06-13-2005, 10:11 AM
"Consider the people of India. Physical anthropologists traditionally
have classfiedIndians as "Caucasians," a term invented in the
eighteenth century to describe people with a particular set of facial
features. But this classification has never sat particularly well with
some Europeans, who were offended by being lumped with the
dark-skinned people of the (Indian)subcontinent. Gradually a kind of
folk explanation emerged, which held that several thousand years ago
(1500 B.C.)India was overrun by invaders from Europe (aka the AIT!).
These light skinnned warriors (aka the chariot riding "Aryans.")
interbred with the existing dark-skinned populations (or the "dasyus")
that the Indians acqired European features (and the "IE languages").
Recent studeis of mitochondrial DNA and the Y chromosome have revealed
a different picture. Incursions of people from Europe into India have
certainly occurred, but they have been less extensive than supposed,
and genes have flowed in the opposite direction as well (meaning no
support for the AIT and support for the OIT). The physical
resemblance of Europeans to Indians appears instead to have resulted
largely from their common descent from the modern humans who left
Afica for Eurasia (p. 160-161), all parantheses added)."
Olson, Steve (2002), "Mapping Human History: Discovering the Past
Through Our Genes," Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Quoted by M. Kelkar
have classfiedIndians as "Caucasians," a term invented in the
eighteenth century to describe people with a particular set of facial
features. But this classification has never sat particularly well with
some Europeans, who were offended by being lumped with the
dark-skinned people of the (Indian)subcontinent. Gradually a kind of
folk explanation emerged, which held that several thousand years ago
(1500 B.C.)India was overrun by invaders from Europe (aka the AIT!).
These light skinnned warriors (aka the chariot riding "Aryans.")
interbred with the existing dark-skinned populations (or the "dasyus")
that the Indians acqired European features (and the "IE languages").
Recent studeis of mitochondrial DNA and the Y chromosome have revealed
a different picture. Incursions of people from Europe into India have
certainly occurred, but they have been less extensive than supposed,
and genes have flowed in the opposite direction as well (meaning no
support for the AIT and support for the OIT). The physical
resemblance of Europeans to Indians appears instead to have resulted
largely from their common descent from the modern humans who left
Afica for Eurasia (p. 160-161), all parantheses added)."
Olson, Steve (2002), "Mapping Human History: Discovering the Past
Through Our Genes," Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Quoted by M. Kelkar