Northwest African Neolithic initiated by migrants from Iberia and Levant.

In northwestern Africa, lifestyle transitioned from foraging to food production around 7,400 years ago but what sparked that change remains unclear. Archaeological data support conflicting views: (1) that migrant European Neolithic farmers brought the new way of life to North Africa1-3 or (2) that local hunter-gatherers adopted technological innovations4,5. The latter view is also supported by archaeogenetic data6. Here we fill key chronological and archaeogenetic gaps for the Maghreb, from Epipalaeolithic to Middle Neolithic, by sequencing the genomes of nine individuals (to between 45.8- and 0.2-fold genome coverage). Notably, we trace 8,000 years of population continuity and isolation from the Upper Palaeolithic, via the Epipaleolithic, to some Maghrebi Neolithic farming groups. However, remains from the earliest Neolithic contexts showed mostly European Neolithic ancestry. We suggest that farming was introduced by European migrants and was then rapidly adopted by local groups. During the Middle Neolithic a new ancestry from the Levant appears in the Maghreb, coinciding with the arrival of pastoralism in the region, and all three ancestries blend together during the Late Neolithic. Our results show ancestry shifts in the Neolithization of northwestern Africa that probably mirrored a heterogeneous economic and cultural landscape, in a more multifaceted process than observed in other regions.

Mapping the origins of Imperial Roman workers (1st-4th century CE) at Vagnari, Southern Italy, using 87 Sr/86 Sr and δ18 O variability.

OBJECTIVES: We obtained the oxygen and strontium isotope composition of teeth from Roman period (1st to 4th century CE) inhabitants buried in the Vagnari cemetery (Southern Italy), and present the first strontium isotope variation map of the Italian peninsula using previously published data sets and new strontium data. We test the hypothesis that the Vagnari population was predominantly composed of local individuals, instead of migrants originating from abroad. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed the oxygen (18 O/16 O) and strontium (87 Sr/86 Sr) isotope composition of 43 teeth. We also report the 87 Sr/86 Sr composition of an additional 13 molars, 87 Sr/86 Sr values from fauna (n = 10), and soil (n = 5) samples local to the area around Vagnari. The 87 Sr/86 Sr variation map of Italy uses 87 Sr/86 Sr values obtained from previously published data sources from across Italy (n = 199). RESULTS: Converted tooth carbonate (δ18 ODW ) and 87 Sr/86 Sr data indicate that the majority of individuals buried at Vagnari were local to the region. ArcGIS bounded Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) interpolation of the pan-Italian 87 Sr/86 Sr data set approximates the expected 87 Sr/86 Sr range of Italy's geological substratum, producing the first strontium map of the Italian peninsula. DISCUSSION: Results suggest that only 7% of individuals buried at Vagnari were born elsewhere and migrated to Vagnari, while the remaining individuals were either local to Vagnari (58%), or from the southern Italian peninsula (34%). Our results are consistent with the suggestion that Roman Imperial lower-class populations in southern Italy sustained their numbers through local reproduction measures, and not through large-scale immigration from outside the Italian peninsula.

The genetic prehistory of the Baltic Sea region.

While the series of events that shaped the transition between foraging societies and food producers are well described for Central and Southern Europe, genetic evidence from Northern Europe surrounding the Baltic Sea is still sparse. Here, we report genome-wide DNA data from 38 ancient North Europeans ranging from ~9500 to 2200 years before present. Our analysis provides genetic evidence that hunter-gatherers settled Scandinavia via two routes. We reveal that the first Scandinavian farmers derive their ancestry from Anatolia 1000 years earlier than previously demonstrated. The range of Mesolithic Western hunter-gatherers extended to the east of the Baltic Sea, where these populations persisted without gene-flow from Central European farmers during the Early and Middle Neolithic. The arrival of steppe pastoralists in the Late Neolithic introduced a major shift in economy and mediated the spread of a new ancestry associated with the Corded Ware Complex in Northern Europe.

Ancestry and demography and descendants of Iron Age nomads of the Eurasian Steppe.

During the 1st millennium before the Common Era (BCE), nomadic tribes associated with the Iron Age Scythian culture spread over the Eurasian Steppe, covering a territory of more than 3,500 km in breadth. To understand the demographic processes behind the spread of the Scythian culture, we analysed genomic data from eight individuals and a mitochondrial dataset of 96 individuals originating in eastern and western parts of the Eurasian Steppe. Genomic inference reveals that Scythians in the east and the west of the steppe zone can best be described as a mixture of Yamnaya-related ancestry and an East Asian component. Demographic modelling suggests independent origins for eastern and western groups with ongoing gene-flow between them, plausibly explaining the striking uniformity of their material culture. We also find evidence that significant gene-flow from east to west Eurasia must have occurred early during the Iron Age.

Migration in far west Nepal: intergenerational linkages between internal and international migration of rural-to-urban migrants.

In Nepal, international labor migration to India and overseas, as well as internal migration to the rural Nepalese lowlands, is of high socioeconomic significance. Scholarly debates about migration in Nepal have gradually shifted from an economic to a more holistic perspective, also incorporating social dimensions. However, little evidence has been generated about internal migration to urban destinations and the potential linkages between international and internal migration. This article draws on Bourdieu's "Theory of Practice" and sees migration as a social practice. Accordingly, migration practice is regarded as a strategy social agents apply to increase or transfer capitals and ultimately secure or improve their social position. Evidence for this argument is based on a qualitative case study of rural to urban migrants in Far West Nepal conducted in July and August 2009. The study at hand addresses linkages between internal and international migration practices and provides insight about a social stratum that is often neglected in migration research: the middle class and, more precisely, government employees. The authors show that social relations are crucial for channeling internal migration to a specific destination. Furthermore, they unveil how internal migration is connected to the international labor migration of former generations. Finally, the authors examine how migration strategies adopted over generations create multi-local social networks rooted in the family's place of origin.

Migrant remittances and household wellbeing in urban Zimbabwe.

Evidence from household surveying in December 2005 in Harare and Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, indicates that a wide network of international migrant remitters are ameliorating the economic crisis in Zimbabwe by sending monetary and in-kind transfers to over 50 per cent of urban households. The research combines quantitative measurement of scale and scope, with demographic and qualitative narrative to build a holistic picture of the typography of receiving and non-receiving households. A complex set of interrelated variables helps to explain why some households do and others do not receive income and goods from people who are away, and the economic and social extent of their subsequent benefit from them. Moreover, the mixed methods approach is designed to capture inter-household and likely macroeconomic effects of how households receive their goods and money; and of how they subsequently exchange (if applicable), store and spend it. Evidence emerges of a largely informal, international social welfare system, but one which is not without adverse inter-household effects for some. These include suffering exclusion from markets suffering from inflationary pressures, not least as a result of other people's remittances. This paper explores the role of remittances, within this internationalised informal welfare system which we can map from our household survey, in reframing vulnerability and marginalization differentially among and between our subject households.

Behçet's disease, the Silk Road and HLA-B51: historical and geographical perspectives.

Behçet's disease (BD), also known as the Silk Road disease, is a blinding inflammatory disorder of young adults found predominantly between the Mediterranean basin and the Orient, and is strongly associated with the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) antigen HLA-B51. In this article we review the history of Behçet's disease since its first description by Hippocrates, the development of the trading routes collectively known as the Silk Road and the effect of population movement on the distribution of HLA-B51. The global distribution of this antigen among healthy control populations bears a striking similarity both to the ancient trading routes and the distribution of Behçet's disease, suggesting a genetic risk that migrated in parallel with population movement between the Mediterranean and Asia. However, certain indigenous Amerindian peoples have a high prevalence of HLA-B51 but no reported cases of BD. Furthermore, a clear genealogical relationship exists between eastern, but not central, Siberian populations with the Amerindians. Since a high level of recombination within the MHC is known to have occurred in these eastern populations before their migration into Beringia, we suggest that disruption of genetic loci in linkage disequilibria with HLA-B51 may be one reason for the absence of disease in these high HLA-B51-bearing populations. However, a contributory influence of environmental factors is not excluded by this data, and the wide variation that exists in relative risk of HLA-B51 even within Europe would support other non-genetic risk factors on the Silk Road which may be absent, or non-contributory to disease, in the Americas.

[Development of immersion therapy in Mongolian medicine].

Being a tropical therapeutic measure, immersion therapy of Mongolian medicine includes mineral therapy, sebsu therapy, medical bath, liquid spraying and others. They have a long history and were recorded in Chinese or Mongolian medical works. Its provenance is closely related to the nomadic culture of the Mongolian plateau.

[Itinerant medicine in Fujian-Taiwan in early Qing dynasty and Zou Jie Hui Xin Lu].

By itinerant (zou jie), it refers to the physicians from southern Fujian and Taiwan who possess some special medical characteristics. They are TCM physicians. By chance, this author found a book, Zou Jie Hui Xin Lu, and explored its author and his native place, analyzed the historical background of the appearance of such physicians and their lofty medical morality during the Ming-Qing dynasties. Conclusion has been reached that the so-called itinerant medicine accumulated rich experience, emphasized an overall idea. However, it was also restricted by geographical area and the divorce of theory with practice.

[Coffee tree cultivation and the social history of onchocerciasis in Soconusco, Chiapas state, Mexico]. / Cafeticultura e historia social de la oncocercosis en el Soconusco, estado de Chiapas, México.

Due to the social and ecological changes that have taken place in the region of Soconusco, Chiapas, Mexico, the coffee tree growth economy (established in the latter part of the last century) has been an important factor in the transmission of onchocerciasis. The optimum ecological conditions for the growth of the coffee tree coincide with those of the disease's growth rate vector; the mobilization of migrant workers for the cultivation and gathering of coffee beans, plus changes in the natural environment, are elements which explain the disease's distribution in the different regions. The origin of the disease in Chiapas may be due to the migration of coffee plantation workers from Guatemala in search of land in which to settle. Social changes occurring after the Agrarian Distribution (land distributions that occurred in 1918 and 1940) caused an intensification and modernization in the areas of cultivation which in turn caused a decline in the disease's growth rate vector. This, together with standard of living improvements and control measures against the disease, explain why the problem in these regions has decreased considerably. The use of ivermectin as a new therapy paves the way for better disease control in the future. Nevertheless, in the smaller locations occupied by middle and poor class farmers, where coffee bean cultivation is just commencing and still in a rudimentary form, onchocerciasis and other diseases continue to present serious health problems.

[The Egyptian so-called Barmakids and Medieval gypsy migration--chronologic research]. / Die ägyptischen sogenannten Barmakiden und die mediävale Zigeunermigrations-Zeitforschung.

In the 2nd half of the 8th century A.D., the Barmakids, descendants of an Iranian princely house of Central Asia, succeeded for 3 generations as viziers and governors of the caliphs to be very popular with the common people and, at the same time, to achieve considerable influence, wealth and power at the court of the reigning Abbasids. However, in the course of time, this astounding rise filled the caliph Hãrun al Rashid with growing distrust and later on with indomitable hatred. Finally, all these events induced him to bring about an unexpected cruel end to the rule of the constantly growing power of this court dynasty, an actual state in the state. The fact that a group of the later Egyptian gipsies, who were also called Ghawãzi, still bear the name Barãmika can perhaps be better understood on the following grounds. It might have happened that, owing to Oriental exceeding recklessness, the gypsies who at that time inhabited the present Iraq were given this denomination as a particularly oppurtune degrading and insulting name by the residential Arabian population which because of the gloomy events must have been extremely upset and alarmed. On the other hand, it might have also been that the gypsies who at that time were expelled from Mesopotamia because of the existing hatred against foreigners have, in order to disguise themselves, adopted the name of this noble house which in the Islamic world continued to be highly esteemed. Finally, both might have happened in close historical succession. All that allows to draw the cautious conclusion that a small split off migrating group of gypsies, who in the 6th century A.D. on their move in flight before the rage of the Huns had immigrated to Iran, halted during their migration in Mesopotamia at the latest in about the 8th century. A survey of the recorded denominations of the gypsies in the 19th to 20th century and the denominations of romoid ethnic groups in Egypt are presented.