides per year worldwide. As a response to increasing concern about suicide within Europe, the EUROSAVE (European Review of Suicide and Violence Epidemiology) study was undertaken to examine recent trends in the epidemiology of suicide and self-inflicted injury mortality in the European Union (EU). METHODS: Suicide and self-inflicted injury mortality data for the 15 EU countries for the years 1984-1998 were obtained from the World Health Organisation (WHO), the European Statistical Office of the European Commission (EUROSTAT) and national statistical agencies. Data were also obtained for a second group of deaths classified as 'undetermined' or 'other violence'. Age-standardized mortality rates were calculated and examined for trends over time. RESULTS: Finland had the highest suicide rate, while Greece had the lowest for the latest available year (1997). Age-standardized suicide rates tended to be lowest in the Mediterranean countries. Significant downward linear time trends in suicide mortality were observed in most countries, although rates varied markedly between countries. Both Ireland and Spain displayed significant upward linear trends in suicide mortality. Portugal had the highest rate of undetermined deaths both in 1984 and 1998 while Greece had the lowest in both 1984 and 1997. Five countries (including Ireland and Spain) showed significant downward trends in deaths due to undetermined causes whereas Belgium and Germany showed borderline significant upward linear trends in deaths due to undetermined causes. CONCLUSIONS: Although suicide rates in most countries seem to be decreasing, the validity of the data is uncertain. Misclassification may contribute to the geographical and temporal variation in suicide rates in some EU countries but it does not explain the phenomenon. More detailed research comparing suicide-recording procedures and practices across the EU is required. In the absence of adequate EU wide data on suicide epidemiology, effective prevention of this distressing phenomenon is likely to remain elusive.
Combined Suicide/Undetermined Causes Rates
An interesting passage in Adamantius
Adamantius the Sophist (Adamantius Judaeus Med.) wrote a physiognomical treatise in the 4th c. AD. While the work deals primarily with individual variation, it does however present some useful ethnographic information. The passage in question comes from Book 2, section 31:
ta de mesa tês oikêseôs mesên echei tên idean kai summigêsêmeia kai tas gnômas. hoi de heôioi kai hesperioi, katho mesêmbrinô- teroi kai arktikôteroi eisin, autoi heautôn diapherousin. (20) echousi gar diaphoran Libuôn hoi ta akra tês Libuês ta hesperia nemomenoi kai Ibêrôn hoi eis tên exô tha- lassan kathêkontes, kaitoi amphoteroi hesperioi eisin: alla hoi men Libues Aithiopsin homoioi, hoi de Ibêres @1 Keltois. Translation:
Those who inhabit the middle region of the Earth have a medium type of appearance, having intermediate characteristics and mentalities. But, Easterners and Westerners, inasmuch as they are either more southern, or more northern, these differ from one another. In fact, Libyans (*) who dwell in the western end of Libya and Iberians who dwell in the outer sea (**) are different from one another, even though both of them are Westerners: but the Libyans are similar to the Ethiopians, and the Iberians are similar to the Kelts
Adamantius is basically saying that those who dwell in the middle region (between East and West) have an intermediate type of appearance and mentality, while those who dwell in the western and eastern fringes of the world are more differentiated on a north-south axis, with northerners (Iberians) being similar to Kelts, and Libyans being similar to Ethiopians.
In another passage (section 37), the Kelts and the Scythians as typical northern people are described as having agan xanthê and hupoleukos hair (very fair, and whitish), while the southerners are described (section 31) as melanophthalmoi (=dark-eyed), melanotriches (=dark-haired) and oulotriches (=curly-haired).
This interesting description seems to fit quite well modern knowledge about the preservation of more extreme characteristics in the "edge" of habitation, and of intermediate characters in the "center". It thus complements on a longitudinal basis the well-known latitudinal differentiation of peoples (northern-intermediate-southern) found in ancient literature.
(*) Libya = Africa
(**) outer sea = Atlantic Ocean
June 25, 2004
Italian stallions are more of a tourist attraction than museums
Italian men attract more women to their nation than its museums, a new survey claims.
A poll of female tourists from Sweden, Germany, Finland and Britain found Italian men were the country's second most popular attraction.
Its natural beauty comes top, while museums come third.
Rome's Institute for Inter-Disciplinary Studies says 22% of respondents go to Italy because they hope to meet a hunk.
Italy's natural beauty is the reason for 36% taking holidays there, while18% cite its museums, The Times reports.
Northern Iberian Y Chromosomes
Gene
Volume 329 , 31 March 2004, Pages 17-25
Micro-geographical differentiation in Northern Iberia revealed by Y-chromosomal DNA analysis
María Brion et al.
Y-chromosome diversity has been analyzed at a micro-geographical level, examining 10 binary polymorphisms and 7 short tandem repeats (STRs) in 443 samples belonging to 11 populations from two regions of Northern Spain, Galicia and Cantabria. Both regions, as a whole, cluster with other Iberian populations. However, some individual populations, particularly that from the Pas Valley in Cantabria, depart markedly from this general pattern, with higher genetic distances and reduced diversity. This unusual population is even more distinct than the Basques from their Iberian neighbors. Genetic drift in a small isolated population could explain this special behavior, and in addition to its anthropological interest, this finding has important forensic implications.
June 23, 2004
Genghis Khan, Father of Millions?
Here is the link to the test talked about in this article
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June 22, 2004 —Genghis Khan left a legacy shared by 16 million people alive today, according to a book by a Oxford geneticist who identified the Mongol emperor as the most successful alpha male in human history.
Regarded by the Mongolians as the father of their nation, Genghis Khan was born around 1162. A military and political genius, he united the tribes of Mongolia and conquered half of the known world with a cavalry riding on grass-fed ponies.
By the time Genghis died in 1227, his empire stretched from the Pacific coast of China to the Caspian Sea.
Bryan Sykes, professor of human genetics at Oxford University and author of "Adam's Curse," a study of the Y chromosome, believes Genghis's "super Y" chromosome survived and proliferated as far as the British Isles. He has just begun to check it at Oxford Ancestors, a leading provider of DNA-based services for use in personal ancestry research.
"We will offer British men genetic tests to see if they are Genghis's descendants. It is possible that the Mongol emperor's Y chromosome spread as far as the U.K. through gradual immigration from further East over the centuries," Sykes told Discovery News.
The genetic testing follows another Oxford study, which involved a survey of the Y chromosome — which is passed unchanged from father to son — from all over Central Asia.
The researchers found one Y chromosome fingerprint that was identical in eight percent of the male population.
"This was highly unusual and suggested that they may all have descended from one man living in the fairly recent past. By seeing what small changes had occurred, it was possible to estimate the time at which this common ancestor lived, and it was consistent with an origin in the 12th or 13th century," Sykes said.
Matching that evidence with the overlap between where the chromosome was abundant and the geographical extent of the Mongol empire established by Genghis Khan in the 12th century, the researchers concluded it was Genghis' chromosome.
The Mongol emperor's habit of killing the men and inseminating the women when his army conquered a new territory, coupled with handing the Empire and other wealth to his sons, and their sons, would explain how the chromosome came to such prevalence today, said Sykes.
The final piece of evidence came from the Hazara, a hill tribe in Pakistan who had a strong oral history of being descended from Genghis Khan.
"The Y chromosome was present in the Hazara, but not in the surrounding tribes, who did not have this oral history. Though the evidence is circumstantial, it is, I believe, very strong," Sykes said.
Finding Genghis Khan's tomb, one of the great secrets of all time, could provide the definitive evidence, leading to a direct comparison of Genghis' Y chromosome with those of modern men.
Sykes' hypothesis seems to be consistent with history, according to David Morgan, a Mongol history specialist at the University of Wisconsin.
"There's no reason to doubt that Genghis Khan fathered a good crop of children, if one is to believe the testimony of contemporaries," Morgan told Discovery News.
June 22, 2004
Estimating the Impact of Prehistoric Admixture on the Genome of Europeans
A study similar to past work by Chikhi who had found a large percentage of Neolithic ancestry in Europeans. This study uses four parental groups instead of Chikhi's Paleolithic/Neolithic. A remaining weakness is that Basques are not representative of Paleolithic Europeans, since Haplogroup I which had a Balkan/South Euro focus in UP times represents non-Basque UP European ancestry.
MBE Advance Access originally published online on March 24, 2004
Mol. Biol. Evol. 21(7):1361-1372. 2004
Isabelle Dupanloup et al.
Abstract
We inferred past admixture processes in the European population from genetic diversity at eight loci, including autosomal, mitochondrial and Y-linked polymorphisms. Admixture coefficients were estimated from multilocus data, assuming that most current populations can be regarded as the result of a hybridization process among four or less potential parental populations. Two main components are apparent in the Europeans' genome, presumably corresponding to the contributions of the first, Paleolithic Europeans, and of the early, Neolithic farmers dispersing from the Near East. In addition, only a small fraction of the European alleles seems to come from North Africa, and a fourth component reflecting gene flow from Northern Asia is largely restricted to the northeast of the continent. The estimated Near Eastern contribution decreases as one moves from east to west, in agreement with the predictions of a model in which (Neolithic) immigrants from the Near East contributed a large share of the alleles in the genome of current Europeans. Several tests suggest that probable departures from the admixture models, due to factors such as choice of the putative parental populations and more complex demographic scenarios, may have affected our main estimates only to a limited extent.
Sicilian Origins
A nice compendium on the origins of modern Sicilians, over at Racial Reality.
June 20, 2004
Five Greek Heroes
Five Greek heroes as depicted in the frescoes of Pompeii.
June 18, 2004
Molecular Middle Ages of the Russian North
The scientists examined 47 samples of mitochondrial (mt) DNA extracted from the bones found in the burial grounds of the settlements Nefedyevo, Minino, and Shuygino located in the Vologda Region, around Lake Beloye. The burial places date back to the 11th -13th centuries. DNAs were extracted from various skeleton parts but mostly from teeth. According to the researches, ancient DNAs are best preserved in teeth. All DNA isolation and research activities were performed with extreme precautions in order not to contaminate the ancient probes with modern nucleic acid. This resulted in 47 compounds of paleo-DNA; the scientists determined their structure and isolated three kinds of mt DNA typical of the people buried in the burial places. The overwhelming majority of the examined ancient persons (43) had the so-called “Cambridge” DNA type which is typical of contemporary European inhabitants. The rest four persons had other, more rarely found types, which are, however, also typical of all populations in Eastern Europe. Therefore, the examined group can positively be said to have the European background. Those having more rare types of mt DNA were buried approximately 200 years later than the others. All of them are male. In the scientists’ opinion, they could be born from the couples consisting of local women belonging to the Finno-Ugric group, and the settlement founders’ offsprings. Thus, the assimilation did not begin immediately but started during medium colonisation stages.
The Cheating Culture
The Cheating Culture is an important new book about the proliferation of cheating, or getting ahead by unfair means, in modern American society.
June 17, 2004
Evidence of Selection Outside Africa
Molecular Biology and Evolution (published online on June 16, 2004)
Genome Scans of DNA Variability in Humans Reveal Evidence for Selective Sweeps Outside of Africa
Jay F. Storz et al.
The last 50,000-150,000 yrs of human history have been characterized by rapid demographic expansions and the colonization of novel environments outside of sub-Saharan Africa. Mass migrations outside the ancestral species range likely entailed many new selection pressures, suggesting that genetic adaptation to local environmental conditions may have been more prevalent in colonizing populations outside of sub-Saharan Africa. Here we report a test of this hypothesis using genome-wide patterns of DNA polymorphism. We conducted a multilocus scan of microsatellite variability to identify regions of the human genome that may have been subject to continent-specific hitchhiking events. Using published polymorphism data for a total of 624 autosomal loci in multiple populations of humans, we used coalescent simulations to identify candidate loci for geographically restricted selective sweeps. We identified a total of 13 loci that appeared as outliers in replicated population comparisons involving different reference samples for Africa. A disproportionate number of these loci exhibited reduced levels of relative variability in non-African populations alone, suggesting that recent episodes of positive selection have been more prevalent outside of sub-Saharan Africa.
A Predominantly Neolithic Origin for Y-Chromosomal DNA Variation in North Africa
Am. J. Hum. Genet. (to appear)
Barbara Arredi et al.
We have typed 275 men from five populations in Algeria, Tunisia, and Egypt with a set of 119 binary markers and 15 microsatellites from the Y chromosome, and we have analyzed the results together with published data from Moroccan populations. North African Y-chromosomal diversity is geographically structured and fits the pattern expected under an isolation-by-distance model. Autocorrelation analyses reveal an east-west cline of genetic variation that extends into the Middle East and is compatible with a hypothesis of demic expansion. This expansion must have involved relatively small numbers of Y chromosomes to account for the reduction in gene diversity towards the West that accompanied the frequency increase of Y haplogroup E3b2, but gene flow must have been maintained to explain the observed pattern of isolation-by-distance. Since the estimates of the times to the most recent common ancestor (TMRCAs) of the most common haplogroups are quite recent, we suggest that the North African pattern of Y-chromosomal variation is largely of Neolithic origin. Thus, we propose that the Neolithic transition in this part of the world was accompanied by demic diffusion of Afro-Asiatic–speaking pastoralists from the Middle East.
Borders folk may be descended from Africans
Families who have lived in the English-Scottish Borders for generations could be descended from African soldiers who patrolled Hadrian's Wall nearly 2,000 years ago.
Archaeologists say there is compelling evidence that a 500-strong unit of Moors manned a fort near Carlisle in the third century AD.
Richard Benjamin, an archaeologist at Liverpool University who has studied the history of black Britons, believes many would have settled and raised families.
June 15, 2004
Catholics outsource praying to India
By Saritha Rai, New York Times
BANGALORE, India -- With Roman Catholic clergy in short supply in the United States, Indian priests are picking up some of their work, saying Mass for special intentions, in a sacred if unusual version of outsourcing. American, as well as Canadian and European churches, are sending Mass intentions, or requests for services like those to remember deceased relatives and thanksgiving prayers, to clergy in India.
June 14, 2004
Rat DNA clues to sea migration
Scientists have used DNA from rats to trace migration patterns of the ancestors of today's Polynesians.
...
The researchers claim this result allows them to reject two well-known theories for the colonisation of Polynesia, including the Express Train To Polynesia (ETP) theory and the Bismarck Archipelago Indigenous Inhabitants (BAII) theory.
These two theories are at opposite ends of the spectrum. The ETP theory focuses on a rapid dispersal from Taiwan to Polynesia. The BAII proposes that there was no migration into Near Oceania, and that the Lapita culture arose from indigenous people in the area.
Matisoo-Smith and Robins argue that the truth was somewhere in between.
The absence of Haplogroup III rats from Near Oceania seems to preclude a progressive expansion from that area into Remote Oceania where Haplogroup III rats are common.
Instead, the researchers claim, the seafarers who brought Haplogroup III rats to Remote Oceania did not come from nearby New Guinea or the Solomon Islands but from close to the Asian mainland, completely by-passing Near Oceania.
Sub-Saharan mtDNA and Y chromosomes
Molecular Biology and Evolution
Variation of Female and Male Lineages in Sub-Saharan Populations: The Importance of Socio-Cultural Factors
Giovanni Destro-Bisol et al.
Abstract
In this paper, we present a study regarding genetic variation in sub-Saharan Africa, which is based on published and unpublished data concerning fast-evolving (hypervariable region 1 of mitochondrial DNA and six microsatellites of Y-chromosome) and slow-evolving (haplogroup frequencies) polymorphisms of mtDNA and Y-chromosome. Our study reveals a striking difference in the genetic structure of food-producer (Bantu and Sudanic speakers) and hunter-gatherer populations (Pygmies, !Kung and Hadza). In fact, the ratio of mtDNA to Y-chromosome N is substantially higher in food-producers than in hunter-gatherers using fast evolving polymorphisms (1.76 vs 0.11). This indicates that the two population groups differ substantially in female and male migration rate and/or effective size. The difference also persists when using linguistically homogeneous populations and eliminating outlier populations (1.78 vs 0.19) or applying the jacknife procedure to a paired population dataset (1.32-7.84 vs 0.14-0.66). The higher ratio of mtDNA to Y-chromosome N in food-producers than in hunter-gatherers is further confirmed by the use of slow evolving polymorphisms (1.59-7.91 vs 0.12-0.35). To explain these results, we propose a model which integrates demographic and genetic aspects and incorporates ethnographic knowledge. In such a model the asymmetric gene flow, polyginy and patrilocality play an important role in differentiating the genetic structure of sub-Saharan populations. The existence of an asymmetric gene flow is supported by the phylogeographic features of mtDNA and Y-chromosome haplogroups found in the two population groups. The role of polyginy and patrilocality is sustained by the evidence of a differential pressure of genetic drift and gene flow on maternal and paternal lineages of food-producers and hunter-gatherers which is revealed through the analysis of mitochondrial and Y-chromosomal intra-populational variation.
June 09, 2004
Bryan Sykes interview
On the Y chromosomes of warlords:
In fact, whenever geneticists look at evolutionary diagrams, they see some frequently occurring Y chromosomes, not closely related to others. These genetic "explosions" are the legacy of a relatively few very successful men who have supplanted the Y chromosomes of their contemporaries, as Genghis Khan did. My guess is that the Y chromosome of every living man has spent at least one generation in the testis of a warlord.
On the "gay gene":
You are referring to research on gay men and their families published in 1993 by Dean H. Hamer and his team, who located on the X chromosome a gene controlling male homosexuality. Though this was subsequently replicated by Hamer, another study along similar lines failed to confirm the association. Since then, no one has tried to take the "gay gene" any further.On purely genetic grounds, I never liked the idea of a "gay gene" since it is very hard to see how such a gene could have survived and spread among our ancestors since it is bound to have been eliminated if homosexual men had fewer children than their heterosexual contemporaries. Genes that even slightly reduce their chances of getting passed on to the next generation have very short careers.
June 08, 2004
Haplogroup G in the Highlands? (Not)
According to this site :
However at this time there were other groups of "proto - Celts" residing in Ireland and perhaps Shetland who carried a different Y-DNA signature, G which is considered to be a remanant of the neolithic people who arrived from the Middle East, bringing with them agricultural practices and different cultural traditions. This haplogroup has been reported among up to 20% of the clan chieftans of the Ulster and the Scottish Highlands - who claim to be of Pictish descent. According to other sources, this haplogroup, if found at all, may not exceed 1%.
I don't know what's the source for this, but it would be an interesting development, given that the Picts had a decided Armenoid cast to their features, which would harmonize with a Near Eastern origin. Today, haplogroup G is found at high frequency in the Caucasus, esp. among Georgians.
These two posts may be of interest (one, two).
PS: I'll contact the author of that page, to check up on his source.
UPDATE: I got this reply which seems to solve this mystery:
Hello: If you check my site again you will see that the G has been changed to I1c. The team at Trinity College Dublin had originally thought they were looking at G, but were mistaken. Current evidence including the recent paper by Rootsi et al. changed their perspective.
June 07, 2004
Satellite Images Show 'Atlantis'
A scientist says he may have found remains of the lost city of Atlantis.
Satellite photos of southern Spain reveal features on the ground appearing to match descriptions made by Greek scholar Plato of the fabled utopia.
Dr Rainer Kuehne thinks the "island" of Atlantis simply referred to a region of the southern Spanish coast destroyed by a flood between 800 BC and 500 BC.
Chinese Y Chromosomes
Journal of Human Genetics (Online First)
Evolution and migration history of the Chinese population inferred from Chinese Y-chromosome evidence
Wei Deng et al.
Abstract Y-chromosomes from 76 Chinese men covering 33 ethnical minorities throughout China as well as the Han majority were collected as genetic material for the study of Chinese nonrecombinant Y-chromosome (NRY) phylogeny. Of the accepted worldwide NRY haplogroups, three (haplogroups D, C, O) were significant in this sample, extending previous assessments of Chinese genetic diversity. Based on geographic, linguistic, and ethnohistorical information, the 33 Chinese ethnical minorities in our survey were divided into the following four subgroups: North, Tibet, West, and South. Inferred from the distribution of the newfound immediate ancestor lineage haplogroup O*, which has M214 but not M175, we argue that the southern origin scenario of this most common Chinese Y haplogroup is not very likely. We tentatively propose a West/North-origin hypothesis, suggesting that haplogroup O originated in West/North China and mainly evolved in China and thence spread further throughout eastern Eurasia. The nested cladistic analysis revealed in detail a multilayered, multidirectional, and continuous history of ethnic admixture that has shaped the contemporary Chinese population. Our results give some new clues to the evolution and migration of the Chinese population and its subsequence moving about in this land, which are in accordance with the historical records.
June 03, 2004
Why beautiful people are more intelligent
Intelligence Article in Press, Corrected Proof
Satoshi Kanazawa et al.
Abstract
Empirical studies demonstrate that individuals perceive physically attractive others to be more intelligent than physically unattractive others. While most researchers dismiss this perception as a "bias" or "stereotype," we contend that individuals have this perception because beautiful people indeed are more intelligent. The conclusion that beautiful people are more intelligent follows from four assumptions. (1) Men who are more intelligent are more likely to attain higher-status than men who are less intelligent. (2) Higher-status men are more likely to mate with more beautiful women than lower-status men. (3) Intelligence is heritable. (4) Beauty is heritable. If all four assumptions are empirically true, then the conclusion that beautiful people are more intelligent is logically true, making it a proven theorem. We present empirical evidence for each of the four assumptions. While we concentrate on the relationship between beauty and intelligence in this paper, our evolutionary psychological explanation can account for a correlation between physical attractiveness and any other heritable trait that helps men attain higher-status (such as aggression and social skills).
June 02, 2004
Worldwide Prevalence of Mental Illness
Large Study on Mental Illness Finds Global Prevalence
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
Published: June 2, 2004
Preliminary results from the world's largest survey on mental health indicate that mental illness is widespread and undertreated, and that wealthy people with mild illness receive more and better treatment than poor people with severe illness.
From 1 to 5 percent of the populations of most of the countries surveyed had serious mental illness, according to the findings, being published today in The Journal of the American Medical Association.
And in most of the countries, 9 to 17 percent of those interviewed had had some episode of mental illness in the last year, whether serious or less severe, said the study, by researchers from the World Health Organization and Harvard Medical School.
Around the world, the authors found, mental illness causes as many lost days of work as any physical problem like cancer, heart attack or back pain."The level of role impairment we found to be associated with serious mental disorders was staggering: more than a month in the past year when the respondents reported being totally unable to work," said one chief author, Dr. Ronald C. Kessler, a professor of health care policy at Harvard.
In poor countries, about 80 percent of serious cases went untreated, but even in richer countries 35 to 50 percent of cases had not been treated in the last year. The surveys asked about treatment not just by psychiatrists and psychologists but by family practitioners, members of the clergy, shamans and herbalists.
Earlier efforts to assess mental health across the globe have been frustrating, experts said. Those efforts either tried to match disparate national surveys or relied on the "global judgments of clinicians," said Dr. Robert L. Spitzer of the New York State Psychiatric Institute, who was not involved in the new study and who praised Dr. Kessler's work.
Dr. Ronald W. Manderscheid, chief of the Department of Health and Human Services division that does national mental health surveys, said, "It's fantastic and wonderful that data has been collected cross-nationally using a common methodology.''
The findings were based on 60,643 face-to-face interviews with adults in 14 countries. Eight countries were defined as rich: the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands and Japan; six were deemed poor or nearly poor: Mexico, Colombia, Ukraine, China, Lebanon and Nigeria. Within each country, whether rich or poor, the study took into account the economic status of respondents.
The 90-minute interviews assessed a wide range of ills, including agoraphobia, obsessive-compulsive and panic disorders, post-traumatic stress syndrome, bipolar disorders, bulimia, major depression, and alcohol and drug abuse.
The study did not try to diagnose schizophrenia, because that requires a psychiatrist, said one of its authors, Dr. Bedirhan Ustun of the Global Program on Evidence for Health Policy at the World Health Organization. "If an interviewer knocks on your door and asks if you are hearing voices," Dr. Ustun explained, "you are likely to answer no.''
Dr. Kessler acknowledged that his methodology needed refinement. Although some general trends were clear, there were wide unexplained disparities.
For example, about 26 percent of Americans were judged to have mental illness, compared with only 4 percent of the residents of Shanghai and 5 percent of Nigerians.
The differences were even more extreme in smaller categories. The Dutch were found to have 30 times the drinking problems that Italians had, and 4 times the problem of the French.
About 18 percent of Americans had anxiety disorders, versus 12 percent of the French, 11 percent of Lebanese and 10 percent of Colombians. Europeans other than the French were in the 7 percent range, while Nigerians and Chinese were the calmest, at about 3 percent.
"I'm sorry it's so fuzzy, but that's the way it is," Dr. Kessler said. "It sounds like Nigeria is a paradise, but I know there are camps there where lots of people have P.T.S.D.," a reference to refugee camps where people fleeing ethnic violence have post-traumatic stress disorder.
Embarrassment about disclosing mental illness varies from country to country, Dr. Kessler explained. For example, in Nigeria, he said, women were reluctant to admit being depressed, but might say their mother had been, a response that gave interviewers a clue about truer rates. In addition, he said, "sometimes the language we use doesn't ring a bell in the countries we're in." In China, for instance, no word distinguishes depression from sadness, he said.
Prevalence, Severity, and Unmet Need for Treatment of Mental Disorders in the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys
Context Little is known about the extent or severity of untreated mental disorders, especially in less-developed countries.
Objective To estimate prevalence, severity, and treatment of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) mental disorders in 14 countries (6 less developed, 8 developed) in the World Health Organization (WHO) World Mental Health (WMH) Survey Initiative.
Design, Setting, and Participants Face-to-face household surveys of 60 463 community adults conducted from 2001-2003 in 14 countries in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.
Main Outcome Measures The DSM-IV disorders, severity, and treatment were assessed with the WMH version of the WHO Composite International Diagnostic Interview (WMH-CIDI), a fully structured, lay-administered psychiatric diagnostic interview.
Results The prevalence of having any WMH-CIDI/DSM-IV disorder in the prior year varied widely, from 4.3% in Shanghai to 26.4% in the United States, with an interquartile range (IQR) of 9.1%-16.9%. Between 33.1% (Colombia) and 80.9% (Nigeria) of 12-month cases were mild (IQR, 40.2%-53.3%). Serious disorders were associated with substantial role disability. Although disorder severity was correlated with probability of treatment in almost all countries, 35.5% to 50.3% of serious cases in developed countries and 76.3% to 85.4% in less-developed countries received no treatment in the 12 months before the interview. Due to the high prevalence of mild and subthreshold cases, the number of those who received treatment far exceeds the number of untreated serious cases in every country.
Conclusions Reallocation of treatment resources could substantially decrease the problem of unmet need for treatment of mental disorders among serious cases. Structural barriers exist to this reallocation. Careful consideration needs to be given to the value of treating some mild cases, especially those at risk for progressing to more serious disorders.
The WHO World Mental Health Survey Consortium
June 01, 2004
Middle Atlas Berbers
The Middle (Moyen) Atlas Berbers possess according to this study 97% of haplogroup E Y chromosomes.
Here is Coon's description of these people from The Races of Europe:
The Braber of the Middle Atlas, one of the three most numerous groups of Moroccan Berbers, have never been measured as a separate entity.100 Of them one can merely give an eye-witness description, with all the faults of that method; the author's impression is that they are among the tallest people in Morocco, that they are usually long-faced and hook-nosed, with heavy beards, and that they are almost always brunet.101 This impression is, needless to say, subject to future revision....
100 The large series of Benoit and Kossovitch undoubtedly contains some Braber.
101 At the village of Bahlil, 5 km. northeast of Sefrou, Kossovitch and Benoit measured an excellent series of Arabicized Berbers, who may be partly representative of the Middle Atlas population. These Bahloula are almost purely brunet, are of moderate stature (166.7 cm.), purely dolichocephalic (C.I. = 73.7) long-faced and leptorrhine. Kossovitch, N., and Benoit, P., Anth, vol. 45, 1935, pp. 347-363.
Some pic sources:
one two three four [notice the typical Berber eyes] five [see "A girl of the Middle Atlas"]