ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the genetic history of Europe and provides a good example of a primary concern in anthropological genetics: understanding the relationship between biological and cultural change. Cavalli-Sforza and colleagues began presenting genetic evidence for the demic diffusion model in a series of papers and books published in the late 1970s. The most comprehensive analyses conducted by Cavalli-Sforza and colleagues were based on 95 different alleles across a large number of European populations. Studies of European genetic history also show that our biology and culture are deeply intertwined. The spread of agriculture therefore would have had an impact on genetic variation in Europe, as the expanding farming populations would have brought new alleles with them and reshaped the European gene pool. The archaeological record shows that agriculture spread from the Near East into eastern Europe, and later into western Europe.
