TY - JOUR
T1 - The genetic or mythical ancestry of descent groups
T2 - Lessons from the Y chromosome
AU - Chaix, Raphaëlle
AU - Austerlitz, Frédéric
AU - Khegay, Tatyana
AU - Jacquesson, Svetlana
AU - Hammer, Michael F.
AU - Heyer, Evelyne
AU - Quintana-Murci, Lluís
N1 - Funding Information:
We warmly acknowledge all the blood donors who kindly agreed to participate in this study, as well as Patricia Baldacci and Jacqui Shykoff for stimulating remarks. This work was supported by the CNRS grant project OHLL and the European Science Foundation project OMLL. Financial support was also provided by North Atlantic Treaty Organization collaborative linkage grant LST.CLG.977507 (to M.F.H. and L.Q.-M.).
PY - 2004/12
Y1 - 2004/12
N2 - Traditional societies are often organized into descent groups called "lineages," "clans," and "tribes." Each of these descent groups claims to have a common ancestor, and this ancestry distinguishes the group's members from the rest of the population. To test the hypothesis of common ancestry within these groups, we compared ethnological and genetic data from five Central Asian populations. We show that, although people from the same lineage and clan share generally a recent common ancestor, no such common ancestry is observed at the tribal level. Thus, a tribe might be a conglomerate of clans who subsequently invented a mythical ancestor to strengthen group unity.
AB - Traditional societies are often organized into descent groups called "lineages," "clans," and "tribes." Each of these descent groups claims to have a common ancestor, and this ancestry distinguishes the group's members from the rest of the population. To test the hypothesis of common ancestry within these groups, we compared ethnological and genetic data from five Central Asian populations. We show that, although people from the same lineage and clan share generally a recent common ancestor, no such common ancestry is observed at the tribal level. Thus, a tribe might be a conglomerate of clans who subsequently invented a mythical ancestor to strengthen group unity.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=8844244725&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=8844244725&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1086/425938
DO - 10.1086/425938
M3 - Article
C2 - 15467979
AN - SCOPUS:8844244725
SN - 0002-9297
VL - 75
SP - 1113
EP - 1116
JO - American Journal of Human Genetics
JF - American Journal of Human Genetics
IS - 6
ER -