Hasn't the extant data on Y-DNA always supported this view of Yamnaya invaders, though? With the sudden predominance of R1a and R1a in European males?
Though the pre-emptive need to tar that with the racist brush seems rather overblown to me. That data doesn't fit in neatly with racist narratives either, given how 'Vikings' and the males of the Balkans have pre-dominantly I-M170 paternal ancestry which would actually make them descend from these darker-skinned prior inhabitants of Europe. If anything it makes the Germanic and Slavic peoples in particular the result of the mixing of earlier and later groups and cultures.
In spite of the furor directed by AWFLs in the academy (are the others even still there?) virtually all the subsequent debate has ENTIRELY ignored the unrigorous and disingenuously political commentary of Friemann, Hoffman and Hakenbeck. The field is focused now almost exclusively on aDNA finds that result from collaborations of enormous laboratories and author lists.
Part of the problem is that the archaeologists have given us no cogent counter-thesis. This is partly the nature of the beast, and partly because non exists. The other part of the problem is scientific illiteracy and innumeracy: the vast majority of archaeologist are hopelessly outgunned when it comes to critiquing genetic analysis.
Certainly the dry facts of archaeology provide useful substantiation or counter-factuals to demic diffusion models, but the horse has bolted, left the barn, the town and the county!
I do wish you had gone into more detail in regards to the post war shift towards a deracinated view of pre-history and perhaps more into the details of the Yamnaya invasion for the sake of the uninitiated but an interesting article nonetheless.
I am an I2 down my patrilineal line but it is interesting to learn of the bold warrior culture who brought serious metalworking and military organisation to Europe. Without them the knowlege of the Gods may never have been brought to us, nor the arts of warfare, metal working and all of the things we treasure so dearly now.
thank you! i studied anthropology/archaeology in the 90s but went into a different career. given current trends in the field, i don't regret it. lately when i read an article or book, i'm baffled by its open ideological bias, obsession with critical theory, and refusal to acknowledge certain evidence as legitimate, etc. as someone who is out of the loop, it's frustrating trying to sort fact from philosophy. archaeology always seemed like an obscure place to engage in activism, but i suppose nothing is immune.
Thank you for this analysis. I graduated with a degree in archaeology 6 years ago but haven’t worked in the field since then. I have kept up reading the latest research and have been wondering what in the world has the archeological community to have gone so woke these last few years. The Indo-European invasion what’s gored a bunch of sacred cows.
What a delight to hear some optimism in this field! I was worried all was lost when archaeology should be in line for a STEM revolution comparable to astronomy's post the invention of telescope.
Hasn't the extant data on Y-DNA always supported this view of Yamnaya invaders, though? With the sudden predominance of R1a and R1a in European males?
Though the pre-emptive need to tar that with the racist brush seems rather overblown to me. That data doesn't fit in neatly with racist narratives either, given how 'Vikings' and the males of the Balkans have pre-dominantly I-M170 paternal ancestry which would actually make them descend from these darker-skinned prior inhabitants of Europe. If anything it makes the Germanic and Slavic peoples in particular the result of the mixing of earlier and later groups and cultures.
In spite of the furor directed by AWFLs in the academy (are the others even still there?) virtually all the subsequent debate has ENTIRELY ignored the unrigorous and disingenuously political commentary of Friemann, Hoffman and Hakenbeck. The field is focused now almost exclusively on aDNA finds that result from collaborations of enormous laboratories and author lists.
Part of the problem is that the archaeologists have given us no cogent counter-thesis. This is partly the nature of the beast, and partly because non exists. The other part of the problem is scientific illiteracy and innumeracy: the vast majority of archaeologist are hopelessly outgunned when it comes to critiquing genetic analysis.
Certainly the dry facts of archaeology provide useful substantiation or counter-factuals to demic diffusion models, but the horse has bolted, left the barn, the town and the county!
"molecular chauvinism"--that's a new one
I do wish you had gone into more detail in regards to the post war shift towards a deracinated view of pre-history and perhaps more into the details of the Yamnaya invasion for the sake of the uninitiated but an interesting article nonetheless.
I am an I2 down my patrilineal line but it is interesting to learn of the bold warrior culture who brought serious metalworking and military organisation to Europe. Without them the knowlege of the Gods may never have been brought to us, nor the arts of warfare, metal working and all of the things we treasure so dearly now.
thank you! i studied anthropology/archaeology in the 90s but went into a different career. given current trends in the field, i don't regret it. lately when i read an article or book, i'm baffled by its open ideological bias, obsession with critical theory, and refusal to acknowledge certain evidence as legitimate, etc. as someone who is out of the loop, it's frustrating trying to sort fact from philosophy. archaeology always seemed like an obscure place to engage in activism, but i suppose nothing is immune.
Thank you for this analysis. I graduated with a degree in archaeology 6 years ago but haven’t worked in the field since then. I have kept up reading the latest research and have been wondering what in the world has the archeological community to have gone so woke these last few years. The Indo-European invasion what’s gored a bunch of sacred cows.
What a delight to hear some optimism in this field! I was worried all was lost when archaeology should be in line for a STEM revolution comparable to astronomy's post the invention of telescope.