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Genetics, Linguistics, and Prehistoric Migrations [DNA Analysis] (32 pages)
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(a
ARTICLE . Genetics, Linguistics, and Prehistoric Migrations: An Analysis of California indian Mitochondrial DNA Lineages . Johnson / Lorenz
prior to linguistic differentiation. There are a number of
factors, however, that make the correlation of languages
and population genetics less than straightforward
(Moore 1994; Sims-Williams 1998). Although in general
language families often do share similar genetic lineages
in populations around the world (Cavalli-Sforza 2000;
Cavalli-Sforza, Menozzi, and Piazza 1994), there are
plenty of exceptions to this rule because language
transmission can occur for reasons having nothing to do
with the physical movement of large numbers of people
(e.g., Nasidze and Stoneking 2001).
An extensive literature has developed in recent
years regarding models of language spread and replacement (Bakker 2000; Bellwood and Renfrew 2002; Dixon
1997; Golla 2000b; Foley 2004; Jones 2003; Nettle 1999,
2000; Nichols 1992, 2000; Renfrew 1987, 1992, 2000).
Based on our review of this literature, we propose that
the following four general scenarios are likely to account
for most of the linguistic changes that occurred in
prehistoric California:
1. Initial colonization by Paleoindians followed
by gradual changes through time due to
isolation or differentiation along dialectal
continua.
2. Population replacement through immigration, with one group forcing another to
abandon its territory, because of greater
numbers, technological advances, more
effective subsistence strategies, or some
aspects of sociopolitical organization that
give the incoming group an advantage over
the former inhabitants.
3. Elite dominance, whereby an incoming
group establishes hegemony over the original
inhabitants, without displacing them, initiating
an adoption of the language spoken by the
new political leadership.
4. Intermarriage of adjacent groups over
an extended period of time, leading to
linguistically mixed communities that would
shift from one language to another over
several generations.
Furthermore, we expect each of these four scenarios
to have resulted in different genetic patterns:
1. Ancient populations that retain their residence
in one region over many millennia will exhibit
group-specific markers and branching, chainlike patterns of mitochondrial DNA variation
with all descendant lineages preserved
within the group. Populations that bud off
and migrate elsewhere usually only retain
a subset of the range of variation present in
the ancestral population. In addition, ancient
groups in California may be linked to some
of the first expansions that peopled the
Americas if they are found to possess rare
lineages held in common with other early
migratory groups. Such rare, ancient lineages
would not necessarily be present among later
peoples who entered California subsequent
to the original founding populations.
. Population replacement will result in
differences between mtDNA lineages found
among peoples living in the region today and
samples from prehistoric burials of earlier
periods. A spreading population also produces
a “star-like” pattern of descendant lineages
from the ancestral type, resulting from genetic
drift and isolation as descendant subsets of
the group move into geographically separated
areas. In cases of population replacement,
remnant lineages may exist here and there,
representing the earlier group, just like certain
lexical, phonological, or grammatical features
may become incorporated into the language
of the incoming group.
. Elite dominance will result in just the
opposite genetic pattern from that occurring
with population replacement. In cases of
elite dominance, the genetic patterns will not
change significantly from those found among
prehistoric peoples in the region, although
language change took place. As was the
case in number 2 above, a certain linguistic
substrate may survive of the earlier language
spoken in the region.
. Intermarriage of adjacent groups will result
in shared genetic lineages, even though the
peoples themselves speak unrelated languages.
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