Re: Multi-Regional vs. Replacement, was This might be an ev

J. Moore (j#d#.moore@canrem.com)
Thu, 18 May 95 09:26:00 -0500

Cf> >So MtDNA does not show the effects of admixture in a lineage; it's like
Cf> >tracing back one speck of dust in a single drop of water in a stream.
Cf> >It tells you where the speck of dust came from (as far as it can be
Cf> >traced) but it doesn't tell you as much as you'd hope about what parts
Cf> >of the stream it travelled through.

Cf> 1) Given large sample sizes, ancestory through the female line should
Cf> be about as good an indicator as (paternal) last names - most people
Cf> didn't move around very fast.
Cf> -Clara A. N. Fitzgerald cfitzger@s.psych.uiuc.edu

It does not, however, tell you anything about admixture or the lack of
it, as the MtDNA proponents had claimed, and as is still claimed by
people using it as support for the replacement theory. It tells you
about one side of a family.

In the same way, knowing that someones's last name is "Moore", which
is English (although possibly changed from the Scottish [or Irish?]
form of the surname) doesn't tell you what their ancestry consists
of. In my case, for instance, it's mostly Danish. My name, though
handed down through one side of the family, just as MtDNA is handed down
through one side of the family, doesn't show the whole picture about my
ancestry.

Jim Moore (j#d#.moore@canrem.com)

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