Vous explorez les archives pour ethnogenèse.

Hier, j’écrivais à propos d’un poisson qui avait des yeux, puis qui n’en avait plus, pour enfin en avoir de nouveau, aujourd’hui, pour rester en bonne compagnie de la poutre, de la paille et du doigt, nous allons parler de l’origine des yeux bleus.


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Viking traces in the genes of modern people from these regions however are likely to be obscured by the massive population growth, including immigration from other parts of Britain, of the last thousand years. To bypass this problem, the research teams, supported by the Wellcome Trust and the BBSRC, collected samples of men who carried surnames that were found in early local documents. One list contained the names of men who had promised to contribute to the stipend of the priest of the altar of Our Lady at Ormskirk in 1366; another recorded the names of all those households paying taxes in Wirral in the reign of Henry VIII. Surnames derived from local place-names were also included.

Une étude qui a le mérite de rappeler que la mobilité des populations n’empêche pas certaines continuités (celle d’une population, elle-même, issue d’un déplacement de population évident et connu, d’ailleurs). L’autre point intéressant est de montrer la permanence de l’onomastique et son caractère signifiant.

Source : Genetic Archæology.

We examined genetic diversity and population structure in the American landmass using 678 autosomal microsatellite markers genotyped in 422 individuals representing 24 Native American populations sampled from North, Central, and South America. These data were analyzed jointly with similar data available in 54 other indigenous populations worldwide, including an additional five Native American groups. The Native American populations have lower genetic diversity and greater differentiation than populations from other continental regions. We observe gradients both of decreasing genetic diversity as a function of geographic distance from the Bering Strait and of decreasing genetic similarity to Siberians—signals of the southward dispersal of human populations from the northwestern tip of the Americas. We also observe evidence of: (1) a higher level of diversity and lower level of population structure in western South America compared to eastern South America, (2) a relative lack of differentiation between Mesoamerican and Andean populations, (3) a scenario in which coastal routes were easier for migrating peoples to traverse in comparison with inland routes, and (4) a partial agreement on a local scale between genetic similarity and the linguistic classification of populations. These findings offer new insights into the process of population dispersal and differentiation during the peopling of the Americas.

Fascinant. La génétique est vraiment le nouvel outil de l’historien !

Source : PLoS Genetics.

Journey of Mankind par la Bradshaw fondation.