mother tongue newsletter 25 (summer 1995)

7/28/2019 Mother Tongue Newsletter 25 (Summer 1995)

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. .

o. .

THER,

T0NGuE

NEWSLETTER OF THE'

ASSOCIATION FOR THE.STUDY OF LANGUAGE

IN PREIDSTO.RY

x s s u e 2 5 ( M T- 2 5 ) s u ~ e r1 9 9 5


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MOTHER TONGUE.; NEWSLETTER of th e Asociat ion fo r th e Study ofLanguage In Prehjstox:y. Issue 25. summer 1995

The Association fo r th e Study of Language In Prehis tory (ASLIP) i s anonprof i t organizat ion, incorporated 'under th e laws of the Commonwealth o fMassa huse t t s . I t s purpose i s to encourage and suppor t th e study oflanguage in prehis tory in a l l f i e l d s an d by a l l means, including researchon the ear ly evolut ion o f human language, supporting conferences, s e t t i n gup a data bank, and publishing a newslet ter an d a journal to repor t thesea c t i v i t i e s .

Memgership: Annual dues fo r ASLIP membership an d subscr ip t ion to MotherTongue a re us $25 in a l l countr ies , except those with currency problems.For membership information, contact :

Anne w. Beaman, Secre taryA.S.L.I .P.P.o . Box 583Brookline, MA 02146 USA

OFFICBRS OF ASLIP (Address appropriate correspondence to each)President Harold c. Fleming 1 16 Butman Avenue 1 Glouces ter, MA

01930-1006 Tel . 508-282-0603

Vice Pres iden t Allan R. Bombard I 73 P h i l l i p s S t r e e t I Boston, MA02114 Tel . 617-227-4923 E-mail [email protected]

Secretary Anne w. Beaman 1 P.O.Box 583 1 Brookline, MATel . 617-739-1310

Treasurer Harold c. Fleming (see above)

BOABD OF DIRBCTQRSOfer Bar-Yosef (Harvard Univers i ty)Ronald Chris tensen (Entropy Limited)Freder ick Gamst (U 1 Massachusetts)John Hutchison (Boston Univers i ty)

COUNCIL OF FELLQWS

Raimo Ant t i l a (UCLA)Luigi Luca Caval l i -Sforza (Stanford)Igor M. Diakonoff (St . Petersburg)Aaron Dolgopolsky (UIHaifa)Se n Ohiomamhe Elugbe (UIIbadan)Joseph H. Greenberg (Stanford)Carleton T. Hodge (UIIndiana)Dell Hymes (U/Virginia)

Mary Ellen Lepionka (Cambridge, MA)Phi l ip Lieberman (Brown Univers i ty)Daniel McCall (Boston, MA)Roger Wescott (Southbury, Conn.)

Sydney Lamb (Rice Univers i ty)Winfred P. Lehmann (UITexas)Karl-Heinrich Menges (UjVienna)Colin Renfrew (Cambridge u . , UK)Vi t a l i j Shevoroshkin (UjMichigan)Sergei Staros t in (Academy o f

Sciences , Russia)


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LEADING DISCOVERIES AND NEWS. 2nd Quarter 1995

A Very Old Englishman Unearthed

Remains of one of th e o l d e s ti nhab i t an t s o f th e B r i t i s h I s l e swere recen t ly found in anexcavat ion a t Boxgrove ( spe l l ingno t secure) in southern England. Asdisp layed on American t e l e v i s i o nrecen t ly ( June) , a hand-axewield ing hominid s t an d in g perhapss i x f e e t t a l l and q u i t e ro b u s t hadinhab i ted t h a t p a r t o f Englandaround 5 0 0 ,0 0 0 y ea r s ago. GeorgeWainwright of Un iv e r s i ty College,London, le d a team of what lookedt o be sco res o f young archeo log i s t sin th e endeavour. Boxgrove man wassa i d , by th e program, t o bea n c e s t r a l t o Neanderthal . Thatana ly s i s was based on a p iece o fh is lower l eg , perhaps most of ac a l f bone. we r e g r e t t h a t nothinge l s e was sa id on th e squ ib andt he re a re no publ i shed (wr i t t en )accounts t h a t we know o f t o confi rmth e b r i e f r e p o r t .

But Many, Even Older, Basgues

More recen t b u t more s o l i d l yr epor ted and ana lyzed than th ef i r s t B r i t , some 36 f o s s i l s ( sk u l l ,den ta l and ja w f ragments from fourpersons) were found in a cave nearBurgos in th e Atapuerca reg ion of

northwest Spain . The team l eader i sEudald Carbonel lo of U/Tarragonab u t da t ing was done by Josep Paresof I n s t i t u t e of Earth Sciences ,Barce lona . Comments have been madeby F. Clark Howell (U/C-Berkeley) .Sc ience ( 8 / 1 1 / 9 5 ) has th e r e p o r t asdoes Associated Pres s . The importi s very heavy and w i l l be pursuedhere i n , with luck by Gunter Brauero r another long r anger. The g i s t ofi t i s t h a t around 7 8 0 ,0 0 0 y ea r s ago( reckoned by a 'new technique ' ofgeomagnetic d a t in 9 ) a d i f f e r e n tk ind of hominid 11ved in I b e r i a . I tseems t o be a n c e s t r a l t o Neander ta lbu t n o t i t s e l f the e x ~ e c t e dHomoe r e c t u s . To s t r e s s t h 1 s : Howell, aworld c l a s s pa leoan th ropo log i s t , i squoted say ing : "These a re n2t. Homoe r e c t u s . These a re somethin9d i f f e r e n t . " Amen, a h o t top1c!

-------- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --

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Most Important Find in th e Ni leCongo Zwischengebie t

John Yellen and co l leaguearcheo log i s t s have unearthed a keyp iece of evidence fo r pu t a t i ve ea r lymodern man around 90 ,000 years a9o.I t was found dur ing excavat ions 1nth e highlands between Lakes Edwardand Alb e r t a long th e Congo (Zai re)border with Eas t Afr i ca (Uganda).This area abuts what e a r l y Germane x ~ l o r e r sc a l l e d th e Nil-KongoZw1schengebiet - - between th ewatershed of th e might Congo an dt h a t of th e majes t i c N1le. Althought e chn ica l ly in ~ o l i t i c a lZa i r e , th es i t e b a s i c a l l y 1s in th e e a s tAfrican high lands . One might a lsoc a l l th e a rea th e Pygmy-BushmanZwischen9ebie t too . And th e countryi s beau t1 fu l .Ye l len ' s team found harpoons(and more) which in d e t a i l s o f t h e i rmanufacture a re considerab ly morel i k e th e work o f e a r l y moderntechnolog ies such as th e UpperP a l e o l i t h i c of Europe than l i k e th ec ru d e r t e ch n o lo g ie s of the MiddleStone Age o r e a r l i e r p e r io d s - - b u twith some African c u l t u r e s l i k eLupemban sometimes soph i s t i ca t edtoo . In b r i e f , they thought i t wasth e work o f Homo sap ien s sap iens ,i . e . , anatomical ly modern man. The

th ink ing i s b a s i c a l l y c o r r e l a t i o n a l ,of course , because c ru d e r s t u f fmost ly i s as soc ia ted with non-modernhumansf while th e more spec i a l i zed ,more f1nely tu rned-ou t s t u f f mostlyi s as soc ia ted with modern humans.Clar i fy ing the reasoning does no t ,o f course , in any way r e f u t e i t . Buti t does mean t h a t s t a t i s t i c a l l yor ien ted th ink ing would i n s i s t t h a tth e harpoons cou ld have been made bynon-modern humans.

Harpoons have been found inl a t e r p e r io d s in Uganda where t h e i rda t ing unfo r tuna te ly was bedevi ledby contaminat ion of s h e l l s (used i nth e d a t in g ) and one can only sayt h a t a k ind of harpooning t r a d i t i o np e r s i s t e d around th e e a s t Africanl ak es fo r many mil lenn ia . What i tled t o or who was l i n k ed t o i tcanno t be sa i d , al though John


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II0'1'IlliR 'l'OHGlll!: TIIB JIIIIISLIT'l'IR. SIIMMIR 11115

Sut ton ' s ' aqua t ic c i v i l i z a t i o n 'c i rca 7000BC might l ink i t to NileSaharan. (Dan McCall suggested i t . )

However, modern peoples insevera l eas t African l akes s t i l lhunt hippos with f i re-hardenedwooden spears f use hooks fo r l e s se rf i sh and poss1bly h a r ~ o o n sfo r thevery l a rge f i s h endem1c to thosel akes . ( I t ' s only a ques t ion o fmemory and looking up thee t h n o g r a p h i e s - so r ry ! )

Long rangers need hardly bereminded t h a t t h i s i s th e f i r s tarcheological s i t e i n Afr ica andp rac t i c a l ly everywhere e l s e i n theworld where t h i s puta t iveassoc i a t i on o f advanced t o o l s andmodern man can be found so ea r ly.True th e Levant has e a r l i e r moderns

(90-100k) but th e t o o l s are not sosp i ffy. Given the f a r f a r grea te ri n t e n s i t y of archeologicalexcavation i n the Levantf comparedto eas te rn Afr ica , then 1 t i s q u i t ereasonable t o expect t h a t mores i t e s l i k e t h i s w i l l be found inth e four g r e a t highland coun t r i e s(Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania , andEthiopia) .

Yel len 's d i scover ies do no tt h rea ten the t h e s i s t h a t e a r l ymodern mankind e i t h e r began ineas te rn Afr ica o r g o t t he re soona f t e r t h e i r or ig in elsewhere.

Remarkable Austra l ian Pain t ings

Only th e magnitude o f JohnYel l en ' s African f inds can overshadow th e h i g h l f s ig n i f i c an t bu tq u i t e controvers1al ~ r o p o s a l sbyAustra l ian archeolo91s t , RhysJones . With new dat1ng techniquesand bold a s se r t i o n s about ores andpa in t ings , Jones ' new hypothesis i st h a t modern man reached Aus t ra l i aaround 60,000 year s ago and wasable t o p a i n t p i c t u r e s in a verycred ib le way.

In a word - - ' good ' a r t some30,000 years before Europe 'srenownea Upper Pa leo l i th ic a r t .(Recent ly, new cave a r t in th eChauvet cave in southern France haspushed t h e i r da te s from 27k to 32k)Those ' p r imi t ive ' Aust ra l ians were

c e r t a in ly e a r l y (one meaning ofprimi t ive) but not so backward (asecond meaning of p r i m i t i v e ) . Nowt h a t th e Africans of 90,000 yearsago were whi t t l in9 bone and th e Abosof 60,000 were pa1nt ing on wal ls ,su re ly we can harbor a revolut ionarynotion - - t h a t Europe was ac tua l ly abackward place fo r many manymil lennia a f t e r th e g r e a t humandiaspora ha d begun.

I t would seem log ica l ly hard tokeep th e Eurocen t r ic view t h a t ourNeanderthal k in were th e immediateances tors o f modern people , when,during Neanderthals ' heyday inEurope, t echnologica l ly o rcu l tu ra l ly more advanced modernswere l iv ing in th e g r e a t t r op ica lrealm from Afr ica to Aust ra l i a .

Jones ' s i t e s , Nauwalabila I andMalakunanja I I , both rock she l t e r si n nor thern Aust ra l i a , a re no t new,being known from th e 1970s bu t th edat ing i s new - - ' o p t i c a l d a t i n g 'and thermoluminescence.

AnCient QNA; A Third Time a t Oxford

This re fe rs not t o some tenuredmandarins bu t r a th e r to ani n t e r e s t i n g conference held recen t lya t Oxford Univers i ty. The t h i r dconference on ancien t DNA was held ,with a f ine group of scholars ina t tendance . I t i s important t o po in tou t t h a t th e ancien t DNA in quest ioni s t h a t der ived from d i r e c texamination of f o s s i l s , r e l i c s o fthe t i s sue s of th e formerly l iv ing ,not from any inferences made aboutancien t popula t ions from modernf i e l d d a t a .Whatever t h e i r i n t e n t i o n s , however,

some papers d id p r o j e c t back in t imeth e data from modern fo lks .

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Thanks to repor te r s , Becky Cannand Andy Merriwether, some i tems ofi n t e r e s t . F i r s t , g r e a t scept ic ismc u r r e n t l y awai ts an y conclusionsbased on f o s s i l data o lde r than ,say, 10,000 year s . Too much t i s suel o s s - - > unre l i ab le da ta .

Second, desp i t e t h a t , manypeople a re t r y i n g to e x t r a c t someth ings from Neanderthal bones. I t i svery hard going t echn ica l ly b u t the


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po ten t ia l rewards are grea t . Ofcourse , as everyone knows, f indingsome c l e a r nuc lea r DNA o r mtDNAfrom Neanderthal f o s s i l s w i l l helpt e s t Cann's t h e s i s t h a t Homosapiens s . i s qu i te d i s t i n c t fromNeanderthal .

Third , so g r e a t i s Caval l i

Sforza ' s p re s t ige t h a t many a t theconference were surpr i sed to heart h a t HGHG had no t ac tua l ly coveredth e whole world - - proper ly.

Four th , Basques a re no t sovery d i f f e r e n t from west Europeans,espec ia l ly B r i t i sh , French, andIber i an . Nor d id HGHG show a g r e a tchasm between th e Basques and t h e i rfellow At lan t i c f r inge rs e i t h e r . I ft h e r e remain doubts about t h i s , th emtDNA r e s u l t s from western Europew i l l d i sp e l them. Words l i k e ' q u i t es i m i l a r ' descr ibed Basques inr e l a t ion t o the o t h e r s . We have a l lbeen eag e r to show Basque a f f i n i t ywith th e fo lks of th e Caucasus,which no on e can t r u l y re fu tebecause we ac tua l ly know l i t t l eg e n e t i c a l l f about Caucasic-speakingpeoples . W1ll someone please send agroup o f graduate s tuden t s to NewJersey where qu i te a few WestCaucasic-speakers l i v e ! o r toI s r a e l where many Circass ians arefound! Can ' t th e many r e ~ o r t e r sdoing th e Chechen war br1ng backsome v i a l s of blood? Or pursess tu ffed f u l l of h a i r f o l l i c l e s ?

F i f t h , Andy'spaper i t s e l f

wasa major event . He has more datafrom South American Amerinds,Yamomami in p a r t i c u l a r , which showth e presence of even morehaplogroups in th e New World thanwere proposed before . His prev iouspaper in MT-23 i s s t ronge r now.There was b a s i c a l l y one a ig r a t i o nt o th e New World, br ingingAmerinds, Na-Dene and Eskaleu tsfrom an Asian homeland o r d ispe rsa lpoin t in o r around Mongolia.Actual ly from h is own remarks i tseems t h a t Tibe t i s a b i t morel i k e l y. Andy's data a re mtDNA, asyo u know, and h is research i s r i g h ton th e ' c u t t i n g ed g e ' as they say,judged by th e people he c i t e s andwho c i t e him. I t i s a l so amusingt h a t th e peoples who l ink toge therin Andy's ana lys i s a r e elsewhere

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ca l led Mongoloids. In Caval l iS f o r z a ' s dendrograms the branchca l led 'Northern Mongoloid' f i t sAndy's group very wel l .

s i x t h , another sp in -o ff ofAndy's research , a l so mentioned byother s a t Oxford, i s a r e t r e a t fromth e notion of da t ing by biogenet ic

a n a l y s i s . I t i s not inp r i n c i ~ l e

impossible: i t i s too uncerta1n a tth e moment t o be t r u s t ed . so Andyand some o t h e r s , a t l e a s t , areavoiding the chance t o datemigra t ions in to th e New World. Somesay they heard him propose a date of15 ,000 BP fo r th e bas ic migra t ionfrom Asia but Andy denies t h a t . Hemight have sa id i t a t th e conferencebu t h is considered op in ion i s s t i l lnegat ive about dat ing the migrat ion .

There were other top ics a t th eOxford conference bu t we w i l l r epor tthem elsewhere ( e . g . , Robert Wayne'swork on d o g s - - below). We a l so dono t know i f o r where o r when th econference w i l l be publ ished .

A4am Comes to Eve 's Ai d

The t r u e s t complement to mtDNAand i t s matr i l inea l descent i s th e Ychromosome and i t s p a t r i l i n e a ldescent . Three g e n e t i c i s t s , RobertDor i t (Yale) , Nobel- laureate WilliamG i l b e r t (Harvard) and Hirosh i Akashi(Chicago), examining a segment ofth e male chromosome, found l i t t l egenet ic

var ia t ion among 38males

from many ' r a c i a l ' and geograph ica lor ig ins and concluded t h a t t h e i rcommon or ig in was qu i te r ecen t , say2 7 0 ,0 0 0 years ago. The data weredrawn from ' cheek scrapings and h a i rf o l l i c l e s .

However, Milford Wolpoff ofMichigan sa id th e Adam study and theEve s tudy were qu i te d i f f e r e n t andno conclus ions should be drawn.Conversely we might .add t h a t nothingabout th e Adam s tudy should be seenas suppor t ive to mult i - reg ionaltheory, j u s t as in th e case of theEve s tudy.S i g n i f i c a n t a c t i v i t y in l i n g u i s t i c s

Except fo r t he f asc ina t ing case of as t a l l e d paradigm whose fo l lowersgrow ever so s l i g h t l y more modest,


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IIO'l'HER TOIIGUll: THB JIIEIISLE'l"l'ER. Stli!IIE R 1995

nothing i n t e r e s t i n g has come o u t o fl i n g u i s t i c s in too many y ea r s . Theg r e a t impact o f Chomskyite theoryon psychology and phi losophy i s nowh i s t o r r , as th e Americans say.Histor1ca l seems t o be th e onlybranch o f ' s c i e n t i f i c ' l i n g u i s t i c ss t i l l bear ing f r u i t . I t i s a l so th eo l d e s t branch. Ext rao rd ina i r e ,n ' e s t - c e pa?

One o f o u r bas ic taxonomicreg ions - - Southeas t Asia-ocean ia -i s bear ing l a rge f r u i t these days .Au s t r i c i s f i n a l l y coming o u t o fth e doldrums o f scho la r ly cau t ion .A super-phylum whose reach i s fromsouth In d ia t o Eas te r I s l and bu twhose core l i e s between Formosa andBengal w i l l en l igh ten p reh i s to ry i nthose p a r t s . Accounting fo r a t

l e a s t 1 / 4 o f human languages ,i t

i svery exc i t ing !Robert B l u s t has t i p p ed th e

balance between cau t io u s and verycau t io u s s c h o l a r s , i n favor o fP a t e r Schmid t ' s o r i g i n a l not iont h a t A u s t r o a s i a t i c (AA) was l inkedt o Austronesian (AN). Rober t i sv e r r c l e a r abou t what he has done;rev1ewing th e l i t e r a t u r e and makingd ec i s io n s i n debates .

F i r s t , he has suppor ted h iscol lea9ue a t U/Hawaii , LawrenceReid, 1n Reid ' s ana lys i s of th eproblem. s t ep one was t o break upPaul Bened ic t ' s Austro-Thai (AT),while disparaging Bened ic t ' smethods and r econs t ruc t ions . s t eptw o i s t o r e l a t e th e newll i b e r a t e d AN t o AA by aff1rming th eonly evidence t h a t Benedict hasagreed seemed t o e x i s t -morphological . Tac i t l y ~ e r h a p s ,al though no c r e d i t i s g1ven, t h i sseems t o be a conf i rmat ion o fPinnow's work s t r e s s i n g morphologyi n Aus t r i c .

second, he s t r e s se d th e r a r i t yo f th e sp e c i f i c bound forms used t obind th e phyla t oge the r, r a t h e rl i k e marker genes i n b iogene t ics .As many l i n g u i s t s a re aware, t he reare t h ree common verba l a f f1 x es ;i n f i x -um-, pre f ixes *pa- and *ka( l s t usua l ly ' i n c h o a t i v e ' , th eo ther s cau sa t iv e s ) i n Indonesianlanguages and Mon-Khmer and

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elsewhere in AN. In one AA language,Katu, th e tw o p r e f i x e s combine in adouble cau sa t iv e paka- . Althoughsome use th e word ' i n f i x ' r a t h e rloose ly ( e . g . , i n Indo-European,Afras ian ) , t h e i r ' i n f i x e s ' areasp ec t s o f th e phonolo9y involved. At r u e i n f i x has t o be l1ke o therbound morphemes, a p a r t i c l e witha s c e r t a i n a b l e meaning. Th e only t ruei n f i x e s I know abou t in Africa arefound i n Koman o f Nilo-Saharan whereverb roo t s a re s p l i t i n two an dpronouns in f ixed = p u t i n th emiddle . But such i s r a r e .

Anyway th e -urn- i n f i x i s anaccepted p a r t o f Prato-Austronesian(PAN), so f a r as I know. Blu s textends t he t h ree a f f i x e s t o keyp a r t s o f AA ( e . 9 . , Nicobar I s lands)

and draws th e s1mple conc lus ion t h a tsuch r a r e b u t verba l ly s i g n i f i c a n tmorphemes occurr ing in widelys e ~ a r a t e dlan9uages i s per forceev1dence of k1nship .

What about borrowing? Well, l e tme be B l u s t ' s advocate h e re . We w i l lo f f e r a pr i ze t o th e f i r s t personwho can demonstrate th e borrowing o fa t r u e i n f i x between any languageso f th e world. I f some o f us th inkt h a t th e borrowing o f pronouns i sr a r e or non-ex i s ten t , t h a t i s s t i l linheren t ly more l i k e l y than th e caseo f th e Au s t r i c i n f i x . I t i s not p a r to f un iver sa l semant ics l i k e th epronouns a re ; r a t h e r i t i s p a r t o fs ~ e c i a l i z e dverba l behavior. Whow1l l take up my wager? Who w i l l win?

Third , having shoved my f r i endPaul as id e - - marbe even dent ing h i sfamous se l f -conf1dence - - , Blu s tthen al lows as how Reid has shown ANcognates with Daic (Thai-Kadai) byproper ly c o r r e l a t i n g cvcv forms ofPAN with CV forms o f Daic . ( In f a c tboth Benedict and Matisoff had donet h i s before ; i t was even mentionedin Mother Tongue), thus in f a c tbr inging a l l o f th e former AT i n tor e l a t i o n with AA i n th e new Au s t r i c .This i s n o t Rober t ' s f i n e s tc o l l e g i a l hour.

Four th , a t no p o i n t i s Miao-Yao( 'Hmong-Mien') brought i n t o t h i s newAu s t r i c ; ment1oned but no t i nc luded .And n a t u r a l l y th e new f i e l d data


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coming back with Gerard Diff lo thhave no t y e t been incorporated in tothe mix e1ther.

F i f th , i t i s qu i te importantt o s t r e s s how impor tan t a fewscholar ly dec is ions a re whenopin ions and arguments are inc o n f l i c t . Some 9ood people have

supported Austr1c; some 9ood peoplehave denied i t . Blust t1ps th ebalance because he has g r e a tp res t ige as th e f i n a l i z e r of ANtaxonomy and as a very competentbut c a r e f u l law-abiding' ~ r o f e s s i o n a l ' .With Greenberg,D1ff lo th and Yakhontov alreadybacking Schmidt, Blus t and Re1d a reenough t o surmount the oppos i t iono f Dyen an d Benedict . Add Pinnowand Matisoff t o th e sca le s ond i f f e r e n t s ides . Only Norman Zidecan t i l t th e balance back t ol eve l - - o r even more one-s ided.

Six th , inc iden ta l ly Japanesedoes not g e t inc luded in Aust r ice i t h e r . I t s membership i s re jec ted .(References a t en d of next t op ic )

AuStric Hypothesis as Prehis tory

In th e f ine t r a d i t i o n ofOceanian anthropology Blust putsh is l i n g u i s t i c taxonomy t o work inp r e h i s t o r y. Having agreed t h a t th enew super-phylum (words he eschews)was v a s t and complex, he s e t ou t tof ind i t s d i s ~ e r s a lpoin t and t ime

depth . One w1llhave

to read h ispaper t o fol low h is reason ing andg e t h is more spec i f i c conclus ions .Here I sum up h is primary f ind ings:

1 ) The homeland of PAN must beon o r near Formosa. That i s s e t t l e dpreh i s to ry nowadays, i t seems.Blus t moves i t the re from th eFuj ian c o a s t & o ld e s t r ice- farmingareas in mainland China.

2) In order t o j o in up with AAul t imate ly, i t has t o go t o o l d e rhighland areas t o th e west , whereagro -eco log ica l fac to r s put i t .Most l i k e ly th e Yangtze-SalweenZwischengebiet, th e high land areafrom which r i c e farmers spread ingout would have access t o most ofSoutheast Asia .

3) The homeland o f AA l i e s no tso f a r away in th e same high landsto the west near Nagaland. Rice

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farmers or wi ld - r i ce reapers again .4) Proto-Aus tr ic (PAU) i s

es sen t i a l ly a foregone conclusiona f t e r the premises of 2) and 3 ) . I ti s loca ted t o the sou th somewhat,again in th e highlands along th eBurma-Thailand border a rea . The u rAustr icans were 9e t t ing ready t o be

farmers, harvest1ng wild r i c e .5) The dates of these pro tolanguages in t h e i r homelands, thoughinformed by l i n g u i s t i c d a t e s , w i l lbe governed by ag r i cu l tu ra l da te sobtained from archeology; t h a t seemsc l e a r. We g e t back to 1 5 , 0 0 0 - 1 0 , 0 0 0fo r a kind of pre-Aust r ic i n c ip i e n tr i c e cu l t iva t ion s t age , then 7000 BC fo r PAU in i t s homeland, 5500 BCfo r PAA, and one millennium l a t e rfo r PAN. At one poin t Blus t c i t e s al ex i ca l re ten t ion count (Swadeshl i s t ) of 7% between AN branches .This he bel ieves f i t s nice ly withinh is general es t imates of the t imedepth of PAN on Taiwan of 4500 BC,i . e . 6500 BP. He exempli f ies th es t a t i s t i c s by Cebuano and Roviana,from th e Phi l ipp ines and Melanesiar espec t ive ly, which he bel ieves weresepara ted only 5000 years agofdesp i t e t h e i r 7% re ten t ion wh1chshould imply 6000-8500 years ago bys tandard formulae. Why not? There ten t ion r a t e s var ied . (Probablybecause of Melanesia)

A ll of t h i s i s der ived from apaper Robert gave in 1993 a t a

conference sponsoredby

WardGoodenough, famous Oceanistanthropolo9is t , a t th e Univers i ty ofPennsylvan1a. I t should be publ ishedsoon. Since Blus t sen t me a c o ~ yofth e ~ a p e rand s ince i t was del1vered~ u b l 1 c l ya t Penn, I presume t h a t i t1s kosher fo r us to pub l i c i ze i t smain poin ts here in . I f t h i spresumption vexes anyone a t Penn,please so inform m e ~

A Comment on t h e AuStric Prehis tory

B lus t ' s theory of Aust r ic preh is to ry s t r i k e s me as highlyso p h i s t i c a t e d , in th e ocean1stt r a d i t i o n . S t 1 l l i t i s s imi la r tothose of Renfrew, Caval l i -Sforza ,and Ruhlen on Indo-European. Thereasoning i s ~ r o f o u n d l yecologica land archeo log1ca l , bu t se r ious ly

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Fina l ly, quibbl ing as ide , It h ink B lus t ' s paper i s a powerfulboon to our endeavours. By movingAus t r i c ou t of th e t r a f f i c jam andby proposing matching preh i s to ry,he wil l keep l o t s of scholars busychecking i t a l l out . Assuming fo rth e nonce t h a t Miao-Yao wassupposed t o be inc luded i n h i sAus t r i c , we can say t h a t Robert hasenormously s impl i f1ed th el i n g u i s t i c p ic tu re in a c ruc ia lp a r t of th e world. Oceania and i t smainland now have no l e s s thanth ree major superphyla , Aus t r i c ,Indo-Pac1fic and Aust ra l ian . Plusth e major phylum (Sino-Tibetan)which may o r may no t belong to anou t s ide super-phylum, DeneCaucasic. Congratulations!

New York Times Notices Lingu i s t i cs !

During the ~ a s t decade of a c t i v i t yin human or19ins sc ience th eleading Amer1can newspaper hasconspicuously ignored most of th edevelopments, but espec ia l ly thel i n g u i s t i c ones. Thus i t i snoteworthy t h a t th e Times suddenly~ r i n t e da b ig spread on Nos t ra t i c1n i t s Tuesday 'Sc ience News'sec t ion (June 27, 1995, C1, C13).L i t t l e new s t u f f in i t , excep t t h a tBombard go t some du e recogni t ionand Manaster-Ramer unexpectedlyappeared as a prime researcher int h i s f i e l d . Don Ringe seemed t o besay ing t h a t th e Uralic+Indo-Aryanhypothes is passed th e 'Ringe t e s t ' .The t r e e of Nost ra t i c presented wasno t accura te bu t i t ~ Eurocentr icto an extreme.

AnOther seyere a t tack on Ruhlen

Some l i n g u i s t s c r i t i c i z e d me l a s tyear fo r being too harsh in some ofmy comments on l i n g u i s t s . I sa id Iwas so r r y. But now, good col leaguesone and a l l can read something veryvery harsh from t he o ther s id e .Even Lyle Campbell and Ives Goddarda re pussy ca t s compared t o some ofth e c r i t 1 c s o f Greenberg, an d morer ecen t ly Ruhlen.

Get a copy o f Anthony Gran t ' sreview o f Merr1 t t Ruhlen ' s On th eOrig in o f Languages; s tud ie s in

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Lingu i s t i c Taxonomy. 1994 whicha ~ p e a r sin AnthropologicalL1nguis t ics 37, number 1f 1995,93-96. Afte r reading t h a t p1ece o facademic Schadenfreude, no on e wil lever again accuse me o r LyleCampbell of being harsh . By the way,t h a t journal(AL) seems to havejo ined Language and ~ in beingt o t a l l y biased . Like t he th reefamous monkeys; see no e v i l , hear noe v i l and speak no e v i l - - where th eAmerind theory i s e v i l i ncarna te , inthe body of Joe Greenberg. Heavens!

Important Act iv i ty in Biogenet ics

Caval l i -Sforza and h is son Francescohave published a more compact andl e s s t echn ica l vers ion of HGHG. Putou t by Addison wesley (Reading,Mass.) , e n t i t l e d The Great HumanDiasporas, i t may be valuable fo rmost long rangers . We w i l l review i tin th e next Newslet ter. A nonb io log i s t , e thno log is t /h i s to r ian ,Dan McCall w i l l do th e review.

Fresh data on human phylogeny

Carefu l readers o f HGHG w i l l r e c a l lt h a t HGHG's research was 'up through1985 ' . In a fast -moving f i e l d l i k ebiogenet ics new data keep p i l ing upeven a f t e r master fu l summaries. I t ' sl i k e shovel ing your sidewalk duringa b l i z z a r d ; as soon as you f in i sh ,yo u must shovel i t again!We repor ted above someimportant new researches . Others areput o ff u n t i l MT-26, espec ia l ly newJapanese research on DNA and MeaveLeakey's new hominid ances tor toLucy. Thanks to exci ted col leaguesfo r mentioning these to us!

New Dating o f Biogenet ic Phylogeny?

New analyses , new da ta , newda te s fo r ana tomica l ly modern man,s t a r t i n g th e diaspora from Africa .This are mostly confirming t y ~ econclus ions but the ana lys i s 1s new.David Goldste in (Pennsylvania Sta te )and col leagues reported in Proceedin9s of th e ! a t i o n a l Academy ofSc1ences, Ju y 18, 1995, t h a t theyhad determined a date of 156,000years fo r th e African diaspora . The


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IIO'l'IIIR TOIIGUBI THE NBIISLIIT'l'IR. SUJIJIIR 1!195

techn ique involved mic ro sa t e l l i t e s ,(nuclear DNA p a r t i c l e s ) andassumptions about mutat ion r a t e san d th e length of genera t ions .Theirs was 27 years . Masatoshi Ne ia t Penn Sta te sa id t h a t smal l ,i so la ted groups o f ea r ly humansevolved independent mutations whichcan complicate ca lcu la t ions . Alsohe favors assuming 20 years pergenera t ion , making 115 1 000 th e dateof d iaspora . However, 1 t seemsmoderate! cu l tu re-bound to assumea generat1on of 27 years , modernmiddle c la s s Euroamericans. I wouldassume about 16 years , making th ediaspora about 92,000 years . DavidPilbeam (Harvard), when asked, saw15-20 ears as th e b e s t assumptionfo r ch1mpanzee genera t ions . Soperhaps Nei ' s es t imate f i t s b e s t .

Alan Templeton {Washington U.)t h inks t he new techn1ques arei n t e r e s t ing but , of course , th eassumed s p l i t between Afr icans andnon-Africans never occur red . Ourcommon humanity goes back near ly amil l ion years and genes flowedbetween con t inen t s , he says .

Mutation Rate Slower fo r Hominids?

Wen-Hsiung Li (U/Texas-Houston) hasfound t h a t mutat ion r a t e s , a t l e a s ta t nucleot ide s i t e s , go slower fo rhumans (1 .2 changes per b i l l i o nyears ) than Ol d Worla monkeys (1.8 ) and New World Monkeys (2 .1 ) . A ll are f a s t e r than r a t s (4.8 ) . Morris Goodman who hasproposed t h a t such would be thecase was de l igh t ed , while VinceSar ich was u n h a p ~ yi n i t i a l l y a tl e a s t . I wonder 1f the s i ze o f th eanimal makes any di ff e rence , s incet h e r e i s a s i ze progress ion fromr a t s t o Romans.

One i s reminded o f th e e a r l i e rdiscuss ions o f Bushmen mutat ionr a t e s where some proposed t h a t themutat ion r a t e s were f a s t e r fo r bushpeople than fo r o t h e r s , thusaenying th e genet ic divergence ofth e Khoi and th e San. I f Wen-HsiungLi i s r i g h t , then Bushmen a re evenmore divergent than thought .

Dog Domesticated Man; Wben? Wbere?

our canine f r i ends are not the onlyanimals we have persuaded to shareour l i v e s - - pigs , horses , chickens,cows, asses , shoa t s , and camels a renot t r i v i a l - - bu t Canis fami l ia r i sf igures to share a grea t p a r t of ourprehis tory too . More than theother s . Actual ly th e domest icatedanimals who p o te n t i a l l y may t e l l useven more about our prehis tory a reth e l i c e and f l e a s who have beenwith us everywhere and whose owntaxonomic evolut ions wil l co r re la tewith our own. Then dogs have t h e i rown f leas bu t who w i l l we ever g e tto do research on t h a t !

On dogs we have a biogenet icexper t , Robert Wayne of UCLA. Againthanks to Becky and Andy. ProfessorWayne has wri t t en severa l recen ta r t i c l e s on canine phylogeny, usingDNA, and t o ld me t he h igh l igh t s ofh is research on th e phone. (Hiswri t ings are being ~ u r s u e d . )

Exposed t o a l 1 n g u i s t i c viewt h a t ea r ly Homo sapiens probably haddo9s as f r i ends o r co-hunters , hesa1d t h a t " there was more than on eepisode o f domest icat ion" , i . e . i thappened seve ra l t imes . Exposed t oan A f r i c a n i s t scept ic ism about Canisfami l ia r i s being descended fromwolves - -Afr ican dogs do no t look somuch l i k e wolves - - , h is f i rm r e t o r twas t h a t a l l domest1c dogs der ivefrom ~ e y o r t imber wolves (Canislupus1. And th e most divergentgenet1cal ly a re th e "New Guineas ing ing d ~ s "an d th e famous dingoof Austra l1a . Well!After being asked i f he supportedthe usual archeological da te s o f ,

say 10-JOk, fo r domestic canines , heagreed with those da tes .

F ina l ly, I penet ra ted h is f i rmconvict ions by commenting on thel i k e l y age of th e dingo - - 55-60kalmost required with human par tner sWell, yes , he grasped t he log ic butcou ldn ' t r e l a t e t h a t to h is da ta .

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Biogene t i c i s t s a r e r e l i a b l emore on taxonomy than on dat ing , i tseems. (See above Oxford meeting)Good old da t ing - - everyone's mostd i f f i c u l t problem!

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For th e sake of a l te rna t ive hypotheses of can ine ances tors . Dr.Wane was a l so firm about coyotesbe1ng c l o s e s t to grey wolves; thenj acka l s , excep t t he so -ca l l ed'Semien j a cka l ' of nor thernEthiopia which i s r e a l l y a wolf.S t i l l f a r the r away are vixen andmost remote our beloved Africanwild dogs (Lycaon pic tus) witht h e i r t rumpet e a r s and ferocioushunting in packs; I n d i a ' s dhole(Cuon a lp inus) ; and so-ca l l ed bushdog (Speothos vena t . ) of Asia. I tappears c l e a r enough t h a t ea r ly manin eas te rn Afr ica o r sundalandsure ly could no t have domest icatedgrey wolves. North Africa , th e NearEas t o r nor thern Euras ia would havethem. At a minimum th e Borean subgroups, such as Nost ra t i c , Amerindo r Afras ian , would have been i ntouch with ' r e a l d o g s ' . Indeedthose groups are the main suppor tfo r th e poss ib le proto-Humanreconst ruc t ion of *kuon o rsomething l i k e t h a t . May wecons ider t h a t sub-Saharan Africanexperience with dogs i s d i f f e r e n tand has d i f f e r e n t words? And d i t t ot h a t of Sunda- 1 Sahul- land?

Chimpanzees are v i r t u a l carnivores !

Evolutionary theor has always hadto cope with th e d1etarydi ff e rences between humanoids andth e g r e a t apes - - l e a f and bananamunching apes but a savagelycarn ivorous cave Man type of human.We have known, o f course , fo r along time t h a t e thno log ica l ly wegather as of ten as we hunt , excep tth e Eskimo and some o t h e r s . Homosapiens i s omnivorous.

We have a l so known t h a t chimpsdo sometimes e a t meat . What i s neware the r ecen t appra i sa l s of chimpmeat-eat ing . No t only i s i t muchmore common than thought bu t a l soth e not ion t h a t chimpanzees havesomething l i k e a l u s t fo r meat i s

now upon us . c ra ig Stanford (U1

Southern Cali forna) was reported inth e New York Times (June 27, 1995)with these new emphases, includingth e new observat ion t h a t shar ingmeat plays an impor tan t p a r t inchimpanzee soc ia l in te rac t ions .

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Checking with David Pilbeam, I wasreminded t h a t male chimps do have' l a r g e pro jec t ing canine t e e t h ' .Those are not fo r cracking nuts o rmunching bananas!

Despite King Kong and Godzi l la ,are t h e r e any r e p o r t s of g o r i l l a s o roranqutans ea t ing meat, o r muchmeat?

Char io ts in Syr ia in 3000 BC?

Char io ts older than any l i k e lyadvent of ea r ly Indo-Europeans a rereported by D.Michael Ful le r (St .Louis communiti College a tFlo r i s san t Va l ey , MO, USA) a t TelTnin i r in Syr ia about 480 kmnor theas t of Damascus. The s i t e wasa marketplace; a horse and twocha r io t s were clay s t a tue s . someoneshould look in to t h i s .

Grains an d monuments a t AkSumAt th e most famous place in

what was Hai le S e l l a s s i e ' s e m ~ i r eAksum - - a rcheo log i s t s Kather1neBard (Boston U.) , Rudolfo F a t t o v i c iand team are s e t t l i n g th e mystery ofth e famous ' p h a l l i c ' monuments andth e domest ica t ion of / t ' e f f / , a veryimpor tan t gra in in Eth iop ia iE r i t r ea .The Aksumite s t e l a e are assoc ia tedwith b ig rock c u t tombs which w i l lhelp def ine t h e i r meaning.

Around th e t ime of Ch r i s t ,Aksum had wheat and ba r l ey, NearEastern cu l t igens . By 500 AD l t ' e f f l(Eragros t i s t e f f ) had been added t othe gra in s u p ~ l y ,along with grapeseed and l en t1 l s ( a t l e a s t ) . T hesource of Teff? Ethiopia , somewhere.

Aksum a l so shows l o t s of c a t t l eand shoats but no pigs o r donkeys.Trade goods from Roman Egypt showu ~ , as wel l as evidence of contac tw1th Late Meroi t ic cu l tu re (Nubia) .

Rare Evidence of Weaving a t 27k BC

Text i l e fabr ic l i k e pota to

sack, ne t s and baskets , impressed onc la which 9o t f i r ed somehow, showedup 1n Morav1a around 27,000 BP. OlgaSoffer (U/ I l l ino i s ) and JamesAdovasio (Mercyhurst College, Er ie ,PA) col labora ted on th e discovery.Wh1le many have long assumed t h a t


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JIOTHIR 'l'OifGUB: TilE liBIISLE'l"l''R. SUJIIIIR 1995

basketry and some s o r t of weavingwas presen t during e a r l i e r per iods ,i t has remained l a r9e ly undetec ted .Many bel ieved t h a t 1 t had t o wai tfo r th e Neol i th ic . In f a c t theCzech s i t e , o r ig in a l ly excavated inth e 1950s by Bohuslav Klima, showssome ceramics in f igur ines plussome g r ~ u n ds tone , a l so thought t orequi re a s e t t l e d Neol i th ic l i f e .The weaving t e c h n i c a l l y i s ca l led'open diagonal twin ing , withf l ex ib l e v e r t i c a l warp t h r eads ' ; i ti s n ' t th e same as ' p l a i n ' weaving.

Amerinds in Alber ta before 20k ?

Mammoth Trumpet r epor t s t h a t apre -g lac ia l ' a r t i f a c t s ' s i t e nearth e c i t y of Calgary might be l inked

t o mammoth s i t e s rangin9 back to40 k in Alber ta and show1ng humana c t i v i t y before th e redoubtab leClovis hor izon of 12k BP. However,th e f inds by J e r i Chlachula(U/Alberta) immediately ran in tot h e usual archeological qua r re labout whether they were a r t i f a c t so r no t . So s t rong i s th e oppos i t ionin American archeology t o any preClovis dates or cu l tu res t h a t ourcompanion journal i s becomingalmost chary in i t s discuss ions .Why are t he1 r conservat ives so muchl i k e th e Americanis t l ingu is t s? Ialways thought th e Maginot Line wasin France.

Ehre t a l t e r s Nile-Saharan taxonomy

Courtesy of Franz Rott land, wehave a r e p o r t of a new scheme fo ri n t e rna l taxonomy of N-S. ChrisEhre t presented 1 t in Los Angelesin March. ( L e t - > mean ' r e - w r i t e ' )N-S -> Koman + SudanicSudanic -> Centra l + NorthNorth -> Kunama + Saharo-SahelianSaharo-Sahelian -> Saharan + SahelSahel ian -> For + Trans-SahelTrans-Sahel -> Centra l Sahel ian +

Eastern SudanicCentra l Sahel ian -> Songhay + MabanEastern Sudanic -> Astaborean +

Kuliak + Kir/AbbaianAstaborean -> Nara + Nubian TamaKir/Abbaian -> Jebel + Kir

Jebel -> Gaam + BerthaKir -> Temein + Daju + Surma/Nilot icSurma/Nilot ic -> Surma + Nilo t ic .

There are some surpr i ses int h i s . Koman does deserve i t s spec ia ls t a t u s , as do Centra l Sudanic an dKunama. Songhay i s s t a r t l i n g becauseso many p e o ~ l ea re t ry ing to g e t i tout of N-S 1nto a group with Basqueo r Niger-Congo. Outside of Koman,the group I know bes t i s EasternSudanic where I f ind Ehre t ' s schemeen t i r e ly c red ib le , espec ia l ly th eplacing of th e Kuliak group.

The weights of th e branches inN-S sug9est t h a t th e Sudan(Republ1c) and th e Nile system arethe homeland of t h i s g r e a t phylum.This repea t s a conclusion I reachedin 1965; i t was l e s s well supported.

* * * * ARRIVEDERCI ! * * * *

Unt i l we meet again in MT-26 t h i sF a l l . In t h a t i s sue we w i l l ~ i c kupth e loose th reads from t h i s 1ssuebut most of a l l t he l a rge number ofl e t t e r s and announcements frommembers which were c rue l ly l e f t outof t h i s i s sue . There w i l l be twoob i tua r ie s (Egerod an d Stopa) , th eone by w.w. Schuhmacher, t o th e r byEric de Grol i e r.

You a l l are reminded t h a t th egrea t debate on the c l a s s i f i c a t i o nof Basque w i l l be presented in th enear fu ture in our Journa l , i ssue 1 .Featur ing MT*Treatment of a maina r t i c l e by Larry Trask, with primaryr ebu t t a l by John Bengtson, we s h a l lsee se r ious comments by Ian Cat fo rd ,Vaclav B l a ~ e k ,Eric de Grol i e r,Etienne Tiffouf Jose Hualde, XabierZabal tza , Will1am Jacobsen, Vi t a l i jShevoroshkin , Me r r i t t Ruhlen, RogerWescott and with luck Serge iSta ros t in .

* * * * F I R ~ * * *Treasure r ' s note: Many i s sues havebeen dispatched on fa1 th . Those whohave been re luc tan t to pay th e $25dues are urged to become l e s s ana l .For the fo r9e t fu l , a reminder.

V1va Trombetti!

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mother tongue newsletter 25 (summer 1995)

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