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Genes, Peoples, and Languages

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I found GENES, PEOPLES, LANGUAGES, by Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza a fascinating read by a noted scholar who has apparently made a significant contribution concerning the role the study of genetics can play in interpreting past and current social patterns. Sforza links what scholars currently know about the genetic composition of various population groups with what contemporary linguists understand to be historical language patterns. He also brings some archeological information into the equation. In all three cases he relies on the syntheses of other researchers, such as J.P. Mallory. to complete his triangulation of perspectives: geneology-linguistics-archeology.

All three disciplines suggest change occurs, if by change you mean that various genes, pots, and ways of speaking evolve, or are overrun by others or overrun others themselves. What is of interest to Cavalli-Sforza is this: What can gentics tell us about change as well as its various outcomes?

All the evidence seems to point to two possible causes of change, the first demic, the second cultural transmission. Demic change occurs when one group physically displaces another though migration or differential reproduction (births). Groups with violent ways may replace more passive groups. Groups with higher fertility may replace those with lower fertility. The second method of change, cultural transmission occurs when Group B adopts Group A's cultural practices - way of speaking, making pots, burial practices, and the like.

Although he looks at change throughout the world, like many scholars, he focuses on the Indo-Europeans more than any other group. Cavalli-Sforza's theory regarding them (which he supports to some extent with detail from various scholars) suggests Renfrew and Gimbutas might both be right. Renfrew apparently links the distribution of Indo-European languages with the spread of farming practices making it a Neolithic event originating from Anatolia around 10,000 years ago. If Cavalli-Sforza is correct, 5,000 years later the Kurgan Bronze-Age culture described by Gimbutus which some scholars suggest probably spoke a proto-Indo-European language overran agricultural areas settled by their own ancestors.

Cavalli-Sforza's book is a fascinating study that those interested in the links between linguistics and geneology might consider reading.

Perhaps I was hoping for too much from this book, in which Prof. Cavalli-Sforza attempts to present the current state of knowledge about the prehistory and orgins of all of the peoples of the entire world on the basis of the combined fields of genetics and linguistics -- all in a mere 200 pages.

Unfortunately, due to the vastness of this topic I found the quality of information on each point to be quite superficial and unsatisfying for my needs. For example, about the Japanese he merely states that the genetics and linguistics indicate that the modern Japanese are believed to be the product of the combination of the original Jomon people represented by today's Ainu and Okinawans, and the later Yayoi people who crossed over from Korea. And on the Hungarians, he merely says that research reflects their origins in Asia. Well, anyone with even the most basic of knowledge about the early history of these peoples already KNOWS this information and it is hardly anything new. I would be more interested in learning for example whether the genetic results on the Hungarians indicate any sort of genetic input from neighbouring non-Finno-Ugrians, etc. But none of this sort of detail is ever provided.

As I read this book over the Christmas vacation, I found myself likening the experience to eating a piece of traditional Christmas fruitcake. In one paragraph, Cavalli-Sforza might begin talking about a topic of particular interest to me that I found particularly "delicious", and I would say "mmm" in anticipation. But I was then disappointed to find that by the next paragraph (or "mouthful" of information, to continue the Christmas cake analogy), he had already rushed onto another unrelated topic of a different flavour. On the whole, I found the book to be quite uneven (--or should I say "lumpy"?).

This book basically condenses the information contained in Cavalli-Sforza's classic 1994 work "The History and Geography of Human Genes", and mixes it with a dose of basic linguistics. The only new information is data on the genetics of the populations of the Caucasus region, which was previously unavailable. For me, the most useful part of the book has turned out to be its up-to-date bibliography which will directly me to the more detailed information I seek, much of it hidden away in obscure journal articles.

If you are brand new to the area of origins of peoples, this book is probably just right for you. But if you have any knowledge about prehistory or linguistics you will probably find this book as unsatisfying as I have. Overall, I'd recommend spending the extra bucks and getting the original work mentioned above. This is what I will now have to do.

Even though this is a slim volume it is deceptively rich in content.
Although a bit jaded and written from the perspectives of the late 1980's it is still a unique and rewarding book.
I am surprised that no book has been written to date including more updated / symbiotic topics.
It covers some of the history of 'modern man', the title subjects and more, focusing on last 3-5,000 years before present (kYrs bp). We currently only know selective fragmented sections of modern man's history (< 3%).

Defragmentation:
Although two of the specialism, linguistics and genetics, are united there are still a lot more topic areas to unite in order to provide a fuller map to ancient prehistory, namely climate habitats over time, domesticated animals (their migration & diseases), crops, ancient astronomical/calendar knowledge analysis, seafaring, folklore and cave art.
Maybe then, we will be in a position to use more than conjecture to fill the gaps by using under-utilised or ignored artefacts to see the overlays of the various subject areas thro' time.

Short Comings:
I enjoyed his use of PCA, however this should be moved to the appendices to minimise the disruption to the flow.
Although it is well known that climate is the principal force on evolution, effecting the pulses and rhythms of crops/migrations there is no review of the climates over the period in question.
Thus snapshots thro' time showing different habitat zones, groupings ( for hunters, grazers/nomads and agriculturists) and impact on cultures would be of great use.
The analysis of agriculture and Mesolithic/pastoral nomads is scattered and fragmented over the pages.
Unsettlingly maps of Eurasia were provided showing the migrations and influence over time there was no such map provided for Africa and Oceania/Australia.
The author refers to Neanderthals and states that there was no interbreeding with modern man ? No mention is made of Java man in terms of the significance of this region, nor little reference to the, South Asian and Australian Aborigines.

The author accepts that the Australian Aborigines sailed there approx 50-60kyrs bp. Tie this into the fact that the most interesting human explorers, the Polynesian , explored and traded from Madagascar, off the coast of Africa, in the West to Rapa Nui ('Easter' Island) in the East, only 2,000 from Chile. There is no analysis of their influence in Latin America. With the Humboldt current from Peru & Chile would have brought this island within a week or two sailing.
Witness the Palaeolithic rock art and Aborigine remains found by Dr. Walter Neves (Univ. of Sao Paulo) and Marcello Caosta Souza in Brazil and Tierra del Fuego-Chile, see also 'Man Across the Sea' (Univ. of Texas ) by Riley, Kelley, Pennington.

Only one and a bit paragraphs are focused to the Dravidians of South India, recognised as having one of the oldest linguistic branches (older than the Eurasiatic languages at least).
Is it because of our Westerncentric bias, we can only see a cave-man culture in Eurasia, in Late Palaeolithic, and can't seem to enter into our 'Neanderthal' like skulls, that there were other distinctive and hospitable / tropical climates elsewhere, (e.g. Oceania, India, Middle East, Australia, etc), during the ice-age ?
I was disappointed in the blind adoption of current dogma as the earliest migrations of the modern humans into the Americas via the Bering straight ? Similarly the author contends that agriculture only came about in the last 10 ky bp (page 160).
To 'nit pick' further, the book refers the family structure favoured by the Celts in France as 'patriarchal', however anybody who is familiar with Celtic society would recognise that women ARE accepted as 'chief of the household' and one only has to look to female chieftain warriors such as Queen Bodica, who fought the authors compatriots in Roman times, to answer that view.

Unanswered Questions:-
Little or no mention was made to the hypothesis that mankind migrated on coastal routes, with it's adequate supply of food, similar habitats and fresh water supplied by river sources. Only later was the interior explored, along river routes. This provided food, water and transport mechanism, hence navigation, even to cross rivers, was an early not later skill as indicated in the book.
Were there distinct patterns to distinguish hunter-gathers, nomadic herders and farmers. Such that hunter gathers were early domesticators of dogs, while nomadic herders adopted horses and farmers held pigs ?
Very interestingly he indicated strongly that the Basques/Euskera were related to early Cro-Magnion Europeans and possibly related to the Hunza people speaking Burushaski language in Pakistan, this was all too brief and sketchy.

Conflicting Images:
I found the section the Turkish colonisation of Byzantium very interesting. What struck me was the statement that there was little genetic trace of the original conquerors, all that really changed was the 'software' (language, culture and religion).
It is a young science, but it struck me how this might effect the human discourse in the trouble spots of our 'intelligent' species
Lounes Chikhi, (UCL UK), and colleagues, are looking for markers/tracers by analysing Y mutations, Unique Event Polymorphism's (UEPs).

Future Research:-
Can we find out a bit more information on earlier and later population contacts for the Basques, Indian Dravidians, PNG, the Guanche of Canary islands and Negritos/Aborigines of Asia.
More linguistic research work of the type carried out by Joseph Greenberg on the Papua New Guneans, Aborigines of Oceania-Australia-SE Asia, and of course the Dravidians.
Research into the flow of domesticated animals, such as pigs, dogs, goats, horses etc or fruit, rice, cereals, sugar cane and sweat potatoes needs to be carried out. Witness techniques such as RAPYD (Randomly Polymorphised DNA) and plant finger-printing being carried out by Dr. Paul Keim, USA.

There was an all too brief section on Cultural Transmissions/Imprinting. How are old native cultures to survive in the hegemony of the dominant cultures, assist in conserving cultures and languages such as Basque/Euskera. inEurope and ? elsewhere !

There is almost no scientific paper on etnology and antropology that doesn't refer to Cavalli-Sforza's work, which spans several decades and accounts for dozens of publications on the most prestigious scientific journals. The capacity of Cavalli-Sforza of translating into popular science the work that he has accumulated in years of world-class research is admirable.
The book features a re-adapted collection of lessons he held in Paris. It is perfectbly suitable for anyone from the layman to the scientist. In order to make the tractation more fluid, notes with more specific details are found in an appendix. The book summarizes the most important steps in the development of Cavalli-Sforza's scientific quest and projects into areas of interest for which he is less famous, namely glottology.
This book is a must read for anyone interested in etnology, antropology, glottology and genetics. It is not too long and can be considered the first inspiration to continue reading on the subject. At times Prof. Cavalli-Sforza's personal comments on the social and political aspects of research on science are expressed, and maybe sometimes they result out of place. Another limit of the book is that, being so short, some topics are just mentioned, and not enough information is given. This may be upsetting, but then again, it is another reason for reading more on the subject.
I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in tracking the history of humanity through the differentiation of the genoma, learning about the different families of languages spoken on our planet and searching for accounts of practical achievements of population genetics.

It really stuck to me these 2:
- the description of the concept of race, in his view the concept of race is obsolete and it just does not have any valuable meaning, and he explains you why in the first few chapters.
- the ability by DNA study to generate a migration map (like the one detailed about Europe), just amazing how it matches maps drawn by archeologists or linguistic studies.
Overall a very good look at what has been done on genetics study on people.

It seems that Sforza makes the presumption that most readers of this book will have read his earlier works. Perhaps he is justified in deciding thusly. The book, however, comes off as being a overture to the politically-correct in the first half of it and a piece of patchwork for his previous works in the second half. Granted, there have been great advances in the fields of genetics and mollecular archaeology since last he wrote a book marketed toward the layman and patchwork might be necessary.

Sforza, as an elder-statesman in the field of genetics, is entitled to a bit more slack than others. This book, however, does not read as well as his previous works or even as well as the various books by newer authors who have disputed him on such topics as the mannerof the introduction of agriculture to Europe or the nature of race.

Taken as a whole, Genes, Peoples and Languages strikes me as being half sermon and half footnote to a brilliant career. The footnote section is certainly worth reading, but only for those who have read at least one or two of his previous works.

In this book you will find the first attempts to correlate the findings in genetics and glottology to explain human migrations and the actual mix of people found around the globe. The book is aimed at the general reader, so the book covers a wide scope of topics, but lacks detailed basic explanations that would be essential to the lay reader. Its three main topics, at least according to the book's title, are not well balanced: genes occupy 2/3 of the book. It seems that by including a small section on languages, Dr. Cavalli-Sforza just tried to find additional external support to confirm his migration theories, without devoting serious studies to it...

Although he used a lot of examples of J.P. Mallory's work In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology, and Myth, he did not consider Archeological evidence to support his findings, which would have probably been very useful, since as opposed to languages, archaeological evidence can be tracked to the specific places where it was found and it can be dated more or less accurately, without needing to estimate or take into consideration the speed of change of a language (or of a gene). For more read The Seven Daughters of Eve: The Science That Reveals Our Genetic Ancestry.

In my opinion, the same mathematical methodology used for extracting the basic genetic components of the population should have been used to extract the basic language components of the population. This was not the case, since the author did not analyze the linguistic components himself, but rather based his maps and trees on Bengtson and Ruhlen's linguistic maps. I also would have liked that the two maps - the genetic and the linguistic ones - were somehow superimposed (maybe using transparent slides for each of them put over a purely geographic map) in order to better appreciate what the author claims. Chapter 5 "Languages and genes" had no notes or bibliographic references (maybe it was a printing mistake of my Spanish edition, but I do not think so, since there is also no reference to notes inside the main text of the chapter); being the area where the author borrowed most from other scientists, since he is no linguist, I found it somewhat strange.

I am sure the spread of languages differs importantly from the genetic spread, since the reasons for adopting one language or another are very varied. Even status has an influence on the language choice (How Language Works), whereas our genetic configuration is not a free choice (ok, you can more or less choose your partner - not always true in the past and certainly not in every culture - but social hierarchies, customs, mobility and even availability of partners can limit or affect this choice even today). The last chapter on cultural transmission and evolution (language being part of it) also explains fundamental reasons why languages and genes not necessarily overlap, since cultural transmission can occur not only on a one to one basis and not only from one generation to the next, but also on a one to many basis and between members of the same generation or even from a given generation to the previous one.

Definitely his area of expertise is genetics and it is here where he gives the best explanations. What I liked most was the explanation of genetic polymorphism and genetic drift, as well as how it can have a great impact in small populations. I liked his definition of natural selection as "survival of the luckiest" and his calculation of the genetic components of the population is very interesting.

Genes, Peoples, and Languages is an excellent introduction to the study of how the human species has evolved and spread out of Africa. Dr. Cavalli-Sforza has pulled together years of his own research and synthesized it into an easy to read, and sometimes humorous, narrative that looks at the archaelogical, genetic and lingusitic evidence for the spread of the human species from Africa to all points of the globe. A good addition to your library if you have enjoyed recent books by Spencer Wells and Bryan Sykes.

Excellent reference explaining the current developments and thinking on the evolution of Homo Sapiens.

Since the appearance of this book nearly ten years ago, the sequencing of the human gene has greatly increased the specific knowledge of the Journey of Man, as Spencer Wells, a disciple of Cavalli-Sforza, calls it, as revealed by evolutionary biology. But Cavalli-Sforza traces not only the genetic pathways through alleles and phenotypes but also the evolution of cultures and languages in a unified treatment of the three. Key concepts such as genetic drift are treated in a readable fashion, and differences in time and spatial evolution of cultures, languages, and genetics are explained. It's an immensely satisfying read.