Race and Medicine - III

Batten disease girl given custom-made drug

One of the said goals of Population Genetics studies on human genetic genealogy was its application in medicine. The argument was the drugs can’t be universal as there are differences among humans. Finding out the distinct groups among humans and tailoring medicines to those individual groups was the supposed motivation.

Many suspected the whole exercise was a disguise to give scientific background to racism by creating categories of humans. Some of the scientists part of these studies were known to harbour racial prejudices. The studies energised White supremacists on the web.

The studies that started in the late nineties saw the emergence of bloggers and sites where individuals armed with statistical tools mined the studies and came up with their own theories. It was a rare mixture of racial prejudice and scientific neutrality. Only intellectual dishonesty required to reconcile them both as they struggled to come up with new definitions for the race.

The studies showed the differences but also the admixture and clinal variation which were a nightmare of racial purists. However, many still soldiers on instead of accepting loss of face. This group is a unique mixture of people with different ethnic background.

The pure racists weren’t exactly torchbearers of white brotherhood. They, in fact, put down southern and eastern Europeans dismissing them as less pure. So, there were eastern and southern Europeans trying to uphold their honour. Adding to the mix were Asians who thought they were too strong that they didn’t need white social justice warriors’ protection(as they thought). Their belief was that races were scientifically true but these white rationalists mask that truth to protect them from white racists. However, most of the western scientists opposed the classification purely for scientific reasons and as things turned out they were true throughout. I wouldn’t say, there weren’t non-scientists who opposed it purely from its effect on society. However, even their lack of scientific background doesn’t negate the fact that their rational thinking was far more nuanced than these Asian race warriors'. Sometimes, I feel Asian race warriors regress into argument from incredulity fallacy. They don't sound much different from theists who believe in god because they don't understand how things work. These Asian race warriors support racism because they don't understand the multiple concepts put forth by non-scientist humanists to oppose racism.

These individuals forget that it's not about them or their ability but it's about a dangerous idea and how it affects a group as a whole. Even if some groups have moved up, how racism affects more vulnerable smaller groups. Sometimes the groups that were at the receiving end of the prejudices in the past, now with their new political and social power, perpetuating it on other groups while forgetting the fact that they could move up in the first place because mainstream society rejected the idea legally.

A similar behavioural pattern could be observed among underprivileged castes with their caste pride in Indian society. Also, some of the OBC individuals’ opposition to social justice initiatives.

Coming back to the original topic of this post, there were other scientists who were sceptical about the medical utility of these studies. In their opinion, if anything, medicine has to be individualised(N-to-one). Group medicine will always have the same drawbacks of universal medicine.

I’ve seen individuals being turned off by the whole field of modern medicine(which they then start calling using that abusive term, “allopathy”) as some times drugs don’t work on them. These aren’t Hindutva/right-wing nuts. It would be nice if N-to-one can help these small percentage of the population at a reasonable cost. Their frustration and pain sometimes can have a greater influence on society, helping the quacks along the way.

Related:
https://bantwal.blogspot.com/2008/07/human-genetics-and-racial-categories.html

Origin of the Caste System - I

According to a new study on an IVC ancient DNA, there was no European component in the genetic makeup of the Rakhigarhi individual dated around 2800-2300 BCE. The Steppe component appeared 2000-1500 BCE onwards. During this period, Indus Valley Civilization was in total decline.

According to the authors, this IVC component is still the biggest among Indians. So, evidently, after the decline of the IVC, the people still survived. What would have been their condition? Most likely their society might have been in a disarray. There would have been no proper political structure and there might have been chaos. This would have been an ideal time for an invading group to impose itself politically and culturally on a people who had lost a unifying identity and political leadership. A similar situation one might observe throughout our history.

What we observe in the early stage of the caste system is the dominance of Indo-European deities. However, in due course, those deities became minor. The new dominant ones like Shiva and Vishnu appear to be an assimilation of native traditions with the Vedic tradition but within the caste structure. In my opinion, there could have been two exclusive phases in the interaction between Indo-Europeans and the IVC people.

- Broken IVC people enabling the IEs to impose their culture and create a caste system with themselves in the highest position

- Re-emergence native traditions which were then assimilated with the Vedic culture. However, without changing the caste hierarchy (though only Brahmins matter)

We can observe that this became a template for Brahmins wherever they migrated in the subcontinent - keep the caste hierarchy and assimilate the native traditions with the Vedic culture.

The only way to describe a situation where outsiders imposed their culture on the natives and kept themselves at the top of the hierarchy is "invasion".

In which population genetics debunked Aryan Migration Theory and reinstated Aryan Invasion Theory

According to the study, The Genomic Formation of South and Central Asia, Indians are a hybrid group of;
1. Dravidians
2. Indus Valley People
3. Indo-Aryans

The Indus Valley people were a mix of Dravidians and Elamites.
Indo-Aryans were a mix of Europeans and Elamites.

There were two distinct groups.
1. Ancient North Indian: Mix of Indo-Aryans and Indus Valley people
2. Ancient South Indian: Mix of Dravidians and Indus Valley people

These two groups later mixed at a varying degree to form the present day Indians.

Interestingly, the major percentage (70-99%) of Indian genome belongs to Dravidians and Indus Valley people.

This again gives credence to the Aryan Invasion Theory where predominantly male Central Asian people, invaded and ruled over the local population spreading their culture and language. The female lineage(mtDNA haplogroup) is predominantly Dravidian and Elamite.

Usefulness of Genetic Horoscope - IV_a

According to my SNP based traits, I'm a morning person. However, in my opinion, I'm neither. Now, another research says, morning persons are more likely to see 'the dress' as white and gold. Well,  I indeed saw it as white and gold. Time to change my life routine completely then.

Usefulness of Genetic Horoscope - IV

The DNA Land guesses some of the traits based on the SNPs. It's a mixed bag for me.

1. Circadian rhythm: I'm  'likely a morning person'. In my opinion, I'm neither.

2. Coffee: It says 'lower than average consumption'. But I'm not sure whether it asks me to consume fewer cups or I'm destined to drink fewer cups(which I'm not). However, I cut down my coffee consumption after I came to know that I metabolize caffeine slower than the average (which is bad for cardiovascular health, supposedly).

3. Educational Attainment: It seems my genes predict 14.1 years of education(which is actually lower than the number of years that I've put, 18). However, I tend to agree with the prediction here. I tend to believe I do have interest in learning things but not in the kind of education system that we have. However, I don't clearly have the alternatives too.

4. Neuroticism: I've a 'low tendency towards neuroticism'. By definition,

Neuroticism is one of the personality traits included in the commonly-used five factor model and is defined as having a tendency to experience negative emotions, such as anxiety, depression, excessive shyness and self-consciousness, and difficulty dealing with stress. 

 Not sure. I think I do feel 'guilt' and 'anxiety' even though not to the extent that disrupts my life but which certainly hinders me to undertake anything that involves risk.

5. Eye Colour: I'm 'likely to have brown eyes'. If by brown they mean black then it's correct.

6. Height: It says I'm 'likely to be short'. I agree. Then they go on putting a number to that, 152cm, with a 'fair' confidence. I'm just euphoric. I've beaten that by a good 19cm.

7. Nearsightedness: As it predicts I'm 'slightly nearsighted'. The number they put is -1.7 diopters. This is close to my right eye power (-1.75) whereas my left eye is -0.5.

My Ethnic Origins

Sometime ago, I posted the results from an earlier version of FTDNA ancestry tool, Population Finder. According it, I was Elamo-Dravidian.

However, their latest tool, Family Finder finds me a mix of South Asian and South-East Asian.

A new research group in this area, DNA LAND, now has made me 100% West Eurasian like the old FTDNA tool. I wonder whether as the number of samples in the database increases this would change and they would find S E Asian ancestry.

Why 'Gujarati'? It should be southern IVC, and IVC should be northern IVC.

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. 

My Neanderthal Score

Based on my FTDNA Family Finder results and this article;

rs10800485 - CC - Neanderthal

rs6670818   - GG - Neanderthal
rs10494778 - AA - Sapiens

rs7536180   - CC - Sapiens

rs16845098 - TT  - Sapiens

rs17503834 - TT  - Sapiens

rs17430552 - TT  - Sapiens

rs17254301 - CC - Sapiens

rs1330692   - TT  - Sapiens

rs16918958 - CC - Sapiens

rs16917040 - TT  - Sapiens

rs12416000 - GG - Sapiens

rs11252810 - CC - Sapiens

rs11815066 - AG - Neanderthal-Sapiens mixed

rs17745316 - GG - Sapiens

rs9609421   - AA - Sapiens

I'm Elamo-Dravidian

That's what I could infer from my Population Finder results, I suppose.

Usefulness of Genetic Horoscope - III

Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie has undergone a double mastectomy to reduce her chances of getting breast cancer.
:
She said her doctors estimated she had an 87% risk of breast cancer and a 50% risk of ovarian cancer. "I decided to be proactive and to minimise the risk as much I could," she wrote.
:

"but the truth is I carry a 'faulty' gene, BRCA1, which sharply increases my risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer"

 :

Her chances of developing breast cancer have now dropped from 87% to under 5%, she said.

Via BBC News 

Absurdities of Caste Genetic Studies - Notes

It appears population genetics studies are a great platform for new age Manu-s to come up with their own classification of different castes. It's unclear whether these new classifications are the results of latent casteism of the researchers involved or some kind of political pressure or some kind of malicious game being played.

Check the following from a new study on South Indian castes (which is an exaggerated claim as the study included samples from Tamil Nadu only) [1].

Indian populations are broadly classified into two categories: ‘tribal’ and ‘non-tribal’ groups [3]. Tribal groups, constituting 8% of the Indian population, are characterized by traditional modes of subsistence such as hunting and gathering, foraging and seasonal agriculture of various kinds [2], [3]. In contrast, most other Indians fall into non-tribal categories, many of them classified as castes under the Hindu Varna (Color caste) system which groups caste populations, primarily on occupation, into Brahmin (priestly class), Kshatriya (warrior and artisan), Vyasa (merchant), Shudra (unskilled labor) and the most recently added fifth class, Panchama, the scheduled castes of India [2], [3].

First, I must appreciate that the description is far more academic than the one we found in the study of the Roma.

But what on earth is Kshatriya -> warrior and artisan? First of all, the four fold Varnashrama doesn't fit to the South Indian society (if at all it fits anywhere). But as of now, that's a first with the Kshatriya definition. Let's check the castes part of warriors and artisans.

Valayar -> Erstwhile Net weavers
Tamil Jains -> Jains (thus not a caste)
Ezhava -> This is a Malayali caste. Erstwhile agricultural labourers and toddy tappers
Mukkuvar -> Erstwhile fishermen

Theoretically, I suppose Valayar could be considered as artisans. However, from a general caste perspective typical artisans were smiths (goldsmith, carpenter, blacksmith etc...). They were not included in the study.

If being a soldier can be considered as a warrior/Kshatriya then, almost all castes in South India fit the bill. In certain regions few castes were exempted (not really because of their lower status, as Brahmins were also exempted) and most other castes had to send men when their feudal chieftain went for a battle. Most of the Dalit castes were also part of armies (true in Kannada/Tulu and Tamil regions as far as I know). However, the status of these castes were always low. Being a soldier had nothing to do with upward mobility or "assimilation".

How Tamil Jains became part of the list is still a mystery. 

Then there is a special category of "Dry Land Farmers" and it includes the following castes.
Yadhava -> herders
Vanniyar -> farmers
Nadar -> agricultural labourers, toddy tappers (equivalent to Malayali Ezhavas)
Piramal Kallar -> ?
Maravar -> ?

I wonder when Ezhava could be part of the warriors why not Kallar, Maravar and Nadar?

Also, I'm just disappointed to see the reliance on the oldest Tamil works to create an early Dravidian society. At least, in my opinion most of interpretations were nationalistic, highly biased and many of them not even peer reviewed (which I came to know was the case with the Brahmin apologist George L Hart's interpretation).

They make the following claim and I feel these (bolded) are strawman arguments.

It is therefore most likely that the Varna system was superimposed on the pre-existing and historically attested social system without significant population transfer or input, implementing a new social hierarchy and order during the Pallava/Chola period from the 6^th through 12^th centuries CE [15], [22]. However, the implementation of the Varna system may have not been uniform across preexisting non-tribal populations since many of the populations within DLF and tribes do not practice either Vedic rituals or have very definite patrilineal system and clan exogamy. Overall, our results suggest that the genetic impact of Brahmin migrations into TN has been minimal and had no major effect on the establishment of the genetic structure currently detected in the region

I suppose many Dravidian endogamous tribes became endogamous castes as society became sedentary. In fact, some of the endogamous castes had endogamous clans, likely showing different tribal origins but later consolidation under one identity because of the caste system. I suppose even now one can find endogamous tribes that speak the same language (eg. Pathans). My point is it's irrelevant if there were many endogamous communities before the enforcement of the caste system. It also masks the ritualized discrimination which was the caste system by equating the divisions to tribal endogamy.

Nevertheless, it requires a great stretch of imagination to call populations of that antiquity in South India (with a primitive agricultural setup) a structured society and also absolute naivety to believe the neat classification described in the texts (which clearly describe people with a complete idea of the caste system living in that society).

Reference:
1. Population Differentiation of Southern Indian Male Lineages Correlates with Agricultural Expansions Predating the Caste System - Arun Kumar et al. (2012)

The Roma - III

A previous paper on Roma found maternal lineages originating from north-west of India. A new paper is now reporting that even their paternal lineages could be traced to the same location[1]. Their main lineage H1a1a has haplotype matches with a nomadic tribe, Doma, hailing from that region. They reconcile their linguistic and folk origins which puts them in the Gangetic belt (Central Indo-Aryan) by noting Doma's spread from north-west to eastern India.

Of course, there is the Gyaneshwar Chaubey(one of the authors in the study) special in the study:

Scheduled castes and Scheduled tribes are the endogamous groups in India that are given a special status by the Government of India to uplift their social status (for more details, refer [47]). Historically, the assimilation of so-called tribals into the caste system generally did little to ameliorate the socio-economic barriers or enhance the marriageability of former outcastes to members of the middle or high castes.

Let's analyze those sentences.
1. This is a research paper. Do you introduce a group as something that has been given special status? That should be the last sentence in a long essay. I suppose an introduction to untouchability and isolated non-mainstream groups in India would have been in order.

2. In the second sentence, the use of the word 'assimilation' gives a positive spin to what in reality a 'name calling' and exclusion of groups. The word assimilation in fact puts the onus of the failure directly at their doorstep.

3. Basically, those two sentences are some kind of observation and not really neutral definition or introduction thus a complete absurdity in a research paper.

Reference:
1. The Phylogeography of Y-Chromosome Haplogroup H1a1a-M82 Reveals the Likely Indian Origin of the European Romani Populations - Niraj Rai et al. (2012)

Lineage and Language - 0.2

Previously, when I made a random comparison between uni-parental lineage distribution and the language families I found majority were associated with male lineages. Exceptions were Dravdian, Basque, Niger-Congo and Nilo-Saharan languages.

There is a new study that discusses about this phenomenon and also thinks languages were spread patrilineally.  Anyway, I would think the process would involve some women too.

Even if the invading or immigrating males formed the majority, without few women among them, there wouldn't be any societal setup for the language survive. I would say, those few women would have formed a societal core in the foreign lands around which out married males propagated their language to the new lands. Had it been only males the chances are remote that they would have been able to create the societal core and more likely they would have taken up the local languages.

Even in Dravidian lands, we don't find corresponding female lines for the male lines. That probably shows migrants were almost completely males.

If we go by this logic, the idea of 'mother tongue' still holds good because at the end of the day it's the societal core setup by the minority females in the foreign lands that propagated the language.

The Roma - ii

In my previous post on the Roma, I speculated that they were mainly from central-east Indian region. My understanding was based on two factors;
- Romas are predominantly Y-Haplogroup H people. They have negligible R1a1. Had they been north-western people this wouldn't have been the case. Considering that Y-Haplogroup H dominates among tribes (mainly Dravidian) of central-east, their origin should be from that region.
- There is an opinion that Romani language is related to Sinhalese and Sinhalese were originally from eastern India region.

Along with those two points we need to note that there is a similar community called the Domba, who majorly speak the Dravidian languages, and found in south and east India.

There is a new study[1] on mtDNA lineages of the Roma people.

Previous genetic, anthropological and linguistic studies have shown that Roma (Gypsies) constitute a founder population dispersed throughout Europe whose origins might be traced to the Indian subcontinent. Linguistic and anthropological evidence point to Indo-Aryan ethnic groups from North-western India as the ancestral parental population of Roma. Recently, a strong genetic hint supporting this theory came from a study of a private mutation causing primary congenital glaucoma. In the present study, complete mitochondrial control sequences of Iberian Roma and previously published maternal lineages of other European Roma were analyzed in order to establish the genetic affinities among Roma groups, determine the degree of admixture with neighbouring populations, infer the migration routes followed since the first arrival to Europe, and survey the origin of Roma within the Indian subcontinent. Our results show that the maternal lineage composition in the Roma groups follows a pattern of different migration routes, with several founder effects, and low effective population sizes along their dispersal. Our data allowed the confirmation of a North/West migration route shared by Polish, Lithuanian and Iberian Roma. Additionally, eleven Roma founder lineages were identified and degrees of admixture with host populations were estimated. Finally, the comparison with an extensive database of Indian sequences allowed us to identify the Punjab state, in North-western India, as the putative ancestral homeland of the European Roma, in agreement with previous linguistic and anthropological studies.

The important thing here is they found most of the Indian mtDNA (72% ) belong to north-west India. And also, around 20% belong to eastern India.

These findings certainly do not reject the origin of male Romani population in eastern India. However, their linguistic identity could be from north-western India. Or their linguistic identity is matrilineal.

The male population with overwhelming Y-Haplogroup H, was most likely a breakaway group of Dombas whose original language belonged to the Dravidian family. However, they took local women as wives during their stay in Punjab (another break away group, Domaki, is still found in Pakistan) and thus linguistically became Indo-Aryans. This identity they have retained after they left Indian borders which is now in Pakistan.

Their origin in eastern India could be detected in the mtDNA lineages too as eastern mtDNAs are the second largest among their Indian mtDNAs.

Ref:
1. Reconstructing the Indian Origin and Dispersal of the European Roma: A Maternal Genetic Perspective
 - Isabel Mendizabal et al. (2011)
2. Domba people

Origins of Malayalis ?.3.0

Mappilas:
Except for an exotic community, Malayali Jews, there are hardly any population genetics studies on Malayali population in general. Even though many tribes in South India have been studied extensively, non-tribes are yet to be considered. Recently there was a study on Indian Muslim population which takes into account Malayali Muslim community, Mappila.

If you read the introduction to Mappila by the authors of the study then you feel the Tamil propaganda in full flow. Therefore, it is necessary to revisit my model of Dravidian civilization and the formation of various communities in South India.

In my opinion, Dravidian languages survived in South India mainly because leadership was still Dravidian. As the Dravidian tribes in Central India made transition to sedentary life, the communities were still controlled by the Dravidian chieftains. Of course, not all. The exception you can find in the only lapsed Dravidian region, Maharashtra. In that region the Dravidian tribes were controlled by the Indo-Aryan chieftains.

Generally, ruling classes change the linguistic identity of the population they control. The examples could be found in South India too.

In Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, the ruling classes of Muslims were non-Dravidian Muslims for a long period. As a result all Dravidian converts had turned into Indo-Aryans. Even in Tamil Nadu, a short span of non-Dravidian Muslim rule was enough to shift nearly half of the Muslim population to Indo-Aryan identity. However, in Kerala, Muslims were always under either Dravidian non-Muslims or Dravidian Muslim rulers. And they have retained their linguistic identity.

That's about linguistic identity retention of Dravidians in general and Dravidian Muslims in particular. I have previously discussed about Dravidian civilization and have argued that it's a synthesis of Dravidians and Prakrits from the beginning. Malayali Muslim community is not an exception to this rule.

The earliest Prakrit entrants to the Dravidian region were herders and merchant-artisans. This is the basis for my another argument for some of the Dravidian tribes in food abundant regions to make transition to matrilineal sedentary society(Tuluvas and Malayalis). The important factor is artisan-merchants and also priests may impart cultural motifs but they would not be influential enough to change the linguistic identity of the native population. Maybe a language can get the prestigious position in a society if it's part of the power circles. Nevertheless, synthesis could be seen in the emergence of the caste system in the native Dravidian region and  in the Dravidization of the assimilated Prakrit speaking brahmins and merchant-artisans.

The earliest Prakrit migrants would be from northern and eastern Indian (present day UP and Bihar) region, the centre of the Indian civilization. One would expect a high percentage of haplogroup R1a1 among these population. This is indeed the case with Mappilas.

Many Malayali communities were formed around the artisan-merchant guilds. The guilds which were initially formed in Prakrit speaking regions continued the motifs \of the earliest guilds of North India in South India. The guilds in South India of mixed Prakrit and Dravidian speakers exhibited native linguistic identity as the time passed. The castes of guilds in Andhra spoke Telugu, in Karnataka spoke Kannada, in Tamil Nadu spoke Tamil, in Tulu Nadu spoke Tulu and of course in Kerala spoke Malayalam. The migration to coastal Tulu and Malayali regions can be from either from west coastal route (Karnataka) or from Tamil Nadu. Couple of merchant guilds, Anju Varnam and Manigramam were native to Kerala region. Whereas, Valanjiar was probably a pan-Indian guild and a proof of the Prakrit migrations. Kannada term Banajiga, Telugu term Balanja (Balija), Tamil/Malayalam term Valanji are cognates with Indo-Aryan term 'Baniya'. These Prakrit or Prakrit derived terms are cognate with Sanskrit term Vanijya(trade).

As I have discussed previously many Muslim and Christian communities were formed around these merchant guilds. Since linguistic identity of these guilds were already Malayali, the immigrant Jewish, Christian and Arab merchants who assimilated with locals did not change the linguistic identity but profoundly changed the cultural identity.

Of course, the cultural identity overwrites all other identities, therefore, the popular identity of Mappilas was Arab. We can gauge the extent of Arab influence if we check the Y-haplogroup frequencies of Mappila from that study:

H1a: 22.5% - Dravidian
H2:     5% - Dravidian
J2: 10% (Dravidian if J2b)
J*(J1): 10%  - Arab
L: 10% - Dravidian
K: 5% - Dravidian
R1a1: 32.5% - Indo-Aryan
R2: 5% - Dravidian

As you can see, the Arab ancestry accounts for 10% of the population. The rest are Indian. By my estimation, 40% of them descendants of Prakrit speaking merchant-artisans and the rest 50% are native Dravidian tribes.

Reference: 
Traces of sub-Saharan and Middle Eastern lineages in Indian Muslim populations -Muthukrishnan Eaaswarkhanth et al. 2009
European Journal of Human Genetics (2010) 18, 354–363; doi:10.1038/ejhg.2009.168; published online 7 October 2009 

Race and Medicine - ii

Came across an interesting paper on statistical methods at Maju's blog. Few points that caught my eye.

“Determining the best treatment for a particular patient is fundamentally different from determining which treatment is best on average,” physicians David Kent and Rodney Hayward wrote in American Scientist in 2007. “Reporting a single number gives the misleading impression that the treatment-effect is a property of the drug rather than of the interaction between the drug and the complex risk-benefit profile of a particular group of patients.”

“What does probability mean in real life?” the statistician David Salsburg asked in his 2001 book The Lady Tasting Tea. “This problem is still unsolved, and ... if it remains un­solved, the whole of the statistical approach to science may come crashing down from the weight of its own inconsistencies.”

Article

Origins of Indians: Version 8.3

Coastal Migration Theory and I:
I have always opposed the Coastal Migration theory. The theory appears to tell either the early humans were such an idiots that they moved quickly via hospitable regions of South Asia, SE Asia to Australia from their original homeland in Africa or people who have come up with this theory have no commonsense.

A new study that examines bacterial spread from Africa to Oceania and appear to support the Northern Route (that I haven't championed much, as I don't have much evidences). Check the figure given in the paper, " The Peopling of the Pacific from a Bacterial Perspective"(Link debt to  Gernan Dziebel, commenter at Music 000001)

The following figure shows how humans split in northern Asia. Though it doesn't talk about South Asia much I would say, there can be an arrow from northern Asia to South Asia. 

In my opinion, there could be following migrations to the Indian subcontinent.
Initial:

1. Y-haplogroup F* from West Asia (western corridor)
2. Y-haplogroups K and C from northern Asia (eastern corridor)

Another, important thing is back migration (red line) in the figure. Does it have anything to do with Y-Haplogroup NOP?
Maybe I can also propose, at least one subclade of NOP (R-M124 or commonly known as R2).
3. R-M124 from northern Asia (eastern corridor): This at least fit the present day scenario where we find its highest frequency in eastern Indian regions and its low but widespread presence in few Siberian populations.

Out of India - II

I have already argued that major Y-Haplogroup of North Africans is close to their dark skinned southern Africans. However, their skin colour and looks differ. I have argued it is probably because of matrilineages that are close to European matrilineages. Hebrew Bible gives some clues for this.

# And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.
# And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon:
# Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive.
# Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee.
# And it came to pass, that, when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair.
# The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.

As the characters of the Hebrew Bible are traced to present day Iraq/Iran regions, the chances are high that they were originally Y-Haplogroup J2a and mtDNA H or U people. It is likely at least one of the mutations responsible for light skin (on SLC24A5) arose in North-West of India. We have to observe West Asia aboriginal male J, European aboriginal male I are closely related to Indian aboriginal male H.

I have blogged about a recent study that discusses how West Asia and Europe is colonized by Proto-Indians. I feel we need to study some of our lighter skinned tribes like Halakki-s in Karnataka. Though their Y-Haplogroup is predominantly H, their mtDNA is majorly U something that is predominant in West Asia, North Africa and Europe.

Race and Medicine - i

A recent study on Indian genetics made an unqualified statement that it would help in medical research on specific disease prevalence among endogamous castes. Anyway, number of people in each caste may range from few thousands to few crores. I suppose, they need to identify each caste group as < state name >.< district name >.< village name >.< caste name >.< sub caste name > to proactively identify the salient diseases. Though in hindsight prevalence of certain diseases among Indians could be attributed too much inbreeding in the form of caste. However, that doesn't need any caste specific studies. But I don't think even that is a credible explanation considering different caste sizes and almost uniform presence of diseases. That probably has to do with our behaviour, environment and food habits.

Today I came across a study on prevalence of Diabetes among African Americans and European Americans. From the article:

The study, available online in advance of publication in the October 2009 edition of the Journal of General Internal Medicine, found that when African Americans and whites live in similar environments and have similar incomes, their diabetes rates are similar, which contrasts with the fact that nationally diabetes is more prevalent among African Americans than whites.

Via Science Daily

Not sure whether generally Population geneticists overlook to nullify 'other conditions'. Though some of the race promoters may do so.