December 28, 2011

Genetic structure in China

After my experiment on Spain, I decided to carry out a similar experiment in China, for which there is a large number of regional/ethnic sub-populations.15 clusters were inferred with 22 MDS dimensions.

The Uygur are the clear outlier population, doubtlessly due to their substantial Caucasoid admixture and geographical position in Central Asia, a region that was traditionally at the outskirts of Chinese civilization. Other Altaic speakers (both Mongolic and Tungusic) are also divergent, as are the Dai/Lahu people from the China/Thailand/Laos area.

Interestingly, the Tujia people from Central China seem to be the ones most like the Han overall, with Hmongic Miaozu/She more like the southern Han.

2 comments:

terryt said...

"Interestingly, the Tujia people from Central China seem to be the ones most like the Han overall"

Very interesting. Has any work been done specifically on their haplogroups? The link claims:

"Tujia is clearly a Tibeto-Burman language, but its position within that family is unclear, due to massive borrowing from other Tibeto-Burman languages. It has been placed with Loloish and Qiangic, but many leave it unclassified".

Perhaps they are survivors from the 'original' Neolithic of the Yangtze River valley.

Andrew Oh-Willeke said...

Massive borrowing from other languages is suggestive of the likelihood of massive admixture as well. As melting pot that creates a statistical average seems more plausible than a truly basal position.