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The Genetic or Mythical Ancestry of Descent Groups: Lessons from the Y Chromosome
Abstract
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.
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“The patrilineal descent rule, according to which individuals are affiliated with the descent group of their father, is also known to reduce Y-chromosome diversity.”
From Patrilineal segmentary systems provide a peaceful explanation for the post-Neolithic Y-chromosome bottleneck (2024) · cites this paper as [33]
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“Indeed, within patrilineal lineages or clans, men are closely related on paternal genealogical lines and share similar Y chromosomes33–36.”
From Patrilineal segmentary systems provide a peaceful explanation for the post-Neolithic Y-chromosome bottleneck (2024) · cites this paper as [33]
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“The minimal time between two fission events was set to three generations so that the mean descent group genealogical depth stabilises around 20 generations (Supplementary Fig. 24), a value that is consistent with descent groups depth in current patrilineal populations33,94.”
From Patrilineal segmentary systems provide a peaceful explanation for the post-Neolithic Y-chromosome bottleneck (2024) · cites this paper as [33]
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Cited by
From Social to Genetic Structures in Central Asia
Chaix, R., Quintana-Murci, L., Hegay, T., Hammer, M. F., Mobasher, Z., Austerlitz, F., & Heyer, E. (2007) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2006.10.058 · Cited by 111
Self-citationLaval, G., Patin, E., Barreiro, L. B., & Quintana-Murci, L. (2010) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0010284 · Cited by 93
Self-citationThe Connection of the Genetic, Cultural and Geographic Landscapes of Transoxiana
Zhabagin, M., Balanovska, E., Sabitov, Z., Kuznetsova, M., Agdzhoyan, A., Balaganskaya, O., Chukhryaeva, M., Markina, N., Romanov, A., Skhalyakho, R., et al. (2017) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-017-03176-z · Cited by 39
Guyon, L., Guez, J., Toupance, B., Heyer, E., & Chaix, R. (2024) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-024-47618-5 · Cited by 28
Self-citationHeyer, E., Brandenburg, J., Leonardi, M., Toupance, B., Balaresque, P., Hegay, T., Aldashev, A., & Austerlitz, F. (2015) · American Journal of Physical Anthropology · doi:10.1002/ajpa.22739 · Cited by 24
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Metadata
- Authors
- Chaix, R., Austerlitz, F., Khegay, T., Jacquesson, S., Hammer, M. F., Heyer, E., & Quintana-Murci, L.
- Venue
- The American Journal of Human Genetics
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2004-12
- Volume
- 75
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1113-1116
- ISSN
- 0002-9297
- Cited by
- 60
- References
- 0
- Language
- en
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- Chaix, R., Austerlitz, F., Khegay, T., Jacquesson, S., Hammer, M. F., Heyer, E., & Quintana-Murci, L. (2004). The Genetic or Mythical Ancestry of Descent Groups: Lessons from the Y Chromosome. The American Journal of Human Genetics. https://doi.org/10.1086/425938
