Recent Origin and Cultural Reversion of a Hunter–Gatherer Group Export

@article{citeulike:848424, abstract = {Contemporary hunter\&\#8211;gatherer groups are often thought to serve as models of an ancient lifestyle that was typical of human populations prior to the development of agriculture. Patterns of genetic variation in hunter\&\#8211;gatherer groups such as the !Kung and African Pygmies are consistent with this view, as they exhibit low genetic diversity coupled with high frequencies of divergent mtDNA types not found in surrounding agricultural groups, suggesting long-term isolation and small population sizes. We report here genetic evidence concerning the origins of the Mlabri, an enigmatic hunter\&\#8211;gatherer group from northern Thailand. The Mlabri have no mtDNA diversity, and the genetic diversity at Y-chromosome and autosomal loci are also extraordinarily reduced in the Mlabri. Genetic, linguistic, and cultural data all suggest that the Mlabri were recently founded, 500\&\#8211;800 y ago, from a very small number of individuals. Moreover, the Mlabri appear to have originated from an agricultural group and then adopted a hunting\&\#8211;gathering subsistence mode. This example of cultural reversion from agriculture to a hunting\&\#8211;gathering lifestyle indicates that contemporary hunter\&\#8211;gatherer groups do not necessarily reflect a pre-agricultural lifestyle.}, author = {Oota, Hiroki and Pakendorf, Brigitte and Weiss, Gunter and von Haeseler, Arndt and Pookajorn, Surin and Settheetham-Ishida, Wannapa and Tiwawech, Danai and Ishida, Takafumi and Stoneking, Mark}, citeulike-article-id = {848424}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0030071}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15736978}, citeulike-linkout-2 = {http://www.hubmed.org/display.cgi?uids=15736978}, comment = {guess what? sometimes farmers give it up, even as a whole society.}, day = {1}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pbio.0030071}, journal = {PLoS Biology}, keywords = {agriculture, anthropology, archaeology, history}, month = {March}, number = {3}, pages = {e71+}, posted-at = {2006-09-18 05:43:04}, priority = {0}, title = {Recent Origin and Cultural Reversion of a Hunter\&\#8211;Gatherer Group}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0030071}, volume = {3}, year = {2005} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:848424 L3 - citeulike-article-id:848424 N2 - Contemporary hunter–gatherer groups are often thought to serve as models of an ancient lifestyle that was typical of human populations prior to the development of agriculture. Patterns of genetic variation in hunter–gatherer groups such as the !Kung and African Pygmies are consistent with this view, as they exhibit low genetic diversity coupled with high frequencies of divergent mtDNA types not found in surrounding agricultural groups, suggesting long-term isolation and small population sizes. We report here genetic evidence concerning the origins of the Mlabri, an enigmatic hunter–gatherer group from northern Thailand. The Mlabri have no mtDNA diversity, and the genetic diversity at Y-chromosome and autosomal loci are also extraordinarily reduced in the Mlabri. Genetic, linguistic, and cultural data all suggest that the Mlabri were recently founded, 500–800 y ago, from a very small number of individuals. Moreover, the Mlabri appear to have originated from an agricultural group and then adopted a hunting–gathering subsistence mode. This example of cultural reversion from agriculture to a hunting–gathering lifestyle indicates that contemporary hunter–gatherer groups do not necessarily reflect a pre-agricultural lifestyle. IS - 3 JF - PLoS Biology TI - Recent Origin and Cultural Reversion of a Hunter–Gatherer Group VL - 3 SP - e71 KW - agriculture KW - anthropology KW - archaeology KW - history N1 - guess what? sometimes farmers give it up, even as a whole society. AU - Oota, Hiroki AU - Pakendorf, Brigitte AU - Weiss, Gunter AU - von Haeseler, Arndt AU - Pookajorn, Surin AU - Settheetham-Ishida, Wannapa AU - Tiwawech, Danai AU - Ishida, Takafumi AU - Stoneking, Mark PY - 2005/03/01/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0030071 ER -