India has been underrepresented in genome-wide surveys of human variation. We analyse 25 diverse groups in India to provide strong evidence for two ancient populations, genetically divergent, that are ancestral to most Indians today. One, the ‘Ancestral North Indians’ (ANI), is genetically close to Middle Easterners, Central Asians, and Europeans, whereas the other, the ‘Ancestral South Indians’ (ASI), is as distinct from ANI and East Asians as they are from each other. By introducing methods that can estimate ancestry without accurate ancestral populations, we show that ANI ancestry ranges from 39–71% in most Indian groups, and is higher in traditionally upper caste and Indo-European speakers. Groups with only ASI ancestry may no longer exist in mainland India. However, the indigenous Andaman Islanders are unique in being ASI-related groups without ANI ancestry. Allele frequency differences between groups in India are larger than in Europe, reflecting strong founder effects whose signatures have been maintained for thousands of years owing to endogamy. We therefore predict that there will be an excess of recessive diseases in India, which should be possible to screen and map genetically.
The history of human population size is important for understanding human evolution. Various studies have found evidence for a founder event (bottleneck) in East Asian and European populations, associated with the human dispersal out-of-Africa event around 60 thousand years (kyr) ago. However, these studies have had to assume simplified demographic models with few parameters, and they do not provide a precise date for the start and stop times of the bottleneck. Here, with fewer assumptions on population size changes, we present a more detailed history of human population sizes between approximately ten thousand and a million years ago, using the pairwise sequentially Markovian coalescent model applied to the complete diploid genome sequences of a Chinese male (YH), a Korean male (SJK), three European individuals (J. C. Venter, NA12891 and NA12878 (ref. 9)) and two Yoruba males (NA18507 (ref. 10) and NA19239). We infer that European and Chinese populations had very similar population-size histories before 10–20 kyr ago. Both populations experienced a severe bottleneck 10–60 kyr ago, whereas African populations experienced a milder bottleneck from which they recovered earlier. All three populations have an elevated effective population size between 60 and 250 kyr ago, possibly due to population substructure. We also infer that the differentiation of genetically modern humans may have started as early as 100–120 kyr ago, but considerable genetic exchanges may still have occurred until 20–40 kyr ago.
This study examines the themes and motifs of Christianity in modern Korean literature, as well as their representation and relevance. The first part of the text discusses the phenomenon of Christianity and its evaluation in intellectual circles during the Japanese annexation. In literature, the depiction of this imported but still alien religion tends towards formulaic but also sporadic images of Christianity, except for in certain novels such as Han Sŏrya’s (1961) Sǔngnyangi and Kim Tongni’s (1995) Ŭlhwa, which are briefly mentioned. The second part of the study concentrates on Yi Sǔngu’s (2013) Saengǔi i myŏn (The Reverse Side of Life). In this novel, Christianity underlies the hero’s life and influences his thoughts. It enables the reader to imagine the details of the ‘Christianities’ during Pak Chŏnghǔi’s presidency. Besides the theme of the roles of Christianity, the novel touches on 1960s Korea and its ideologies, political trends, and tendencies in an era in which values were reassessed. The main narrative also examines the reality of the idea of Christian love, its oscillation between agape and eros, and ideas of God associated with the early stage of modernisation during Pak Chŏnghǔi’s era.
I Wayan Suharta, I Gde Made Indra Sadguna, Yung-Hsin Wang
This article examines gamelan pesel, an innovative hybrid ensemble created by I Wayan Arik Wirawan that fuses the sonic and material characteristics of semar pegulingan and selonding. Through qualitative methods, including organological analysis, participant observation, interviews, and digital ethnography, this research explores how gamelan pesel embodies “sonic hybridity,” a process through which Balinese musicians negotiate between tradition and innovation. The findings reveal that gamelan pesel’s creative design integrates bronze and iron instruments to generate a new timbral spectrum, while its unique tuning system and intercontextual performances across ritual, social-cultural, and digital media articulate a dynamic redefinition of Balinese musical identity. Rather than signaling a rupture with tradition, the ensemble exemplifies progressive traditionalism, where renewal sustains continuity. This study contributes to ethnomusicological and cultural discourse by illustrating how new ensembles can nurture cultural continuity through experimentation and adaptation.
Woo Suk-Kyun, Juan José Ramírez y Kim Soon-Bae, coords. 2020. Cambio de época: la República de Corea y la renovación de sus relaciones con América Latina. Santiago: RIL Editores. 279 pp. ISBN 9789560108630
The 2015 Constitution defines Nepal as a multi-ethnic and multi-lingual country but not a multi-national; however, historically, two powerful ethnic groups with potential sub-national characters have been contesting each other under the native versus immigrant dyad. The alleged immigrants, namely the Madheshis, and the self-claimed native settlers, to name the Pahadis, both assert their distinct ethnic and linguistic identity enriched with sub-national strength. As a result, the Madheshis question the legitimacy of the civic form of nationalism promoted by the Pahadi ruling elites under ‘Nepali’ monocultural framework, thereby demanding that their sub-national character be recognised, whereas the Pahadis aim to assimilate the Madheshis under the civic form of nationalist framework that they have been promoting for a long. The face-off between these two groups has impacted national ethnopolitics and everyday relations since the 2007 Madheshi uprising. On this backdrop, this article, based on secondary sources, inquires how strong the Madheshis’ claim of sub-national identity is in relation to the larger framework of Nepali national identity structured by Pahadi norms and values.
Bryan J. Peterson, Marjorie Peronto, Zachery Fecteau
et al.
Blue honeysuckle (Lonicera caerulea) is a circumpolar species complex with representatives in Europe, Asia, and North America. Although honeysuckles (Lonicera spp.) from Eurasia have a history of invasiveness in North America, farmers and homeowners are interested in growing nonnative blue honeysuckle hybrids because of their edible blue fruits. To assess whether these cultivars and closely related native blue honeysuckles (Lonicera caerulea subsp. villosa) might have similar growth and fecundity, we planted five nonnative cultivars of blue honeysuckle and five native genotypes in a common garden in Orono, ME, USA, along with invasive red-fruited honeysuckles [Tatarian honeysuckle (Lonicera tatarica) and European fly honeysuckle (Lonicera xylosteum)] for comparison. Rooted cuttings were planted into a field plot in Jun 2016 and fully maintained during the first season; thereafter, maintenance consisted of weeding once annually. Seventy-three percent of native blue honeysuckle plants survived to the end of the study, whereas survival and growth of nonnative cultivars were more robust. In 2021, nonnative cultivars had an average height of 81 cm and width of 86 cm, which were 2.8 times the height and 2.9 times the width of surviving native plants. The estimated canopy volumes of nonnative blue honeysuckles were an average of 20 times those of their native counterparts. The bloom periods of native and nonnative blue honeysuckles overlapped considerably. However, only seven of the 22 living native plants produced fruits in 2021, with an average of three fruits per plant among them. In contrast, nearly all plants of the nonnative cultivars produced fruits, with an average of 616 fruits per plant. In comparison, the red-fruited invasives had an average of 9739 fruits per plant. Native blue honeysuckles produced very few seeds, whereas nonnative cultivars had an average of 13,918 seeds per plant, which was approximately one-fourth the number produced by invasive red-fruited honeysuckles. We concluded that native and nonnative genotypes of blue honeysuckle differ strikingly in survival, growth, and production of fruits and seeds. However, invasive red-fruited honeysuckles grew faster with higher fecundity than nonnative blue honeysuckles in our full-sun landscape. Because bloom times overlapped substantially between native and nonnative blue honeysuckles, the potential for gene flow to occur from planted cultivars into native populations merits consideration. Several possible explanations of differences in performance among blue honeysuckles include hybrid vigor of cultivars or shallow rooting or poor adaptability of native genotypes to the environment of the common-garden trial. Our results, which demonstrated that nonnative blue honeysuckles are likely to be distinct from their native relatives in terms of competitiveness and fecundity, suggest that caution is warranted during the introduction and cultivation of agricultural genotypes.
Leitores de Camões têm observado que, para compor a matéria histórica de seu poema Os Lusíadas, o poeta se apega a uma suposta “verdade” que teria lido nas crônicas e ouvido na tradição oral. Os retratos da África e da Ásia que ele concebeu seriam fruto desse anseio pela “verdade” histórica. O presente artigo propõe, contrariamente, que Camões registrou uma verdade conveniente, atestada pelos interesses da nobreza da casa de Avis, compondo um retrato heroico da missão de Vasco da Gama, ao mesmo tempo em que omitiu práticas desumanas de seu projeto colonialista. Conhecendo de perto o jugo e a escravização dos povos africanos, o poeta ajustou a imagem da África e da Ásia à da figura do antagonista, evidenciando seu povo como gente inculta e inimiga da fé. Esse apagamento da história esconde o anseio de dominação sobre essa gente que se viu colonizada e escravizada nos séculos posteriores.
This article discusses Muslim communities in the coastal area of Palu Bay in the late eighteenth century. Historiographical sources from scholars and historians regarding Islam in this region generally state that the teachings of this religion were first disseminated in the early seventeenth century thanks to the role of the Minangkabau cleric, Abdullah Raqie, or known as Datokarama. However, from the Datokarama period to the nineteenth century, Islamic historiography appears to be inadequate due to limited access to primary sources dating from the same period as the events studied and the tendency to oral traditions that require critical formulation. This article uses historical methods to reconstruct the Muslim community in the coastal area of Palu Bay based on records from European sailors who had lived in Sulawesi and made voyages through maritime routes connecting the islands in northern Kalimantan to Papua. Apart from showing characteristics of the local Muslim community during this period, the article shows that the role of Ismail Tuan Haji as the highest imam for the community and the king's authority in Donggala is an indication of the network of spreading Islam in this region connected to the Sultanate of Sulu and Mindanao. Simultaneously, the network confirmed the route navigation map to the East from the Ming Dynasty, dating back to the early fifteenth century.
History (General) and history of Europe, History of Asia
This article examines the social history of cholera in Jagannath Puri throughout the nineteenth century, focusing on the various factors that affected the colonial health and sanitary interventions in the region. It rethinks Puri’s ‘sacred’ space as a nexus of converging mobilities rather than a static centre, problematising the relationship between cholera and pilgrimage. It marks a departure from the dominant trend in historiography that stresses the significance of the Jagannath temple in complicating the processes of colonial cholera management in Puri, by focusing on the ‘external’ challenges and motivations that shaped the history of cholera in the region. The article argues that understanding Puri’s history requires de-centring the city as it was the linchpin of a dynamic circulatory regime that constituted not only pilgrims but also disease and ideas. It provides a backdrop for building on larger ideas that connect the ‘micro’ to the ‘macro’ narrative of cholera by recognising the region in terms of its ‘trans-local’ connections rather than local factors alone.
The so-called libation arms found in Anatolia and the Eastern Mediterranean during the Late Bronze Age, belong to the ceramic class Red Lustrous Wheel-made Ware, characterized by a very fine fabric, a careful cooking and a red slipped and polished surface. Even if they were thoroughly analyzed, it was generally assumed that these objects were linked to religious or cultic activities and destined to libatory action. However, no systematic investigation was carried out in relation to their finding contexts. This paper presents the results of a morphological and contextual analysis of this specific artifact. It offers suggestions for production areas, function and distribution on the base of a catalog that collects all the pieces found so far and on the analysis of each finding context. The data seem to indicate an Anatolian type of production unrelated to that of the Red Lustrous Wheel-made Ware, which is solely linked to religious activity.
History of Asia, Oriental languages and literatures