Post #2384104

2026-05-08 08:17 UTC

But 'labels of ASI and ANI were devised by geneticists in the context of abstract modelling'...'a less technical description of these early population movements and mixing, and of the extraordinary demographic dynamism of the 2000-1000 BCE period, would read something like this: numerous small and big instances of migrations and mixing-together of different groups, along with conflicts and battles, were taking place all over the subcontinent' In The Sceptical Patriot (2014), Indian journalist Sidin Vadukut writes: 'We are all, every single one of us, the outcomes of centuries of civilisational upheaval. We are part-Greek, part-Mongol, part-Persian, part-British, part-Mughal, part-French, Part-Portuguese, part-Arab, part-Turk, part-everything.' NB interesting he misses out African, or subsumed that into part-everything, because we are all of us at least in part African.

Replies (1)

@RadicalAnthro@c.im 2026-05-08 08:23

While acknowledging the significant insights and 'granular evidence' of genetics work, Kiran Kumbhar warns: 'let’s not forget that the methodology of these studies involves reducing whole humans into whole genomes and then into tiny bits of DNA. As a primary source for human history, genes are unlike monuments or rock inscriptions or poems, in that on their own they tell us little about culture, politics and power – the central elements of human history.' True for sure, but the genetics can give very important handles on the history and politics, here 'the tremendous mixing between the ASI and ANI populations, a mixing that geneticists claim dwindled by about 1,900 years ago, or the turn of the 1st millennium CE (aligning well with the time window that historians attribute to when the caste system, especially caste-based endogamy, started to become codified and more sociopolitically entrenched)'. So this is a very materialistic account, preserved in people's bodies today, of the power relations over 2000 years ago, and the heavy imposition of that for millenia.

Open ##2384105