Hiel
12-27-2004, 10:45 AM
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0%2C1282%2C56756%2C00.html
Related to asians apparently.
Genes Reveal Andamanese Origins
By Kristen Philipkoski | Also by this reporter Page 1 of 1
02:00 AM Dec. 09, 2002 PT
For centuries, explorers and anthropologists have wondered why the people of the Andaman Islands were so fierce and isolated.
New genetic research gives a glimpse at how the Andamanese are different from other people, at least biologically.
Today's the Day. The researchers, led by Erika Hagelberg of the University of Oslo, believe the island people are descendents of Paleolithic humans, who migrated eastward out of Africa during the last ice age. The genes also show that they are more closely related to Asians than to Africans, but that they have a unique genetic make-up.
In a study published in the Dec. 10 issue of Current Biology, the researchers reported that the Andamanese probably split from other Asian populations tens of thousands of years ago.
While the Andamanese are physically similar to African pygmies, they have a distinct language and culture.
The researchers analyzed mitochondrial and Y chromosome DNA from three of the four Andamanese tribes that still exist. They also looked at DNA isolated from hair locks collected between 1906 and 1908 by Cambridge ethnographer Alfred Radcliffe-Brown.
Today, the Andamanese people are quickly disappearing from their island homes in the Bay of Bengal. They have a reputation for being so aggressive that they managed to remain isolated from the rest of the world until the British founded a penal colony on the islands after the Indian Mutiny of 1857.
Related to asians apparently.
Genes Reveal Andamanese Origins
By Kristen Philipkoski | Also by this reporter Page 1 of 1
02:00 AM Dec. 09, 2002 PT
For centuries, explorers and anthropologists have wondered why the people of the Andaman Islands were so fierce and isolated.
New genetic research gives a glimpse at how the Andamanese are different from other people, at least biologically.
Today's the Day. The researchers, led by Erika Hagelberg of the University of Oslo, believe the island people are descendents of Paleolithic humans, who migrated eastward out of Africa during the last ice age. The genes also show that they are more closely related to Asians than to Africans, but that they have a unique genetic make-up.
In a study published in the Dec. 10 issue of Current Biology, the researchers reported that the Andamanese probably split from other Asian populations tens of thousands of years ago.
While the Andamanese are physically similar to African pygmies, they have a distinct language and culture.
The researchers analyzed mitochondrial and Y chromosome DNA from three of the four Andamanese tribes that still exist. They also looked at DNA isolated from hair locks collected between 1906 and 1908 by Cambridge ethnographer Alfred Radcliffe-Brown.
Today, the Andamanese people are quickly disappearing from their island homes in the Bay of Bengal. They have a reputation for being so aggressive that they managed to remain isolated from the rest of the world until the British founded a penal colony on the islands after the Indian Mutiny of 1857.