Battle of the Sexes - ii

Although some of the genes on the Y chromosome have been maintained, most of them have died, and the team found evidence that some others are on track to disappear, as well. "Even though some of the genes appear to be important, we still think there is a chance that the Y chromosome eventually could disappear," said Makova. "If this happens, it won't be the end of males. Instead, a new pair of non-sex chromosomes likely will start on the path to becoming sex chromosomes."

Via Science Daily

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.

The Roma

"Who are these people?" asks the man behind the counter in the photo store in Southall, an area also known as London's Little India.
He is handing over my order: a hefty pile of colour photographs, of which a picture of two Roma women and their children (above) is the first.
"They look just like the Banjara in Rajasthan - that's where I come from," he says.
He points to a beautiful print on the wall, showing a glamorous group of female Banjara dancers.
The similarity is striking.
Historians agree that the Roma's origins lie in north-west India and that their journey towards Europe started between the 3rd and 7th Centuries AD - a massive migration prompted by timeless reasons: conflicts, instability and the seeking of a better life in big cities such as Tehran, Baghdad and, later on, Constantinople.
Some of these Indian immigrant workers were farmers, herdsmen, traders, mercenaries or book-keepers. Others were entertainers and musicians.
They settled in the Middle East, calling themselves Dom, a word meaning "man".

Post-war European governments on both sides of the Iron Curtain denied the Roma Holocaust survivors any recognition or aid
To this day they retain their name and speak a language related to Sanskrit.
Large numbers moved into Europe, where the D, which was anyway pronounced with the tongue curled up, became an R, giving the word Rom. Today's European Roma (the plural of Rom) are their descendants.

Via BBC on the Roma

In my opinion, comparing the Roma with the Banjara (Lambani) because of their looks can be misleading. It's obvious that the comparison has stemmed out of their relative lighter skin tone as compared to South and South East Indians.

But the Lambani and the Roma are two different groups. The Roma can be only compared to Domba (another nomadic group in India). But Dombas look just like South or South-East Indians.

The Roma are predominantly Y-haplogroup H and Y-Haplogroup R2 people. Interestingly they carry negligible or nil Y-Haplogroup R1a1, a predominant north-west Indian lineage.

There is also a view that their language which was initially thought to be close to north-west Indian languages could be in fact close to Sinhala. The ancestors of Sinhalese are from eastern India.

Considering their haplogroup profile coupled with their linguistic roots, they would rather match with central-east Indians than north-west Indians.

Now, the fact is many of them do look like light skinned Lambanis(or vice versa). The light skin of the Roma is because of their admixture with West Asians and south-western Europeans.(The route they took appear to be north-west India->West Asia->Mediterranean->south-western Europe/north-eastern Europe-> Central Asia).

But what explains Lambani lighter skin tone? Well, interestingly, it appears they are European nomads in India, just like the Roma are Indian nomads in Europe. According to Sahoo et al.(2006), they carry Y-haplogroup R1b at around 28%(5/18). Considering the fact that they lack J and E, they are most likely from central-west European lands than from West Asia. It should be noted here that Y-haplogroup R1b is hardly present in castes and tribes of India. Also, curiously, they carry mtDNA N1a. There is N1a in India which is close to Iranian samples(Mountain et al.(1995), Baig et al (2004)). However, Lambani N1a is different (according to a Russian expert on mtDNA). I wonder whether their R1b haplotypes and N1a motifs could be compared to present or ancient DNA found in Europe.

Whatever the case, the Roma are from the present day nation state India. But making that point from the skin deep observations is pointless. In fact, as I have explained above, it might ironically show non-Indian inputs in this case. But BBC has always been a fine example of Anglo-Saxon literal view.

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.

Origins of Indians : Version 8.2

Coastal Migration Theory and I:
I have been a skeptic of the 'Coastal Migration Theory'. In my previous post on the same topic I found the theory unreliable because of Y-haplogroup distribution pattern in India.

Evidence from mtDNA:
A new study says (Via my discussion forum) not only mtDNA N is older than M but also M in East Asia is older than South Asia. At least one study before this also found that M in East Asia and Oceania is older than South Asia. These facts coupled with our stereotypical knowledge of India at the receiving end of most of the migrations from East or West goes against the legend of the Coastal Migration.

Sanity is restored:
The argument put forth for the Coastal Migration which I found rather bizarre is;
"It is easy to move along the coast and colonize the whole world than it is possible in any other way"
I don't understand why early man should have the explorer's zeal. The coastal areas of India are generally abundant with food supplies. Why would any population leave that region?

Another argument is northern East Asia, an alternative root to colonize SE Asia and Oceania( and has been the stereotypical case in the known past), because of inhospitable mountainous and cold environment early humans might not have moved to those regions.

But I would think man moved when he found imposing mountain but not the other way round. I would propose another hypothesis for the rapid movement of early humans.

Quest for warmth:
Since Homo Sapiens Migrated from hot African regions, they might have always preferred to live in tropical regions than temperate regions. The reason we don't find many older haplogroups in Europe and Central Asia because those were cooler regions unlike Africa. Early humans were in constant motion in search of summers. Most likely the early movement that gave rise to early Australians is;

Europe-> Central Asia->northern East Asia->western East Asia->SE Asia->Australia.

Note it's all thro' inhospitable regions never touching the coastal regions. Some of them(Y-haplogroup C and D) did adjuste to northern East Asia. Some continued south until they reached mostly hotter SE Asia and Oceania.

Another wave that moved South Asia took West Asia (where you find mtDNA M1) route. South Asia gave warmth and hospitable region leading to stagnation.

Question

What is Velupillai Prabhakaran's Y-Haplogroup? I guess they might have done only haplotype matching with his son. But that should give us fairly good idea of his haplogroup. It would be better if we can find his matrilineage too.

Essence of Male - i

What is a male being?

Is male essentially a Heterosexual? No.
Is male essentially a Homosexual? No.
Is male essentially a Bisexual? No.

Male is Asexual.

What makes a male? Y-chromosome.
What is a Y-chromosome? An asexual chromosome.

The essence of male is the essence of its Y-chromosome.

Battle of the Sexes - i

Another change in neo-X that Bachtrog suspects is taking place is the elimination of genes that are harmful to females. Biologists have realized recently that some genes have opposite effects in males and females, and evolution is a tug of war between males jettisoning genes that they find detrimental only to have females put them back, and vice versa.

"A good place to put sexually antagonistic genes that are beneficial to one sex but detrimental to the other is on the sex chromosomes," she said. The Y always ends up in the male, she said, so genes on the Y chromosome won't affect females.
"Conversely, the X chromosome becomes feminized with genes that are good for the female but detrimental to the male," said Bachtrog, adding that the X also becomes demasculinized, losing genes that are of use only in the male.

Via Science Daily.

Origins of Indians: Version 11.0

Indian skull shape:
Anthropometry has been traditionally used in the reconstruction of history of particular region. This is one of its numerous pseudo-scientific applications. We know that;
- Communities of a particular lineage/s in a region can change its skull shape because of change in lifestyle (nomadic to sedentary). eg. China and Middle East
- Tribal populations because of restricted food supply and region can drift towards certain type of skull shape.
- Of course, looks of matrilineage generally prevails upon in mixed population as it's more stable. This is in the sense men move or change in any region.

However, anthropometry has been widely used to stereotype the looks of a particular region. Then employ this stereotypical look to give an identity based on present day identities to faceless old populations of that region. And there are still many people who think this is more scientific than skin colour studies to identify the groups.

But thanks to Population Genetics now we can get clear picture of old populations and their relationship to one another. Here too just like skin colour based notions, skull shape based ideas fail miserably.

Munda:
In India, it's been traditionally thought that Mundas predate Dravidians and IE speakers. Many a time their skull shape has been considered as a standard. Now we know that just like their language their main male lineage (Haplogroup O2a) is observed in Austro-Asiatic populations of SE Asia/S China. But their matrilineage is typical to India. Their looks can't be considered as a standard. We now know that their male ancestry skull shape was entirely different. Therefore, present day look of Mundas is misleading.

Other examples:
We can find such examples in other parts of the world too.
Finland:
Generally, Finnish were considered as epitome of Nordic look(Blond/Dolichocephalic). But now we know that a big chunk of male ancestry(Y-haplogroup N1c) could have had entirely different look. Only their matrilineage is completly European. Therefore, present day look of Finnish is misleading.

North Africa:
In the case of Mundas and Finnish the original male look would have resembled present day East Asian look. A similar story could be found in North Africa. Light skinned North Africans are predominantly Y-haplogroup E1b1b. This haplogroup and it's closest branch Y-haplogroup E1b1a could be found among their southern dark skinned population. But their matrilineage is predominantly European. Therefore, the present day look of North Africans is misleading. Hilariously, there are Europeans who claim ancient Egyptian civilization as their own. Those people are handicapped by American model of white skin distribution thro' European males. But European male lineages are insignificant in comparison to their female lineage either in North Africa or West Asia. Considering how patriarchy prevailed in the past, probably, dark skinned Africans have higher claim on Egyptian civlization than Europeans.

A Father is Complete Parent; Mother is Half - i

We have seen that ignorant wise men of the past had made complete fools of themselves by thinking semen is seed. But the modern science is giving some respect to their one idea that man is complete but woman is not. It is in parenting we find the difference. As of now, it's the only area we find the clear differences between the sexes.

A discussion on what one mean by clear difference would be relevant here. There are studies that talk about various differences between the sexes. But in those studies difference is expressed in terms of average difference of statistical distributions of certain measurements. Frankly, I don't understand how to interpret them. I wonder when I see these results, do my opinion about them also gets normally distributed? Or do I need to select a certain interval and view it as true and the rest false? But the practical application of statistical analysis is not only to measure the variability but also to minimize it by tweaking the variables. Hence, it can be also viewed as a measure of success or failure of our optimization.

Considering all these complications, I would prefer having binary opinion. This of course requires;
- binary results for any experimentation
- no room for optimization

And I have found in the case of parenting this could be obtained. I have already blogged about couple of studies on this:
1. Mother's positive influence on daughter. Mother' no influence on son. Father's influence on both son and daughter.
2. Mother's negative influence on daughter.

There is a new study that further supports the second point.

the participants listened to 30-second audio recordings of remarks from their mother. Some comments were praising, some were critical and others were neutral in content. The comments were previously recorded over the telephone with the permission of the mothers. The participants were also asked to rate their mood on a scale from one to five after hearing the different kinds of remarks.
Despite being healthy and reporting similar conscious reactions to the recorded comments, the formerly depressed showed different activity in their brains, compared to those who had never been depressed. "When we asked them how they felt after being criticized, they responded in the same way as the controls did," said Hooley. "But when we looked at the brain scans, the patterns of activation were quite different. So this is happening under the radar of awareness."

The results of those studies are captured in the following tables.

Father's Influence	positive	negative
Son	1	1
Daughter	1	1

Mother's Influence	positive	negative
Son	0	0
Daughter	1	1

Thus we can say that father is a complete parent as he can influence both his son and daughter but mother is just half as she can influence only her daughter.

Now what about the combined influence of parents? Especially when one is positive and the other negative. There would be influence nevertheless but will it be positive or negative? It is very clear that there can't be any combined influence on son. What about the daughter? I haven't come across any studies on them. I can't apply logical AND or OR function here. We have to understand here, positive or negative they just complete the influence and hence true. To understand the combined influence we need to understand the underlying biological basis for this.

The first clue could be found in mother's non-influence on her son. The only reason why a mother can't influence her son could be the difference in sex chromosomes or SRY region of Y-chromosome in particular. Therefore, everything boils down to sex chromosomes. And this in turn gives further clue why a father can influence both his son and daughter. Now our interest is what happens when one of the parents have positive and the other negative influence. A simple model is mother influences thro' her X-chromosome and father thro' his. It's all Epigenetics (Epi=Beyond; Genetics).

We know that a defective gene expression is suppressed by a corresponding normal gene. This we can view as negative getting nullified by positive. Taking this concept further we can say that negative epigenetic behaviour is suppressed by positive epigenetic behaviour. Hence, a daughter can have positive outlook even with just one parent being positive about her.