Despite being located at the crossroads of Asia, genetics of the Afghanistan populations have bee... more Despite being located at the crossroads of Asia, genetics of the Afghanistan populations have been largely overlooked. It is currently inhabited by five major ethnic populations: Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara, Uzbek and Turkmen. Here we present autosomal from a subset of our samples, mitochondrial and Y-chromosome data from over 500 Afghan samples among these 5 ethnic groups. This Afghan data was supplemented with the same Y-chromosome analyses of samples from Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and updated Pakistani samples (HGDP-CEPH). The data presented here was integrated into existing knowledge of pan-Eurasian genetic diversity. The pattern of genetic variation, revealed by structure-like and Principal Component analyses and Analysis of Molecular Variance indicates that the people of Afghanistan are made up of a mosaic of components representing various geographic regions of Eurasian ancestry. The absence of a major Central Asian-specific component indicates that the Hindu Kush, like the gene pool of Central Asian populations in general, is a confluence of gene flows rather than a source of distinctly autochthonous populations that have arisen in situ: a conclusion that is reinforced by the phylogeography of both haploid loci.
===2014=== 146. Abstract: Three subsequent, major developments in Vedic throught and religion. Tr... more ===2014=== 146. Abstract: Three subsequent, major developments in Vedic throught and religion. Transactions of the International Conference of Eastern Studies N. LVIII 2013. Tokyo: Tōhō Gakkai 2014: 85-86 ===2013=== 145. Rig-Veda. Das heilige Wissen. Dritter bis fünfter Liederkreis. 2013. http://www.verlagderweltreligionen.de/index.cfm Rig-Veda Vol. II (Rigveda III-V) (M.Witzel, Toshifumi Goto, Salvatore Scarlata) 144. Lê Thị Liên, Michael Witzel 2013. Bàn về văn khắc Brahmi và tiếu tượng Hindu giáo thể hiện trên các mảnh vàng phát hiện ở Cát Tiên -Lâm Đồng [Discussion on Brahmi inscriptions and Hindu iconography presented on the gold plaques found from Cat Tien -Lam Dong], in "Vietnam Review of Indian and Asian Studies", Institute of Indian and Southwest Asian Studies, 12 (13)/2013, pp. 27-36. 145. Iranian migration. In: Daniel Potts (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Iran. Oxford: OUP 2013. 422-441. 144. Afghan Hindu Kush: where Eurasian sub-continent gene flows converge PLOS ONE PONE-D-13-09936R2 http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0076748 =================================2012==========================
The text selected here is one that I edited and translated some twenty years ago: the Ka ha Āra y... more The text selected here is one that I edited and translated some twenty years ago: the Ka ha Āra yaka (Ka hA), 1 a Bråhma a style text of the Black Yajurveda. In doing so, I had to go through all steps of dealing with a Vedic text: learning a new script, the śåradå of Kashmir, figuring out the unmarked ends of sentences and trying to understand their meaning, and interpreting the arcane śrauta ritual and the homologies of Vedic thought. All of this, in itself, is a most educational enterprise that I can only recommend to graduate students with the words of Louis Renou: "Où est le temps quand chacque sanskritiste éditait un texte védique..." In this paper, however, I will concentrate on translation, intertwined as it may be with the task of editing. Before we even can attempt a translation of Bråhma a texts, there are a number of procedures that must be discussed and several obstacles that must be overcome. Most of them can be taken care of by our old hand-maiden, philology. It is well-known that to merely mention this word is already the kiss of death in some circles, including Harvard. In fact, one of my colleagues here once explained philology to me as "the study of a word." I rather prefer to define it, as we did in a symposium some five years ago: as "Kulturwissenschaft based on texts", or "the study of a civilization based on texts". In order to proceed with such a study, we have to take into account a number of factors: the nature and grammar of the Vedic language in its late Bråhma a/Āra yaka stage; the setting of the text: its time, place, as well as the contemporary society, natural surroundings and climate; the style of the text: the typical B r å h m a a / Ā r a y a k a prose with its many repetitions, the Zwangsläufigkeit ('inevitability') of its way of expression (see below); the parallel texts, the medieval exegesis (traditional commentators and their setting); the problems concerning the translation of certain Vedic words (see
Despite being located at the crossroads of Asia, genetics of the Afghanistan populations have bee... more Despite being located at the crossroads of Asia, genetics of the Afghanistan populations have been largely overlooked. It is currently inhabited by five major ethnic populations: Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara, Uzbek and Turkmen. Here we present autosomal from a subset of our samples, mitochondrial and Y-chromosome data from over 500 Afghan samples among these 5 ethnic groups. This Afghan data was supplemented with the same Y-chromosome analyses of samples from Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and updated Pakistani samples (HGDP-CEPH). The data presented here was integrated into existing knowledge of pan-Eurasian genetic diversity. The pattern of genetic variation, revealed by structure-like and Principal Component analyses and Analysis of Molecular Variance indicates that the people of Afghanistan are made up of a mosaic of components representing various geographic regions of Eurasian ancestry. The absence of a major Central Asian-specific component indicates that the Hindu Kush, like the gene pool of Central Asian populations in general, is a confluence of gene flows rather than a source of distinctly autochthonous populations that have arisen in situ: a conclusion that is reinforced by the phylogeography of both haploid loci.
===2014=== 146. Abstract: Three subsequent, major developments in Vedic throught and religion. Tr... more ===2014=== 146. Abstract: Three subsequent, major developments in Vedic throught and religion. Transactions of the International Conference of Eastern Studies N. LVIII 2013. Tokyo: Tōhō Gakkai 2014: 85-86 ===2013=== 145. Rig-Veda. Das heilige Wissen. Dritter bis fünfter Liederkreis. 2013. http://www.verlagderweltreligionen.de/index.cfm Rig-Veda Vol. II (Rigveda III-V) (M.Witzel, Toshifumi Goto, Salvatore Scarlata) 144. Lê Thị Liên, Michael Witzel 2013. Bàn về văn khắc Brahmi và tiếu tượng Hindu giáo thể hiện trên các mảnh vàng phát hiện ở Cát Tiên -Lâm Đồng [Discussion on Brahmi inscriptions and Hindu iconography presented on the gold plaques found from Cat Tien -Lam Dong], in "Vietnam Review of Indian and Asian Studies", Institute of Indian and Southwest Asian Studies, 12 (13)/2013, pp. 27-36. 145. Iranian migration. In: Daniel Potts (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Iran. Oxford: OUP 2013. 422-441. 144. Afghan Hindu Kush: where Eurasian sub-continent gene flows converge PLOS ONE PONE-D-13-09936R2 http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0076748 =================================2012==========================
The text selected here is one that I edited and translated some twenty years ago: the Ka ha Āra y... more The text selected here is one that I edited and translated some twenty years ago: the Ka ha Āra yaka (Ka hA), 1 a Bråhma a style text of the Black Yajurveda. In doing so, I had to go through all steps of dealing with a Vedic text: learning a new script, the śåradå of Kashmir, figuring out the unmarked ends of sentences and trying to understand their meaning, and interpreting the arcane śrauta ritual and the homologies of Vedic thought. All of this, in itself, is a most educational enterprise that I can only recommend to graduate students with the words of Louis Renou: "Où est le temps quand chacque sanskritiste éditait un texte védique..." In this paper, however, I will concentrate on translation, intertwined as it may be with the task of editing. Before we even can attempt a translation of Bråhma a texts, there are a number of procedures that must be discussed and several obstacles that must be overcome. Most of them can be taken care of by our old hand-maiden, philology. It is well-known that to merely mention this word is already the kiss of death in some circles, including Harvard. In fact, one of my colleagues here once explained philology to me as "the study of a word." I rather prefer to define it, as we did in a symposium some five years ago: as "Kulturwissenschaft based on texts", or "the study of a civilization based on texts". In order to proceed with such a study, we have to take into account a number of factors: the nature and grammar of the Vedic language in its late Bråhma a/Āra yaka stage; the setting of the text: its time, place, as well as the contemporary society, natural surroundings and climate; the style of the text: the typical B r å h m a a / Ā r a y a k a prose with its many repetitions, the Zwangsläufigkeit ('inevitability') of its way of expression (see below); the parallel texts, the medieval exegesis (traditional commentators and their setting); the problems concerning the translation of certain Vedic words (see
Uploads
Papers by Michael Witzel