Our matrilineal future - II

In this video, there is a strong argument for double-barrelled surnames, where you pass the surname according to your gender to the next generation. This is a good proposal as it keeps the uniparental lineages of both sides in every generation intact.

But for simplicity, I'll still stick to surname inheritance based on your gender in each generation. Maybe if you've children of only one gender, double-barrelled look reasonable, however, I still don't agree with that as it shows surnames have some kind of significance and people have the need to pass their identity. That kind of thinking should be made invalid. On the other hand, "I'll take up my wife's surname because smash the patriarchy" is another extreme which trivialises the whole thing by making it a joke and thus general population don't find anything wrong with the current situation.

Surname Dilemma, via BBC

Tragedy of Mangale

As with most of the Hindu festivals, the celebration of Navaratri and Vijayadashami varies from place to place. While this is not a surprising feature as each region had their own unique traditions and ethos which were subsumed in the caste system, the interesting part is how the stories/myths are interpreted at later time. Today is supposedly Mangala Devi’s day (the city of Mangaluru was named after this goddess).

The legend of Mangale (or Pingale) that I know is as follows. Mangale was a queen of some Malayali kingdom in Malabar(northern Kerala). The kingdom was described as ‘Pramila Rajya’ (ruled exclusively by women). She fell in love with a disciple of Machchendranatha, exponent of the Natha cult. As these were ascetics, she renounced her kingdom, followed them to Tulu region as a common woman. In due time, she gave birth to two children. One day, when Machchendranatha was doing penance, he was disturbed by the loud noise of the children playing. He asked his disciple to calm them down so he could concentrate. The disciple felt that the children were a nuisance to his guru and so he murdered them by smashing their heads against a boulder. Mangale, when she came to know the death of her children, was broken-hearted and died. She was deified by the local people.

The story of Mangale was basically a tragedy. By present day standards, one could fault her for falling for a patriarchal man even though she was from a matrilineal/matriarchal group. But it all depends on between sacrifice for love or sacrifice for identity, which, one views as a nobler cause. The deification of such tragedy figures was generally a defining feature of underprivileged castes who recognized tragedy more than they could recognize triumph. Generally, the popularity of such local divine figures ensured their entry into the caste Hinduism. But as usual even this also got reinterpreted according to Brahmanical ethos.

You can read the Brahmanical version here. Apart from the mandatory Parashurama entry, one can observe that there is hardly anything about the deity itself. Then there is a patriarchal bit about finding 'good husbands'. When I read about the description of this goddess in a forwarded message recently, I felt the write up was commissioned by Jewelry shop owners.  It describes how resplendent she is with all the decorations, wearing a crown, full jewelry and a pink sari in those ten days of the festival. Mangale, in the above legend where she did have a back story, had renounced everything to be with her love.

The Natha cult, I suppose, wasn't part of the Vedic tradition. So the story I heard would be most likely the version they created. The bare bones story could be an unknown woman losing her children violently and dying in sorrow. Such tragic figures are deified in the local traditions. I wonder whether the purity of their pain makes them special. But this is not the story the descendants of those local people of bygone era would like to know.

I suppose Max Weber, pioneer in Sociology, observed that the descendants of the privileged people view the past with nostalgia whereas descendants of the oppressed people look to the future with sehnsucht. But when I read the forwards sent by the underprivileged castes, brainwashed by Hindutva, I don’t see sehnsucht but the nostalgia of the privileged castes. The tragedy of Mangale continues.

Tuluva-Malayali Matrilineal System - notes

What led to the End of Kerala's Matrilineal System

The article misses many points. The system was followed by most of the castes in Malabar and in coastal Karnataka region(including Muslims). According to anthropologist M N Srinivas, even Kodava society was believed to be matrilineal once upon a time. Therefore, theories of origin should go beyond Nairs. The 'Sambandham' wasn't observed among Tulu matrilineal castes of coastal Karnataka. Instead of considering the practice as a salient feature of the matrilineal system, it should be considered as a unique feature of Malayali region.

It should be noted here that Brahmins(Namboodiris) weren't matrilineal. Therefore, the point of view of the Sambandham changes within the Malayali society itself.  It shows the unquestionable grip Brahmins had over the society. Indulekha could be a flawed a story, however, it still rebels against a patriarchal overlordship. In fact, all the ideal picture given here about women having all the rights for rejecting suitors, the reality of older men of higher castes having their way with much younger women wasn't uncommon. We cannot forget the fact that there was always a caste hierarchy in that society.

Our matrilineal future - I

Today I was introduced to Marilyn vos Savant because of this article. I went through the Wikipedia article on her. The following paragraph caught my eye.

She says one should keep premarital surnames, with sons taking their fathers’ and daughters their mothers’.

This has been my position (even thought I might have wrongly termed it as 'ambiliny') too. I might have already written about it (but couldn't find it).

But in a patriarchal society a girl taking up her mother's surname need not necessarily mean it's matrilineal. I believe women in patriarchal societies need to come up with their own surnames which can be inherited afterwards.

Similar is the case with matrilineal society where men have to come up with their own surnames to pass it to the next generation.

However, I also endorse complete matrilineal inheritance for variety of reasons. Generally, in majority regions female lineages are far more autochthonous than male lineages. So, I would say children should take up matrilineal identity in terms of surname, religion and culture.

Maternal Ancestry of Malayalis - III

Since I have already decided that my matrilineage migrated via south-west coastal India, I thought of extending that idea to other haplogroups based on inconclusive data on predominance of certain haplogroups in certain regions. However, this method could still be true as Kerala was supposedly one of the last regions to be inhabited in South India.So, it basically was a sink region for different migrations.

M derived Haplogroups:

M25:

M33: From Indus regions to Kerala via South-West India

M2/M2a/M2b - From East via South-East India. Or migrated from Bengal region to Kerala

M3/M3b - From Indus regions to Kerala via South-West India

M5 - From Indus regions to Kerala via South-West India

M64 - From Indus regions to Kerala via SW India

M30 -  From Indus regions to Kerala via SW India

M6 - From Indus regions to Kerala via SW India

M8/M8c - From East Asia or SE Asia and through trade?

C4a1 - From East Asia or SE Asia and through trade?

N derived Haplogroups:

N1d: Via South-West India

B5a: From South-East Asia and through trade

R21: From SE Asia and through trade

R5: From East via SE India 

R6: From North-West via South-West India

U1/U1a - From North-West via South-West

U4 - From North-West via South-West

U7 - From North-West via South-West

HV14 - From North-West via South-West

References:
1. Wikipedia articles on mtDNA M and N
2. FTDNA Kerala project

My Maternal Lineage

This is a lazy post. My maternal lineage is officially still M* though I have identified it as M64* and now I have forgotten why I had assigned that subclade.

I have 2 HVR1/2 matches in Maharashtra and 8 in Kerala. One of the matches in Maharashtra is a Marathi Jew and all in Kerala are Malayali Jews. Now these two communities lived isolated existence from each other, therefore, migration of my uniparental maternal ancestry from northern Konkan to southern Konkan  region should be very old.

General understanding is that my ancestors moved from Telugu region to Tamil region and from there to Malayali region. It appears not all of them. 

Rise of patriarchal society - VII_a

I have discussed how matrifocal tradition viewed semen as nurture and equated it with the rain. This idea was in contrast to patrifocal idea of the womb as nurture and its identification with the earth. As an example for matrifocal ideas getting mixed with patriarchal gods, I had talked about northern Indian tradition of women stripping to please the rain god, Indra.

Now, it appears this tradition could be found in Dravidian lands too. I wonder whether the idea was again a syncretization of the older matrifocal world view with the later partrifocal ideas independently in  South or it came to South because of the northern migrations.

The article doesn't say who the aroused rain god is. Most likely Indra and not Varuna.

Newspaper article h/t: Nirmuka Facebook page.

Rise of patriarchal society - notes

From India's unwanted girls

How girls are valued varies widely across India. Over the years, most states in the south and north-east have been kind to their girls, and sex ratios are above the national average.

In the matrilineal societies of Kerala and Karnataka in the south and Meghalaya in the north-east, women have enjoyed high status and commanded respect. But the latest census figures show the good news even in these areas could be turning bad. A minor decline in the number of girls has begun in the three states which, campaigners worry, might be indicative of a trend.

The matrilineal society of Karnataka!? (and why the blogger word checker doesn't identify "matrilineal" when even the BBC uses it?).  Strictly speaking, only Tulu region was traditionally matrilineal (and most likely only one dominant caste remained matrilineal in 20th-21st century). But it would be nice if the whole society turns into at least ambilineal (well, by that I mean, sons patrilineal and daughters matrilineal).

Update on 24-05-11:
But if the other story is any indication, in the worst case scenario (excess girls in normal societies and excess boys in anti-female societies) matrilineal societies would help the patriarchal societies to sustain themselves. 

The Tulu Tribes - VI

In some of my previous posts I was discussing about the origin of matriliny. Some of the points I made during the argument based on the findings of other anthropologists;
- Whereas patrilarchy is about exclusive male rights; matriliny is about equal rights (except in the case of politics where it was a male privilege)
- Only tribes in food abundant regions could develop equal rights society because division of labour wasn't there and both men and women participated in hunting
- All civilizations were created in regions where male was the primary warrior. Thus original civilizations were naturally patriarchal
- It's possible for matrilineal civilizations to come up if the tribes in food abundant regions come into contact with sedentary civilizations people who aren't part of ruling classes
- Tulu tribes (tribes part of present day Kerala and Tulu regions) became matrilineal as they were part of food abundant regions and met mostly merchants-artisans from the sedentary civilzation of the north

I think I need to make a drastic change in this theory.

I am proposing Kerala and Tulu regions became matrilineal because there was a huge male migrant population to these coastal regions which resulted in imbalance in male-female ratio and thus polyandry was the only option left. Thus the children became part of mother's family as that was the only sensible thing for civilized migrants.

Of course, this theory has precedence in another theory with a opposite scenario. According to one theory about matriliny in Kerala, it had been argued that during hundred years of Chera-Chola war, Nayars lost a lot of men and there were excess of Nayar women. Thus a new type of familial relationship was created (called Sambandham) where men and women had relationship only for sex. Anyway, this has been discredited since hundred year Chola-Chera war itself has been considered a mere legend. I would say there are too many other reasons to reject it.

Even if Chola-Chera war was indeed the case then Central and South Kerala regions should have shown very strong matrilineal traditions but only Malabar (north Kerala) one could find matriliny across majority of the castes and tribes. Also, Matrilineal traditions were common in Tulu region too without the caste and tribe divisions(with exceptions everywhere). In Tulu region many castes share the same lineages.

Now coming to my new theory, let's discuss what would have happenend if Kerala and Tulu regions received a greater number of male migrants than there were tribes  pre-existing in that region. We should note that these two regions had active trading relationship with Greeks, Romans and Semites. There was every reason for merchants and their workers to stay back build a life there. But how would they find females for procreation. Probably, if the number of migrants isn't very large as compared to the native population, speculating the longest male wait and earliest female readiness every person could have found a bride. But if the scenario is beyond such adjustments then I would suppose only polyandry could have helped them.

I believe once the polyandry gave rise to equilibrium in sex-ratio after few generations depending upon the rate of migration, the most people would have gone back to monogamous life (or polygynous). But I suppose if it takes many generations to reach the equilibrium then the aspects of polyandry become ritualized. This plausibly the reason behind matrlineal civilzation of Tulu and Malayali regions. It should be noted that even polyandry has become ritualized for certain castes and tribes even after an equilibrium had been reached in the sex ratio.

Matriliny in Andhra Pradesh - IV

During the 'shaving of head' ceremony of year old babies, in some of the temples in Andhra Pradesh, it is the maternal uncle who acts as guardian of the child in the rituals and not the father.

I wonder if that has something to do with the lapsed matrilineal tradition of this region.

Tuluva-Malayali Matrilineal System - Part 2

Legends of matrilineal inheritance:
There is only one legend that talks about the beginning of the matrilineal system in this region. However, that is not part of celebrated and well known Malayali matrilineal system. The legend is about the beginning of Tuluva matrilineal system. I believe the legend in Kerala could be that like everything in their society even this system could have been established by Parashurama (or Brahmins). Unfortunately, I have not been able to  find the English translation of either Sanskrit work, Kerala Mahatmya, or the Malayalam work, Keralolpati.

But the story I read when I was small is entirely different from what I have read recently online. The story I knew somewhat goes like this. I'm leaving out all names as I'm bit confused about them at present.

A king was sending his merchant ships to the sea. But they were confiscated by a spirit called Kundodara. He asked for human sacrifice. The king asked his wife to give one of their sons. However, wife refused. But king's sister came forward and gave her son for the sacrifice. The spirit Kundodara spared the life of that boy and released king's ships. The king was so overwhelmed by the magnanimity of his sister and her son that he declared his nephew as his heir apparent. And implemented nephew lineage (Aliya Santana Kattu) in his region.

But the story I recently came across is bit different.

Deva Pandya, a wealthy merchant of the Pandya country, was sending new ships, richly laden, to a dark island covered with snow, but before launching them, Kundodara, a Bhuta raja, or king of the demons, an attendant on Siva, observing that the ships were new, demanded a human sacrifice. Deva consulted with his wife as to sacrificing one of his own seven sons, but the wife fled with them to her native town. On which Deva lay in deep distress, until his sister Satya-vati, hearing of the case, came and offered her own boy, saying to Deva, ' You should not care for this trifling matter. Do you give the boy Jaya Pandya, a son of mine, as a human sacrifice.' But Kundo-dara refused the boy, being aware that Jaya was the son of Vira Pandya, king of that dominion, who had been defeated by Chand Rangada raja, and that Jaya was a Mahapurusha, destined to be a great man ; he desired Jaya to assume his, the demon king's name, as Bhutala Pandya, and promised to restore him to the dominions of which Chand Rangada had deprived him. On this, the demon king entered Ujjain, subdued the eight demi-gods, Bhairava, etc., gave Bhutala a throne that Davendra had given to Vikramarka, and entered the town of Jayantika, accompanied by Bhutala. On the demise of the king Siddha Vira Prassiddha Raya, Jaya was elected king. Jaya ruled for six years, during which the Makkala Santana, i.e. the law of inheritance by direct descent of sons, was, for the following reasons, set aside, and that of Aliya Santana, i.e. inheritance on the line of nephews, substituted. The ships of Deva had during a mercantile voyage grounded on the miry bank of an island covered with snow and darkness, and the crew were in great distress, when the demon king appeared and bid them load the ships with the Siddha sile stone (a green stone, husuru sile galu) and Siddha-rasam, and pray to him. This being done, a fair wind brought the ships to the river mouth of Hangara katte at Kalianpur harbour. King Jaya on ascertaining that the ships belonged to his uncle Deva sent for him to receive them but the demon king again demanded one of Deva's sons as a sacrifice Deva consulted as to this with his wife who refused the goods(?) on that condition and the cargo of stone and liquid was then delivered to king Jaya who placed both the stone and the liquid in front of the idol Someswara changing its name to Sidheswara and erected a temple and image to Kundodara the demon king to which he gave the name of Maheswara. On the demon king's recommendation he framed a code of laws containing 30 rules introducing the Aliya Santan a rule (the descensus a matre). At this time king Jaya is styled master of the throne of king of kings, master of the masters of the four countries called Tulu, Malayala Haiga and Karnatika the first person in the era of Sativahana. In the sixth year of his reign the demon king ordered him to bury the green stone (emerald) and shut up the Siddha rasa well and the image of Naga set thereon. The castes enumerated in these rules are

Tuluvaru -> Tuluvas (Tulu)

Malavaru

Jainaru  -> Jain (Tulu)

Nayammavaru ->Nayars (Malayalis)

Masadika -> A subset of Bunt caste (Tulu)

Haricetti -> Cetti -Shetty (Trader) (Tulu?)

Pariyaru -> Parivara, A subset of Bunt (Tulu)

Kumbararu -> Potters

Devadiga -> Temple singers/drummers (Tulu)

Saliya -> Weavers (Malayalis or Tuluvas or both)

Mulekudeya -> Malekudiya (Tribe)

Panchala -> ?

Kshauraka -> Barbers (?)

Agasa -> washermen (Tulu)

Halepaika -> Tribe (?)

Mundala -> Tribe (Tulu)

Karinnara -> ?

Holeya -> bonded labourers (Tulu)

Andekoraga -> Tribe (Tulu)

King Jaya prohibited the Brahmnns ofliciating in death and birth ceremonials; prohibited the Maha-layam or inauspicious ceremony for the deceased; prohibited the giving of the Panchajavyani; prohibited the Punya-Homa sacrifice with dubh grass on births and deaths, and permitted only the Nirmalya or remains of idol offerings for the dead, and authorized the continuance of the Puja and Abhishekam to the deity for those who brought forth children or died. In the twelfth year of his reign, he invited Jains from the Balaghat, and they built Mangalore and other towns. King Jaya made the Aliya Santana rules applicable to the Kshatriya, the Vaisya, and the Sudras, but permitted Brahmins to continue the rule of direct descent.

The explanation of the above fable seems to be that in the time of king Jaya, all great works, such as shipbuilding, as is still the case in Polynesia, were inaugurated by human sacrifices in propitiation of demons ; that a woman of rank twice refused to part with any of her sons for such a purpose, and her husband's sister offered her son Jaya in their stead, but was refused ; from which king Jaya declared that descent of property should follow from the sister's side.

 Here we should note that the antiquity of this legend is highly disputed. Even thought it talks about Salivahana Era (Saka, 77 CE), the legend might have been constructed anywhere between 12th to 19th century according to the researchers. This should be inconsequential for my present post as I'm more interested in analysing the contents which would give clues to existing ideas.

 Few points from the story.
- Jaya Pandya/Bhutala Pandya was son of the king, Vira Pandya. His uncle Deva Pandya was not a king but a merchant. The central character for establishing the matrilineal system was not the king but a merchant.
- The region is mainly spirit worshipping which could be seen in the fact that the system was willed by a spirit ( and not by any gods or goddesses). But it should be noted that the present day region named after this spirit (Kundapura) is a Kannada speaking region and not Tulu speaking. However, matrilineal inheritance was practiced even in that Kannada speaking region.
- There is a clear sign of merging spirit worship with Saiva worship
- It appears as if Brahmin hegemony on religious life was removed. Until very recently, most of the matrilineal communities conducted religious activities with the help of washermen, barbers and castes/tribes outside the caste system. Probably, that passage was an explanation with a belief that Brahmins should have been conducting all those rituals in a normal caste society(which is the case now.. in the last 50 years or so, anyhow..washermen and barbers are no longer part of any rituals).
- It says Jains were invited from Balaghat. I believe that should be Palakkad (Palghat) in present day Kerala. It should be noted here that in Brahmin legends they were the ones invited by the kings. I would consider this is a proof of Jain connection with matrilineal system. Also, the presence Jains in Kerala(merchants) could be the reason behind the existence of matrilineal system there too.
- Interestingly, it also talks about four countries. Tulu (present day Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts of Karnataka), Haiga (I believe present day Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka), Malayala (present day Kerala) and Karnataka. But it should be noted that only the communities in Tulu and Malayala regions followed matrilineal system. But the ruling families of Haiga (Salva) and Kodagu (spoken language Kodava) district of Karnataka were believed to be matrilineal and Jain. But both these families were supposedly branches of Tulu royal families.

To be continued...

Tuluva-Malayali Matrilineal System - Part 1

I have argued before that matrilineal identity has been a non-conscious identity. It was a natural outgrowth in some old societies. I have been trying to understand its origin and its survival in non-tribal societies of Tulu and Malayala region. But its realization by the males has greatly eroded its relevance in these regions now. Its lack of strong foundation in the religious domain is driving it to extinction among some of the castes (mostly among Taravadu centric Malayali families). Though its survival in some other probably could be due to lineage system (in Tulu regions) whose origin itself is rather shrouded in mystery. It won't be surprising if the lineage system itself owes its existence to patrilineal ideas. Its influence in social and economic life were anyway superimposed by patrilineal caste ideas and acted subordinate to it. Thus the system itself has been devoid of philosophical ideas and unstable. But it's still intriguing how this system came about in the first place.

Origin from tribal past:
It has been argued that male were the sole hunters in the food scarcity regions. Both male and females hunted in food abundant regions. In my opinion, only in food abundance regions we can find matrilineal communities.

Influence of civilization and classes:
The primary civilizations were founded by sedentary populations and these were generally patrilineal. But there were chances that the secondary civilizations (new civilizations founded by tribes who came in contact with primary civilizations) could still be matrilineal. I would propose if that had to be the case then following two conditions need to be satisfied.
- Food abundance region thus both male and female were hunters
- The contact population from the primary civilization should be merchants and not priests or warriors.

Recorded history:
Megasthenes's Pandyas: Megasthenes' Pandyas were matriarchal people. However, the Pandyas were generally thought be from Tamil region. But I would assume the Pandyas that Megasthenes described were originally from Tulu region. Therefore the oldest mention is 3rd century BCE.

I would consider these Pandyas were influenced by Jinaism. The name is derived from Mahabharata hero Arjuna, one of the Pandavas. There is story in Mahabharata that mentions Arjuna marrying Manipura princess Chitrangada but their son growing as part of mother's family. This story has been used to give higher birth to the ruling matrilineal families. This story doesn't make much sense to patrilineal Pandyas of Tamil region therefore matrilineal Pandyas of Megasthenes only be from Tulu region who subsequently established their rule over Tamil region.

However, the problem with this theory is that;
- We don't have any idea about historical Tulu rulers prior to 5th century CE
- all the Tuluva kings with names like Chitravahana directly out of Arjuna story were found only from 7th century CE. This probably coincided with the establishment of Jain communities (of worldly people and not just monks) around this period in South India (the communitization of Jain identity later spread to north-west India by 8th century).

The Tulu dynasty was known as "Alupa". They claimed they belong to 'Pandya Vamsha' (Pandya clan) and the title was 'Sri Pandya Dhanjaya' (Sir Pandava Arjuna).

Here my mind runs wild. Now I believe even the name  AlUpa can have some kind of Mahabharata connection. Another story that is intricately connected to the story of Manipura queen Chitrangada is the story of ulUpa, a Naga(clan of Cobra) princess. According to Mahabharata she was married to Arjuna and brought up Arjuna and Chitrangada's son Babhruvahana. I think Alupa was actually mis-spelt Ulupa (the actual Sanskrit meaning is 'soft grass' also spelt Ulapa) or Alupa, also spelt Alapa Gana in an inscription, was an allusion to Naga clan(or Gana may indicate Jain identity as various Jain denominations were called Ganas). We have to observe the western ghats of India have the highest density of King Cobras (known as Naga) in the world. People are traditionally serpent worshipers*. I wonder if that could be the reason for the name Alupa.

The question is if we agree matriliarchal Pandyas were ruling Tulu region around 3 century BCE what has happened between 300BCE and 400 CE. Somehow, I feel Dravidian tribal matrilineal ruling classes and Prakrit merchant classes still not fully merged and ruling classes were still illiterate tribals.

To be continued...

* A particular region in west coastal Karnataka was known as Haiga which was derived from Haviga (where haavu in Kannada means snake). There is a Kannada Brahmin community which until 19th century identified themselves as Haviga>Haiga Brahmins but later Sanskritized the name to Havyaka.

Out of India - I

As new studies are coming up in the field of population genetics, it is becoming increasingly apparent that, while cultural identity may have been the preserve of males, genetic identity is determined by females. The reason can be very simple. Once colonized the matrilineages stay put even when the patrilineages change.

mtDNA and autosomal analysis:
Considering the fact that in most part of the old world mtDNA is around 50000-40000 years old, it's no wonder that all the later male sweeps in the last 3000-4000 years would hardly leave any genetic imprint in the population except for their Y-chromosomes. One of the visible proof is is the looks (physical shape) of the population that I have already discussed before.

- In the case of Austro-Asiatics in India, even though male lineage Y-chromosome O2a predominates, they look like Indians than SE Asians mainly because of their Indian matrilineages.

- In the case of Finnish, even though male lineage Y-chromosome N1c predominates, they look like Europeans than East Asian mainly because of their European matrilineages.

- In the case of Cameroonians, with a high percentage of Y-chromosome R1b, they look entirely like Africans than Europeans mainly because of their African matrilineages.

But considering the fact that New World fairly recently colonized (around 15000 years), the genetic diversity is very low compared to the old world colonizers who moved there in the last 500 years or so, we may see some strong presence of old world genetic imprint in their autosomal analysis.

But this can never be the case in the old world itself. Here, over time the native matrilineages assert themselves and this could be observed in autosomal analysis.

Ancient Indian Females:
A recent study, "Reconstructing Indian Population History", rather beautifully illustrates the ancient migrations of Indian matrilineages. It has found two distinct components, Ancient North Indian(ANI) and Ancient South India (ASI). The distinction was made by comparing the markers with Europeans, North Africans and West Asians. ANI is observed among those groups and ASI is restricted only to India. Though in India both ANI and ASI are found mixed in population.

This interesting observation reinforces the fact that all the West Eurasian (North Africa, West Asia and Europe) matrilineages were ultimately derived from an Indian macro haplogroup mtDNA R. With this study we can even confirm that, one of M lineages, M1, which is found mostly in Mediterranean region was also part of the migration from India.

The researchers make one more observation that Onges, one of the Andaman tribes, are sort of close to ASI. We do know that Onges' Y-chromosome is exclusively Y-Haplogroup D, found mostly in Tibet and Japan but their matrilineage is M31a, found mostly in East India or S E India. This is another case where matrilineage asserting itself (through autosomes) over patrilineage.

The evidences till now appear to support the old model of northern migration route instead of now popular the coastal migration. I have already argued the more the barrier the greater will be the need to migrate for Homo Sapiens before the advent of new technologies. Thus the coastal migration is not a viable hypothesis. Therefore, in my opinion, there were two groups, one in East and the other in North India (that moved from East) that later colonized whole India(or South Asia). The northern group is also responsible for West Eurasian matrilineages though the latter's patrilineages(like R1, E1b1b) might have later swapped the original patrilineags. Even then Y-Haplogroup J (aborigine West Asian), Y-haplogroup I (aborigine European) are sort of closely related to Y-Haplogroup H (aborigine Indian). However, all their matrilineages are descendents of Indian mtDNA R(H, U, JT) and mtDNA M(M1).

Implications:
Genetics does not consider a standard trait as the original trait. It considers various genotypes of a single trait as the pre-existing condition and any single genotype as a clue for bottlenecks. However, pseudo-science like anthropometry makes the mistake of considering standard look and derived look by admixture. By anthropometry, Indians are measured in terms of standard looks of Australian aborigines, SE Asian (so-called) Negritos, Europeans and Mediterraneans.

But when it comes to autosomes, we can see that diversity creates few standards (because of bottlenecks and isolation) and not popular myth (part of Anthropometry) that the admixture creates diversity (which could be observed only in Y-chromosome haplogroups which themselves change so rapidly to leave any genetic footprint in a population).

Now considering the fact that these so-called standard populations' matrilineages are but a subset of Indian matrilineages, we can argue all those standard looks are subset of Indian diversity. Those are all bottlenecked population.

By population genetics, I would think present day stereotypical Homo Sapiens looks could be attributed to the two main components.

1. African
2. Proto-Asian.

Prot Asian could be further divided into:
1. Indian
2. Bottlenecked Proto-Asian (East Asian)

Whereas the Indian looks could be found in South Asia, the bottlenecked looks derived from Indian looks (or could be from Proto-Asian thro' northern route hypothesis) could be found among:
1. Australian aborigines
2. SE Asian aborigines
3. North African and West Asian
4. European

Sources:
1. Razib's Gene Expression.
2. Maju's Leherensuge.
3. My anthropology discussion forum.

A Teyyam Story

The man is from stone cutter caste. He wants to live an adventurous and warrior life unbecoming of his birth. He migrates from Malayala region to Kodava region. He falls in love with a woman known for her valour. They marry. But before he could go and start his family life, he would meet a Muslim woman who charms and seduces him. The Kodava woman comes to know of his infidelity and in anger does not agree to consummate their marriage.

The man starts working as a merchant. One day he is waylaid by thieves on his way back home. He defeats them in the fight and reaches home. There he realizes that he has dropped the wedding ring given by his wife. Fearing the humiliation from his wife for losing it, he goes back to the place where he has fought the thieves. The thieves, who have his ring, are ready and kill him.

The wife comes to know of the whole incident. She goes to the place where he was killed and confronts the thieves. In the ensuing fight she kills them all and retrieves the ring.

Rise of Patriarchal Society - VII

Matrilineal traditions:
My previous post on the same topic, I discussed how matrilineal traditions consider semen as mere nurture but not the essence of life. This is in contrast to patrilineal traditions which consider semen as the essence of life and woman or womb as mere nurture.

One of the examples given was matrilineal Musuo community of China. This community assigned semen the role of rain. I believe matrilineal traditions were strong in northern Indian and Nepali regions close to Sino-Tibetan influence.

During the times of drought it is/was a tradition in Nepala and Uttara Pradesha for women to plough naked in fields to please rain god Indra. We fairly guess how wily wise men of the past synthesized matrilineal traditions with their patriarchal gods. This also gives good clue why Indra upstaged original rain god Varuna.

Seeing thro' patrilineal eyes, matrilineal traditions may look rather strange. This may lead to patrilineal rationalization of those traditions. It doesn't go well with Varuna's character to be enticed by women. But Indra is known for his loose morals.

Rise of Patriarchal Society - VI

Matrilineal traditions:
If patriarchal traditions have their foundations in male centric ignorance about sexual reproduction, how about females of the past. I don't think unrelated males and females sit together and come to a common conclusion in the matters of knowledge. Any association should be strictly within the sex. The ideas that grow into ritualization are either matrilineal or patrilineal. If matrilineal ritualizations became powerful, males adopted it and vice versa.

In present times, especially in Indian traditions, we don't see clearly delineated male specific ideas or female specific ideas. But before dwelling into that the question needed to be asked, is it possible to have male specific or female specific ideas? I think it's possible. What we see here, the foundations(of ideas) are always misunderstanding about physio-chemical phenomena. The obvious physical differences manifest in differences in the world views based on them. Therefore, diversity in ways, paths, points of views are just a limitation of knowledge or pure misunderstanding.

At the next level, domination of either patrilineal philosophies or matrilineal philosophies result in one sex taking up prejudices of other sex, which can be unnatural for the borrower sex.

But ideas are not always linear. By this I mean, the foundations aren't just restricted to familiar domain. People develop ideas based on unfamiliar domains. Men can hold certain views about women and vice versa. This is ignorance multiplied and hence non-linear. And mainly responsible for many degrading practices where linear ideas and non-linear ideas mix.

Vagina and Menstrual Blood:
I would think the following linear ideas in the early societies.
- Men glorify their penis and its secretion semen
- Women glorify their vagina and its secretion menstrual blood

This of course makes sense. These glories are associated with bodily waste and hence dirty. But there is no reason to believe that women would be ashamed of their vagina and menstrual blood as men haven't. The association with creative power is the obvious reason for positive view. However, it appears in many societies (Not universally) men had developed non-linear idea about menstrual blood. And the result had been degrading menstrual blood practices where these negative ideas had been ritualized. However, it is unknown (to me) whether women had developed negative views about male glories and ritualized it in their matrilineal traditions.

Snake Worship:
This is a curious tradition. Generally, women are n the forefront of snake worship. Snake has generally (as far as I know) been held to be a representation of penis. Does that mean women had developed a positive attitude towards unfamiliar domain? Maju@Leherensuge in fact informed that some anthropologists consider snake a complete manifestation of genitals. The head as vagina and the body, penis. I would think early females most likely considered the only head part.

If you consider the ritual then it becomes very clear. Generally, snake is worshipped by pouring milk into the anthill. Milk of course here is the representation of semen. Matrilineal Musuo community in China considered semen as rain. If men thought women are mere nurturing condition, so did women. Semen is milk, a mere nurture for their glorious vagina.

The Tulu Tribes - V

Pandyas revisited:
Apart from Tulu and Malayalam regions, none of the other Dravidian regions had matrilineal traditions. This is indeed an intriguing situation and needs an explanation.

Sexual Divison of Labour:
There are studies that question the sexual division of labour in hunter-gatherer societies. Instead they opine that it's a phenomenon of sedentary societies. Considering that civilization first took roots in sedentary societies, we can be sure that it would have had patriarchal authority.

But civilization also rose in other hunter-gatherer societies because of contact with sedentary societies. I think the interplay between sedentary community and HG bands determined whether the resulting society became patrilineal or matrilineal.

Since there is no strict division of labour in hunter-gatherer bands, I would consider the family structure was matrilineal and there was no definite community structure or no authority.

Now the present day Dravidian tribes are also not matrilineal. To account for that, I propose that when the concept of marriage entered into these tribes, even though they remained as tribals, matriliny made way to patriliny. Patriliny is a conscious structure and identity whereas matriliny is a natural development which is a non-conscious identity.

But the question is whether it is possible for any matrilineal community to become a matriarchal society. I am going to rely upon Rhoda Halperin's view that food scarcity drives HG bands to adopt exclusive male hunters society. However, abundance would have both sexes in equal responsibility. Here I propose, only HG bands in food abundance regions have any chance of turning into matrilineal and matriarchal(or equal rights as there is no sexual division of labour) non-tribal society. However, we have to introduce one more variable into this. And that is the class of sedentary society that comes into contact with this HG band.

Matriliny and Traders:
I propose if priests and rulers meet the tribal society first then the HG band may turn into patriarchal one. However, if traders meet them first then there could be chances that HG band in food abundance region could turn into matriarchal or equal rights society.

In my opinion, the traders from eastern India moved to south-west coastal India in probably 4th or 5th century BCE. From there they sold black pepper to Arab and Greek regions and imported black-eyed peas. South India around that time was inhabited by numerous Dravidian tribes. And most likely Tulu-Malayalam region was a food abundance region and therefore without much sexual division of labour.

Pandyas:
Be it patriarchal or matriarchal(equal rights), if the transition from tribal to non-tribal society is influenced by another sedentary society then it tries to build upon the structure of the sedentary society or legitimizes itself from the parent society. Here I try to explain the earliest known record of matriarchal kingdom of Pandyas. According to Megasthenes Pandyas were ruled by a queen who was the daughter of Hercules.

Here we can see two legends of north being adopted by matriarch ruling class to legitimize itself. The first one is the name Pandya. There are many speculations that Pandya could have been derived from Pandava. But why Pandava? It's mainly because there is a legend in Mahabharata that would legitimize female rule.

Arjuna, one of the Pandavas, goes to a kingdom ruled by women when the horse of Ashvamedha enters that territory. To cut the story short, the queen Pramila becomes Arjuna's consort or Arjuna becomes her consort. This story along with another Mahabharata hero Krishna (whom the Greeks identified with Hercules) was adopted by one of the matrilineal households after they took these traders as their consorts.

I would think this is how a strong matrilineal tradition was cemented in Tulu and Malayalam region. Maybe even Sri Lanka too was initially matrilineal/matiarchal. I suppose according to legends before King Vijaya, it was ruled by a queen called Kuveni.

Though these initial contacts with traders made the matrilineal tradition mainstream, as I argued before, the inherent weaknesses, which I would identify as non-conscious matrilineal identity, rendered it non-conscious slave of male overlordship. It is highly possible that one of the male heirs of Pandya line turned it into patrilineal structure and expanded into Tamil region*. Since inherently matriarchy is equal rights rulers need not be only females.

This could be seen in Malayala region where even matrilineal families were headed by only male members. However, the situation was bit different in Tulu region where I suppose the eldest female member of the family had the same rights as the male member.

*Here it should be noted that patrilineal Tamil Pandyas called their capital as Madurai after Krishna's birth place Mathura. We have already noticed that Megasthenes' matriarchal Pandyas also considered themselves Krishna's descendants.

Maternal Ancestry of Malayalis - II

I have discussed about some of the maternal lineages of Malayalis before. At that time I didn't have any idea about my subclade. Recently, I came across a Jewish matrilineage data from yet to be published Doron M Behar's new study. I found my near match in one of the samples. That probably is a Malayali Jew lineage.


I have tested for HVRI and HVRII sequences and I have exact match in the following sequence.

EF556193 Haplogroup M
A73G T152C A263G 309.1C 315.1C G316A T489C A750G A1438G A4769G
T5201C C7028T A8701G T8843C A8860G A9180G T9540C G9947A A10398G C10400T
G10685A T10873C G11719A G12007A C12705T A13105G C14766T T14783C G15043A A15196G G15301A A15326G G15355A T15862C T15968C C16223T T16263C T16519C C16527T

My HVR sequence:

HVR1 : 16223T,16263C,16519C,16527T
HVR2 : 73G,152C,263G,309.1C,315.1C,316A,489C

I most likely belong to mtDNA haplogroup M4* as the complete sequence has mutation at location 12007.

M Derived: (HVR1 sequence)
M50* : 223, 263, 519 (*)

*Update 1-may-2008:
Behar et al. paper is out. I belong to mtDNA M50* subclade of macro haplogroup M4'30.

Update 10-May-2008:
Ibra has pointed out that the designation M50 has already been used in the study "Austro-Asiatic Tribes of Northeast India Provide Hitherto Missing Genetic Link between South and Southeast Asia", by Reddy et al. (2007). I appears Behar et al. are oblivious of this paper as they declare the designation is a new one. We can expect M50 getting a new name.

The Origins of Indians: Version 9.1

Dravidian languages:

The legacy of pseudo-scientific anthropometric studies of the past is still deep rooted in India (at least with people who are interested in history, anthropology...others don't count anyway). Many physical anthropologists had wild and free run classifying Indians. I strongly feel the whole field is absurd.

First of all, the stature and skull shape of Homo Sapiens have never been constant. It changes because of changing food habits and changing geographical conditions. Also, if you compare the present haplogroup clans with those 'racial groups' you can clearly appreciate the futility of whole exercise.

The popular understanding is simple. India was initially inhabited by short and dark Australoid. Most of them were massacred by more robustly built also dark Mediterranean Dravidians. These Dravidians were later subjugated by light skinned Aryans from Europe.

I don't want to go on discussing about these self-sustaining myths (or science at a particular point of time). I would like to make few observations for my group, Dravidians.

If you observe Central India then it must be evident that the Dravidian tribes have in fact recognized the Austro-Asiatic tribes' religious supremacy in the regions where those tribes are dominant. The priests who officiate rituals of Dravidian tribes are from Austro-Asiatic tribes. That probably shows higher level of society belongs to Austro-Asiatics than Dravidians.

Second, there is no Dravidian marker if you go by genetic studies. In fact, there is no uniform distribution of dominant male genetic lineages among three biggest Dravidian groups like Telugus, Tamils and Kannadigas. J2b, H , R2 and L all dominate among different groups. Compare this wih Indo-Aryan speaking population and Austro-Asiatic population. There you can clearly associate R1a1 with IE and O2a with Austro-Asiatics. But not in the case of Dravidians.

This is the precise reason I believe the Dravidian languages are part of South India since the beginning. In north India you can find isolated languages like, Nahali, Burushaski and probably now extinct Bhil language. But not so in the case of South India. Therefore, in my opinion, Dravidian languages have been sustained by Dravidian females through multiple male migrations. Any words related to West Asian languages may be just loans from later arrived males.

Ravi Mundkur blogs about a new study that talks about distinct Koraga(a tribe in coastal Karnataka region) language. But by my understanding it is impossible that south Indian tribes have ever lost their languages. It should be noted here that mainstream Dravidans(along with majority of Indo-Aryans in the north) have maternal lineages that they share with these tribes and not only that nearly 30% male lineages(Haplogroup H) too.

If Dravidian languages have been imposed by the newly arrived males (probably J2b who make up 15-20% of the population and who qualify as "Mediterraneans") then I find it difficult to explain distinct Dravidian language branches among central Indian tribes. Some of these tribes(also J2b is hardly observed among Dravidian tribes) are so remote(Bison Horn Maria) and until recent times were totally cut off from mainstream.

I would propose Dravidian languages are matrilineal.

Matriliny in Andhra Pradesh -III

It appears many Art historians have concluded that seemingly metronymics of Satavahana/Ikshvaku kings are in fact Gotra names. (Via Indo-Eurasian_research, Yahoo Groups).