Origins of Indians: Version 6.3

Semitic Introgression Theory:
My model of the Indo-Aryan caste society envisages a situation where the IE languages were brought in by the nomadic bands of R1a1 people to north-western India from Central Asia/Eastern Europe migrating in search of the greener pastures and who were superimposed by Aryan priestly families belonging to J2a and G2 lineages from West Asia. Instead of Semitic introgression theory, I could have called it Aryan Intrgoression Theory (AIT) for priestly family migrations and Steppe migrations for IE migrations. But I'll stick with Semitic Introgression Theory for the overall development of the caste Indian society.

As I argued before, the priesthood most likely was created in West Asia with its earliest literate civilizations. This is the reason we find R1a1 across the castes and erstwhile outcasts in North India but J2a is more restricted to Brahmins.

However, I also commented that this model need not be completely true in the case of the South India as there could be earlier J2a migrations from West Asia which could be seen in tribes like Toda.

Curiously, it appears we have another earlier migration from West Asia to North India too. A village in Himachala Pradesh called Malana is where you find this isolated community. According to a recent paper by Rajiv Giroti and Indu Talwar (2010), nearly 60% of this population belong to J2a. The community speak a Tibeto-Burman language (probably, we can get better idea if their matrilineages are tested).

But the interesting part is Wikipedia article on them;

People in Malana consider all non-Malani to be inferior and consequently untouchable. Visitors to Malana town must pay particular attention to stick to the prescribed paths and not to touch any of the walls, houses or people there. If this does occur, visitors are expected to pay a forfeit sum, that will cover the sacrificial slaughter of a lamb in order purify the object that has been made impure. Malani people may touch impure people or houses as long as they follow the prescribed purification ritual before they enter their house or before they eat. Malanis may never accept food cooked by a non-Malani person, unless they are out of the valley (in which case their Devi can't see them). Malanis may offer visitors food but all utensils will have to undergo a strict purification ritual before they can be used again.

I have already argued that purity-pollution rules were ritualized in West Asia and the core Brahmin Varna belonged to that society. Now, we have a population in India which though not part of the Varna system has all the ritualized purity system and patrilineally closer to West Asia ((Iran) in its orientation.

One more proof that, the caste system was basically a creation of West Asian priestly class and not Shamanic IE people from Central Asia/Eastern Europe.

Reference:

The Most Ancient Democracy in the World is a Genetic Isolate: An Autosomal and Y Chromosome Study of the Hermit Village Malana (Himachal Pradesh, India)
RAJIV GIROTI AND INDU TALWAR

Rashomon explained?

"We found something different than what leading theories of emotional memory in adults say," Brainerd said. Those theories say that "When you're involved in a very negative experience of some sort, like a crime, it focuses your mind, and you really pay attention to details.

"But our research showed that exactly the opposite is true. By manipulating the emotional content of word lists, we found that materials that had negative emotional content in fact produced the highest levels of false memory. And when you add arousal to the equation, memory was distorted more."

Via Science Daily 

Charvaka - iii

I came across a good deal of information about the Charvakas in Naturalistic Tradition in Indian Thought by Dale Maurice Reipe. (Overheard about it at Vidya's blog).

Interesting point is the comparison between Indian and Greek traditions. All I can say is, the connection can be found in the spread of Y-Haplogroup J2a.

I suppose the Atharva Veda, the fourth Veda predates Charvakas (around 500 BC?). However, only three Vedas are mentioned in Charvaka rebuttals. I suppose those are Rig, Yajur and Sama.

Communism and Kerala -iv

I start this post with an assumption that China is going to be the most successful nation in the years to come. They may or may not remain communist country but the foundation laid by the present communist regime will take it to glorious future. My three reasons for this assumption are;
1. Individual
With a single kid family I don't see any family failing perpetually
2. Communal
With 92% population adhering to a single ethnic identity (Han) there could be very few reasons for ethnic conflicts. Also limited influence of divisive religions (if practiced by significant sections of population) like Islam, Christianity, Hindutva together with the lack of stagnating philosophy like the caste system  are big plus points. I don't see Atheists, Buddhists and Taoists fighting each other violently.
3. Security
The conflicts with minorities in fact are advantageous to Chinese military. The weak but simmering opposition would keep Chinese military sharp and in practice without exactly wearing them down.

However, Fred Weston at 'International Marxist Tendency' believes China for the first time in history has created Marx's true urban workers and it'll herald true Marxist revolution. But I don't think it'll change much. As I said before fundamental drive for a Marxist revolution is the alienation of urban worker and not the economic disparity. At any case, all these urban workers might strive for living standards of upper classes and not really pull it down to socialist stagnation. The socialism or communism can only succeed when every urban worker discovers his/her alienation and able to articulate it.




Via Leherensuge


But is there a parallel to bureaucracy led capitalism of China in Kerala? To my surprise, there certainly some kind of micro revolution is taking place in Kerala. Since  Kerala's communists cannot form dictatorial government to create a bureaucratic  capitalism, they have created their own venture capitalism in the state thro' their party organization. 


CPI(Marxist) is one of the biggest venture capitalists in the state with interests in media and tourism. They do understand as Soviets and Chinese before them that they need to create jobs. However, I'm not sure if they could be as successful as China. The scope of all those projects appear to be very limited. Also, I wonder if these ventures are 'collective'? Do all CPI(M) members hold the stake in them? Do they get dividends in profits? At least, in China this part is supposedly secret and nobody know their actual stakes. I'm not sure if this is the case with CPI(M) owned ventures too.