DNA indicates how ancient migrations shaped South Asian languages and farming
A new DNA study of unprecedented size has unveiled ancient human movements that shaped the genetic makeup of present-day South Asians in complex ways. Those long-ago treks across vast grasslands and through mountain valleys may even have determined the types of languages still spoken in a region that includes what’s now India and Pakistan.
The investigation addresses two controversial issues. First, who brought farming to South Asia? Genetic comparisons indicate that farming was either invented locally by South Asian hunter-gatherers or launched via borrowing of knowledge from other cultures, rather than brought by Near Eastern farmers from what’s now Turkey. No DNA signs were found of those farmers, who earlier studies suggested had brought farming to Europe. Second, where did local languages originate? New DNA evidence supports the idea that mobile herders from Eurasian steppe grasslands, not Near Eastern farmers, brought Indo-European languages to South Asia. [Continue reading…]