The abstract of the study on the Nature page[1] says: > India has been underrepresented in genome-wide surveys of human variation. We > analyse 25 diverse groups in India to provide strong evidence for two ancient > populations, genetically divergent, that are ancestral to most Indians today. > One, the 'Ancestral North Indians' (ANI), is genetically close to Middle > Easterners, Central Asians, and Europeans, whereas the other, the 'Ancestral > South Indians' (ASI), is as distinct from ANI and East Asians as they are > from each other. By introducing methods that can estimate ancestry without > accurate ancestral populations, we show that ANI ancestry ranges from 39–71% > in most Indian groups, and is higher in traditionally upper caste and > Indo-European speakers. Groups with only ASI ancestry may no longer exist in > mainland India. However, the indigenous Andaman Islanders are unique in being > ASI-related groups without ANI ancestry. Allele frequency differences between > groups in India are larger than in Europe, reflecting strong founder effe cts whose signatures have been maintained for thousands of years owing to endogamy. We therefore predict that there will be an excess of recessive diseases in India, which should be possible to screen and map genetically.
From what the mass media's been feeding me, "This paper rewrites history... there is no north-south divide" Now as I understand it: This paper questions the "Aryan invasions/integration" theory by showing that ANI and ASI are categories that go back much further than the theory allows for. But: The paper doesn't really question the north-south divide, because though it finds that the 'Indian' people are mixed ANI-ASI throughout the country, it still seems to find a positive correlation between ANIs and upper castes and ASIs and lower castes. Could someone who understands this stuff explain how one could conclude (as the newspaper my flatmate subscribes to, and I grudgingly glance through, does[2]) that the north-south divide is a myth, especially when according to this study the ANI has a) a positive correlation with 'European' genes and Indo-European languages, and b) a positive correlation with upper castes? [1] http://tr.im/zO6B [2] http://tr.im/zO5N
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