Two tribes living on India's Andaman islands may be direct descendents of the earliest modern humans who moved out of Africa 70,000 years ago, scientists reported last week.
Scientists at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad said these two tribes could be the oldest surviving human stock in Asia, and their research may overturn the reigning theory on early human migration.
Most scientists believe that all populations today are descendants of modern humans who migrated out of East Africa about 70,000 years ago to replace early humans elsewhere.
According to the reigning theory, modern humans first migrated from Africa, north along the Nile River, across the Sinai Peninsula, into central Asia before moving east towards India.
"Our findings suggest they also traced a coastal route along east Africa and the Arabian Peninsula into South Asia," said Kumarasami Thangaraj, a senior scientist at CCMB.
CCMB director Lalji Singh, along with Thangaraj and a team of scientists have reported their work in the latest issue of the American journal Science in association with an Estonian team.
An independent investigation by Malaysian and British scientists corroborated the CCMB findings.
The Great Andamanese and Onge tribes have remained isolated in the Andaman and Nicobar islands for tens of thousands of years. This helped the scientists to search for signs of origin that erase quickly when populations intermix.
Scientists at CCMB studied the genetic mutations of five members each of these two tribes to construct a human family tree spanning 70,000 years.
They found the Onge and Great Andamanese -- both Negrito tribes -- resembled the African population more closely than east Asians or the mainland Indian population of today.
"This could have happened only if the two tribes were almost direct descendents of the first human beings believed to have been born in Africa 150,000 years ago," said Lalji Singh.
The CCMB's findings suggest that a group of early humans from Africa used the coastal route to reach the Andaman islands 65,000 to 70,000 years ago. "Their journey could have predated the land journey by 10,000 years," said Singh.
The scientists at CCMB claim the new evidence could make these two tribes the oldest surviving human stock in Asia.
"They are absolutely unique and of great value to humanity," said Singh. Rapid modernization is, however, taking its toll on the native lifestyle of these tribes despite their resistance.
Their populations have also decreased steadily with about 20 Great Andamanese and 98 Onge surviving today. It is believed that before British colonizers reached the islands in the mid-18th century, the Great Andamanese population numbered over 5,000.
These tribes still survive as hunter-gatherer communities using primitive tools and living in the jungle.
"It is the last Eden and it is disappearing fast," said Singh of the island archipelago and its existing native populations.
That US assistance was a model for Taiwan’s spectacular development success was early recognized by policymakers and analysts. In a report to the US Congress for the fiscal year 1962, former President John F. Kennedy noted Taiwan’s “rapid economic growth,” was “producing a substantial net gain in living.” Kennedy had a stake in Taiwan’s achievements and the US’ official development assistance (ODA) in general: In September 1961, his entreaty to make the 1960s a “decade of development,” and an accompanying proposal for dedicated legislation to this end, had been formalized by congressional passage of the Foreign Assistance Act. Two
March 31 to April 6 On May 13, 1950, National Taiwan University Hospital otolaryngologist Su You-peng (蘇友鵬) was summoned to the director’s office. He thought someone had complained about him practicing the violin at night, but when he entered the room, he knew something was terribly wrong. He saw several burly men who appeared to be government secret agents, and three other resident doctors: internist Hsu Chiang (許強), dermatologist Hu Pao-chen (胡寶珍) and ophthalmologist Hu Hsin-lin (胡鑫麟). They were handcuffed, herded onto two jeeps and taken to the Secrecy Bureau (保密局) for questioning. Su was still in his doctor’s robes at
Last week the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said that the budget cuts voted for by the China-aligned parties in the legislature, are intended to force the DPP to hike electricity rates. The public would then blame it for the rate hike. It’s fairly clear that the first part of that is correct. Slashing the budget of state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) is a move intended to cause discontent with the DPP when electricity rates go up. Taipower’s debt, NT$422.9 billion (US$12.78 billion), is one of the numerous permanent crises created by the nation’s construction-industrial state and the developmentalist mentality it
Experts say that the devastating earthquake in Myanmar on Friday was likely the strongest to hit the country in decades, with disaster modeling suggesting thousands could be dead. Automatic assessments from the US Geological Survey (USGS) said the shallow 7.7-magnitude quake northwest of the central Myanmar city of Sagaing triggered a red alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses. “High casualties and extensive damage are probable and the disaster is likely widespread,” it said, locating the epicentre near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay, home to more than a million people. Myanmar’s ruling junta said on Saturday morning that the number killed had
RSS