Angela
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This is the link to the paper:
http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1053&context=humbiol_preprints
It's open access...
Here is the abstract:
"Publications that describe the composition of the human Y-DNA haplogroup in diffferent ethnic or linguistic groups and geographic regions provide no explicit explanation of the distribution of human paternal lineages in relation to specific ecological conditions. Our research attempts to address this topic for the Caucasus, a geographic region that encompasses a relatively small area but harbors high linguistic, ethnic, and Y-DNA haplogroup diversity. We genotyped 224 men that identified themselves as ethnic Georgian for 23 Y-chromosome short tandem-repeat markers and assigned them to their geographic places of origin. The genotyped data were supplemented with published data on haplogroup composition and location of other ethnic groups of the Caucasus. We used multivariate statistical methods to see if linguistics, climate, and landscape accounted for geographical diffferences in frequencies of the Y-DNA haplogroups G2, R1a, R1b, J1, and J2. The analysis showed significant associations of (1) G2 with wellforested mountains, (2) J2 with warm areas or porrly forested mountaina, and (3) J1 with poorly forested mountains. Rib showed no association with environment. Haplogroups J1 and R1a were significantly associated with Daghestanian and Kipchak speakers, respectively, but the other haplogroups showed no such simple associations with languages. Climate and landscape in the context of competition over productive areas among diffferent paternal lineages, arriving in the Caucasus in diffferent times, have played an important role in shaping the present-day spatial distribution of patrilineages in the Caucasus. This spatial pattern had formed before linguistic subdivisions were finally shaped, probably in the Neolithic to Bronze Age. Later historical turmoil had little influence on the patrilineage composition and spatial distribution. Based on our results, the scenario of postglacial expansions of humans and their languages to the Caucasus from the Middle East, western Eurasia, and the East European Plain is plausible. "
I've only quickly skimmed it, but I'm not sure if I buy all of their conclusions. If I understand them correctly, while they acknowledge that the "G" y Dna lineages might have been pushed to forested mountain refugia, they also believe that their presence in these mountains can be explained by the fact that yDna "G" originated in the Caucasus during the LGM and deliberately chose and kept the forested mountains because as a specific type of hunter gatherer they were accustomed to that terrain. I'm not sure I buy that. What then about all the yDna "G" men who became farmers and brought farming into Europe?
They also seem to give a nod to what I think might be the out of the Armenian highlands theory of the Indo-European languages, but I couldn't find either of the papers they cited.
"Archaeologists suggest that the first Indo-Europeans expanded to the Southern Caucasus from the southwest in the 3rd millennium BC (Melikishvili, 1959; Melaart, 1970). Currently, relatively high proportion of the haplogroup R1b is found in Indo-European speaking Armenians, but also in Georgians from the areas south of the Lesser Caucasus (this study) and in some Daghestanian ethnic groups (Yunusbayev et al. 2012).
I did find this interesting in light of some of the recent discussions on this Board:
"Expandingtribes (most likely dominated by haplogroups J1 and J2) that had survived the Ice Age south of the Caucasus probably started settling in the Caucasus both before emerging early agricultural settlements in theFertile Crescent about 9.5 KY ago (Allaby et al. 2008) and after that."
It also provides a nice summary of the connection, or disconnection, between y lineages, language and religion in the region. I think it might serve as a cautionary tale for those who tend to see Indo-European and certain y lineages as indissolubly linked.
http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1053&context=humbiol_preprints
It's open access...
Here is the abstract:
"Publications that describe the composition of the human Y-DNA haplogroup in diffferent ethnic or linguistic groups and geographic regions provide no explicit explanation of the distribution of human paternal lineages in relation to specific ecological conditions. Our research attempts to address this topic for the Caucasus, a geographic region that encompasses a relatively small area but harbors high linguistic, ethnic, and Y-DNA haplogroup diversity. We genotyped 224 men that identified themselves as ethnic Georgian for 23 Y-chromosome short tandem-repeat markers and assigned them to their geographic places of origin. The genotyped data were supplemented with published data on haplogroup composition and location of other ethnic groups of the Caucasus. We used multivariate statistical methods to see if linguistics, climate, and landscape accounted for geographical diffferences in frequencies of the Y-DNA haplogroups G2, R1a, R1b, J1, and J2. The analysis showed significant associations of (1) G2 with wellforested mountains, (2) J2 with warm areas or porrly forested mountaina, and (3) J1 with poorly forested mountains. Rib showed no association with environment. Haplogroups J1 and R1a were significantly associated with Daghestanian and Kipchak speakers, respectively, but the other haplogroups showed no such simple associations with languages. Climate and landscape in the context of competition over productive areas among diffferent paternal lineages, arriving in the Caucasus in diffferent times, have played an important role in shaping the present-day spatial distribution of patrilineages in the Caucasus. This spatial pattern had formed before linguistic subdivisions were finally shaped, probably in the Neolithic to Bronze Age. Later historical turmoil had little influence on the patrilineage composition and spatial distribution. Based on our results, the scenario of postglacial expansions of humans and their languages to the Caucasus from the Middle East, western Eurasia, and the East European Plain is plausible. "
I've only quickly skimmed it, but I'm not sure if I buy all of their conclusions. If I understand them correctly, while they acknowledge that the "G" y Dna lineages might have been pushed to forested mountain refugia, they also believe that their presence in these mountains can be explained by the fact that yDna "G" originated in the Caucasus during the LGM and deliberately chose and kept the forested mountains because as a specific type of hunter gatherer they were accustomed to that terrain. I'm not sure I buy that. What then about all the yDna "G" men who became farmers and brought farming into Europe?
They also seem to give a nod to what I think might be the out of the Armenian highlands theory of the Indo-European languages, but I couldn't find either of the papers they cited.
"Archaeologists suggest that the first Indo-Europeans expanded to the Southern Caucasus from the southwest in the 3rd millennium BC (Melikishvili, 1959; Melaart, 1970). Currently, relatively high proportion of the haplogroup R1b is found in Indo-European speaking Armenians, but also in Georgians from the areas south of the Lesser Caucasus (this study) and in some Daghestanian ethnic groups (Yunusbayev et al. 2012).
I did find this interesting in light of some of the recent discussions on this Board:
"Expandingtribes (most likely dominated by haplogroups J1 and J2) that had survived the Ice Age south of the Caucasus probably started settling in the Caucasus both before emerging early agricultural settlements in theFertile Crescent about 9.5 KY ago (Allaby et al. 2008) and after that."
It also provides a nice summary of the connection, or disconnection, between y lineages, language and religion in the region. I think it might serve as a cautionary tale for those who tend to see Indo-European and certain y lineages as indissolubly linked.