ABSTRACT
Molecular anthropology – the study of human genetic polymorphisms – is now often used to investigate the accuracy of archaeological and/or linguistic hypotheses. One of the classic examples is the use of genetics in an attempt to discriminate between two alternative models for the spread of agriculture in Europe – the demic and the cultural diffusion models – which finally led to a general approval of the former by geneticists, who regard this spread as possibly linked to the expansion of Indo-European languages (Ammerman and Cavalli-Sforza 1984; Barbujani et al. 1995; Chikhi et al. 2002; Renfrew 1992; Weng and Sokal 1995). More generally, because genetic clines can give evidence for population migrations (Barbujani 2000), the analysis of genetic patterns is particularly interesting for the analysis of early agriculturalist diasporas and their link to the diffusion of human languages (Barbujani and Pilastro 1993; Bellwood 2001). Molecular anthropology can also be useful in estimating the contribution of different gene pools to the make-up of present-day populations, when attempting to ascertain the origin of specific linguistic families (such as the AN family, see further in this chapter); to test the permeability of linguistic boundaries to gene flow (Dupanloup de Ceuninck et al. 2000); or to investigate precise linguistic hypotheses (Excoffier et al. 1987; Poloni et al., this volume; this study), although genetics alone cannot be used to discriminate between alternative linguistic models.
