Genomic perspectives on human dispersals during the Holocene

Abstract

Nearly 20 y ago, Jared Diamond and Peter Bellwood reviewed the evidence for the associated spread of farming and large language families by the demographic expansions of farmers. Since then, advances in obtaining and analyzing genomic data from modern and ancient populations have transformed our knowledge of human dispersals during the Holocene. Here, we provide an overview of Holocene dispersals in the light of genomic evidence and conclude that they have a complex history. Even when there is a demonstrated connection between a demographic expansion of people, the spread of agriculture, and the spread of a particular language family, the outcome in the results of contact between expanding and resident groups is highly variable. Further research is needed to identify the factors and social circumstances that have influenced this variation and complex history.

The European Neolithic Expansion: A Model Revealing Intense Assortative Mating and Restricted Cultural Transmission

“…Our study primarily examines the agricultural expansion in Europe. In the global context, Neolithic expansions exhibited considerable variability in their replacement of native HG ancestry, challenging the notion that agricultural spread always was accompanied by significant genetic turnover 58 . In fact, the agricultural expansion within southwest Asia, before its spread into Europe, is not associated with ancestry turnover, which has led to the conclusion that this initial expansion was propelled more by the dissemination of ideas and farming technology than by the movement of people 6 .…”

The past 12,000 years of behavior, adaptation, population, and evolution shaped who we are today

“…These questions, once unresolvable, are now tractable, via genetic analyses. In Perspective 2, Stoneking and collaborators ( 22 ) develop a broad genomic survey of Africa, Europe, Central and South Asia, East Asia and Mainland Southeast Asia, Island Southeast Asia and Oceania, and the Americas, documenting a complex picture of Holocene human dispersals. Although much remains to be learned, migration and dispersal analyses are becoming increasingly informed by large-scale genomic analyses.…”

Echoes from the last Green Sahara: whole genome analysis of Fulani, a key population to unveil the genetic evolutionary history of Africa

“…Indeed, the fertile environment of the Sahara, with extensive hydrogeological networks connecting rivers and lakes, may have promoted extensive contacts between the different groups settled in this area. The last Green Sahara was also characterized by social and cultural changes, such as the spreading of pastoralism 22 and farming, both developed locally or arrived from the Middle East to northeastern Africa between 7000 and 6000 years ago [1,52,53].…”