Lithuanians looking like Tarim Mummies

[X99Lynx at aol.com]

In a message dated 3/30/99 10:11:46 PM, JoatSimeon at aol.com wrote:

<<<we cannot identify race and language and that's bad.>>>

<<-- taboos eventually wear out and die.  This one had nothing to do with
evidence, and everything to do with the political/cultural repercussions of
WWII.>>

Well, it certainly had something to do with certain people interpreting the
evidence in some pretty nefarious ways.  And definitely reflected an
overconfidence in the what is reliable genetic evidence to say the least.
Caution about this kind of evidence is totally justified.

For a long time, what showed up as genetic evidence has often been unsound and
self-fulfilling.

<<You should bone up on Cavalli-Sforza's work, using genetic analysis to trace
prehistoric migrations.>>

A good example.  Sykes and Richards MtDNA studies cast a serious doubt on
Cavalli-Sforza's work.  What seems like conclusive science today becomes
inconclusive or Saucer people stuff tommorrow.  There are some who still race
to Cavalli-Sforza to support conclusions unsupported by quite possibly the
more valid scientific evidence supplied by mtDNA and isotope analysis of bone
and hair fragments.  The mtDNA evidence strongly suggests that the vast
majority of the present population in Europe arrived during the Paleolithic
(@10,000bce), and therefore that the population has remained relatively
genetically constant ever since.  Although Sykes has upped his estimate of
Neolithic and post-Neolithic incursions and there have been challenges based
on some kind of accelerated rate of mutation theory, the work has yielded
highly reproducible results that can't be honestly disregarded.

The Tocharian situation, being on a frontier of sorts, may be a valid
identification of a specific people with a language.  But generalizing from it
is probably uncalled for.

In the arena of genes and language, there's been plenty of reason to watch out
for such "evidence" as Lithuanians looking "much like the Tarim Basin
mummies."  Obviously if there are enough Lithuanians, sooner or later, some of
them will like like Egyptian mummies.  This is the kind of evidence that
caused so many wrong conclusions in the past.

Regards,
Steve Long