Genealogical Links Research Articles

The Quest for the Sonnet: The Origins of the Sonnet in Arabic Poetry

Headnote For decades, Arab and Western scholars have wondered about a possible genealogical relationship between the European sonnet and earlier Arabic poetic forms such as the muwashshah form popular in Muslim Spain. Published in 2011, Kamal Abu-Deeb’s Arabic translation of Shakespeare’s Sonnets not only offered a well-received complete translation of the sonnets; it also proposed a bold theory of how exactly this genealogical link might have worked. In the section of his introduction excerpted here, which he has rewritten in English (with a special English epilogue) for this issue at our request, Abu-Deeb lays out an argument that the polyglot Sicilian court of Frederick II (1194–1250) was the forum in which poet Giacomo da Lentini, father of the Italian sonnet, might have heard, adopted and adapted Arabic poetry of muwashshah type. Abu-Deeb also discusses what he calls his ‘fantasy’ of an Arab origin for Shakespeare’s name. We present this valuable document to you as Abu-Deeb wrote it, with minimal editorial alterations. –Eds.

MIGRANT SUFIS AND SHRINES: A MICROCOSM OF ISLAM INTHE TRIBAL STRUCTURE OF MIANWALI DISTRICT

This paper discusses the relationship between sufis and local tribal and kinship structures in the last half of eighteenth century to the end of nineteenth century Mianwali, a district in the south-west of Punjab. The study shows how tribal identities and local forms of religious organizations were closely associated. Attention is paid to the conditions in society which grounded the power of sufi and shrine in heterodox beliefs regarding saint’s ability of intercession between man and God. Sufi’s role as mediator between tribes is discussed in the context of changed social and economic structures. Their role as mediator was essentially depended on their genealogical link with the migrants. This shows how tribal genealogy was given precedence over religiously based meta-genealogy of the sufi-order. The focus is also on politics shaped by ideology of British imperial state which created sufis as intermediary rural elite. The intrusion of state power in sufi institutions through land grants brought sufis into more formal relations with the government as well as the general population. The state patronage reinforced their social authority and personal wealth and became invested with the authority of colonial state. Using hagiographical sources, factors which integrated pir and disciples in a spiritual bond are also discussed. This relationship is discussed in two main contexts, one the hyper-corporeality of pir, which includes his power and ability to move through time and space and multilocate himself to protect his disciples. The other is through dreams and visions, as an important aspect of Muslim religiosity. Keywords: Mianwali, Sufism, Islamic Reformism, Khanqah, Shrine, Colonial

Romanticism in the Shadow of War: Literary Culture in the Napoleonic War Years by Jeffrey N. Cox

126 BOOK REVIEWS “we see not only the image of the atopia invoked in an attempt to exert mental control over urban space, but also the fear that unproblematically celebrating the spatial transformations wrought by Britain’s global engage­ ments represents a wrong turn—an improper way of engaging with the in­ ternationalized economic flows incarnated in the modern city” (200—201), Carroll casts the author’s memories as a site of inherently global engage­ ment. By bringing the atopia home, the book challenges the supposition that objects of the imagination cannot be “presumed to exist externally to the mind that contemplates them” by inscribing uninhabitable atopias on those “real” lives that literature invites us to inhabit. Rachel Feder University of Denver Jeffrey N. Cox. Romanticism in the Shadow of War: Literary Culture in the Napoleonic War Years. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. Pp. 276. $95. With the imagined expedition that introduces this richly contextualized new volume, Jeffrey N. Cox spins the globe and then boldly puts his finger on it. Dreaming of a world-spanning Grand Tour that Lord Byron never took, Cox’s introduction rockets past a dizzying array of early nineteenth century regimes, including those in Egypt, Thailand, and Persia, in a fan­ tasy trajectory powered by the unstoppable Bildung of the privileged poet, that “consummate border-crosser and cultural pirate” (7). That Byron would have traveled further if only he’d had the chance suggests the moti­ vational underpinnings of a work like this one, which reveals a Romantic global imagination shaped but not limited by war. Romanticism is a litera­ ture of border crossings, informed by the wartime raids, sallies and skir­ mishes of the Napoleonic era but also galvanized by detente and the cul­ tural transmission allowed by peacetime travel. Together, escalation and de-escalation resulted in new, and newly transgressive, dramatic genres and literary hybrids. In good company with recent studies by Evan Gottlieb, Susan Manning, and Siobhan Carroll, Cox’s Romanticism in the Shadow of War reconsiders second-generation Romantic literary innova­ tions as not merely reactions against first generation poetry, but as part of a complexly situated historical emergence. Limits, it turns out, whether of technology, inhabitability, or international cooperation, compel their own trespass: they demarcate that which we are challenged to think beyond. With this deft spin, Cox shifts our focus from the “major,” first genera­ tion events of the French Revolution to the later clashes, counter-clashes, SiR, 55 (Spring 2016) BOOK REVIEWS 127 and tensile rapprochements that eased open spaces for such border crossings to occur. Here, 1802’s Peace of Amiens becomes the point of origin for a host of significant changes, as renewed connections with the French lead, for some nineteenth century hopefuls, to a cosmopolitan dream of global citizenry. This optimism is then contested (the creation of the Triple Alli­ ance in 1815), disappointed (the Regency’s inadequacy for reform), and re­ inforced (Napoleon’s abdication in 1814 and final defeat in 1815) in the coming years. In six paired chapters, Romanticism in the Shadow of War dem­ onstrates the emergence and transformation of three hybrid subgenres: the melodrama, the satiric jeremiad, and the Italianate romance. Comparing and contrasting a wide archive of texts, Cox reveals these generic evolu­ tions to be as dynamic and unstable as the period itself. This methodology, which is also the volume’s thoroughgoing achievement, enables a critical re-evaluation ofthe generic underpinnings ofa number ofcentral Roman­ tic texts, which draw surprising connections between, for example, Percy Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound and Anna Letitia Barbauld’s Eighteen Hundred and Eleven. In so doing, Romanticism in the Shadow of War enacts an imagi­ native trespass of taxonomic limits, taking genre as rhetorical action rather than stable categorization. Cox’s opening two chapters investigate developments in drama and stagecraft during windows ofpeace, and suggest genealogical links between Thomas Holcroft’s A Tale of Mystery (1802) and Byron’s Manfred (1817). The Peace ofAmiens, which made possible border crossings between Paris and London after years of isolation, brought with it a new and explicitly border-crossing genre: the Melo-Drame (39). Part tragedy and part comedy, the musical melodrama’s “power,” according to...

Pumé (Yaruro) and Chocoan

This paper illustrates and discusses recurrent sound correspondences between Pumé (also known as Yaruro) and Chocoan languages. Pumé is a language of the Apure state of Venezuela and has so far been considered an isolate. Chocoan is a small language family of western Colombia and eastern Panama. Until now, these language groups have never been considered together and compared systematically. It is argued here that the recurrent sound correspondences attested in Chocoan and Pumé basic vocabulary are difficult to explain by coincidence or language contact. It is therefore concluded that there should be enough evidence to postulate a genealogical link between both language groups.

Vista y plano de Toledo

In View and plan of Toledo , a faithful representation of the city and homage to it, the vision of the Virgin as well as the nude on the left, allegory of the river Tagus, sustenance of the life of the region represented by the youth clothed in olive-green, all are casual images presented in the sky, on the earth and in the thicket. El Greco’s imagination operates with almost mathematical rigour. A genealogical link can be traced between Jesus’ tunic in the Modena-Triptych , the tunic of the kneeled angel of the Baptism of the Prado and the chasuble carried by the Virgin in Vista y plano . The composition of the picture is related to the Adoration of the first period, repeating the youth with the map the same role of Saint Jerome with the Vulgata.

Investigation of gene pool and genealogical links between sheep breeds of southern Russia by blood groups and DNA microsatellites

To study the gene pool and the establishment of genealogical relationships between breeds of sheep of different directions productivity bred in Russia, were used two classes of genetic markers - blood and DNA microsatellites. The included sample sheep are fine-wool Merino breeds: Grozny (GR), Caucasian (CA), Manychskij merino (MM), the Soviet Merino (SM), Stavropol (ST) and coarse wool breeds: Edilbaevskaya (ED), Karakul (CR) and Romanov (RO). For the study of erythrocyte, were selected antigens (blood group) in 1159 samples from 11 breeding farms. For microsatellite DNA study - 598 from 10 breeding farms. Microsatellite analysis revealed that the most polymorphic were Stavropol breed sheep that have identified an average of 18.27 alleles per locus were relatively conservative Romanov breed sheep - 9.7 alleles per locus. The minimum genetic distances established between Grozny and Soviet Merino - 0.0569 (for microsatellites) and 0.0741 (blood groups - later in the same sequence). The rocks of the Stavropol - Grozny were 0.0861 and 0, 0810. Whereas Stavropol and Soviet Merino 0.0861 and 0.1094. Also relatively close between Grozny - Edilbaevskoy , Grozny - Karakul, Edilbaevskoy - Karakul: 0.1364 and 0.0851, respectively; 0.1620 and 0.1208; 0.1875 and 0.1192. The highest genetic distances were between Stavropol and Karakul - 0.2664 and 0.1804, as well as between the Romanov and all studied species - 0.2491 ... 0.3211 and 0.1734 ... 0.2235.

Theodor Waitz's theory of feelings and the rise of affective sciences in the mid-19th century.

The German psychologist Theodor Waitz (1821-1864) was an important theorist of affectivity in the mid-19th century. This article aims to revisit Waitz's contribution to affective psychology at a crucial moment of its history. First, I elaborate the context in which Waitz's ideas were carried out by showing how affective sciences emerged as an autonomous field of investigation between about 1770 and 1910. Second, I discuss the principles of Waitz's model of affectivity and their contextual significance. Third, I deal with the first major category of affective states identified by Waitz, namely, "formal feelings," which are supposed to be involved in the appraisal of the relational properties between representations. Fourth, I investigate "qualitative feelings," the second major category of affective states identified by Waitz, which refer to affective processes that relate to specific representational contents, namely, intellectual, aesthetic, and moral feelings. In conclusion, I emphasize the genealogical link between Waitz's pioneering research on musical feelings and current research on emotion and expectation in music.

The Western Australian Family Connections Genealogical Project: Detection of Familial Occurrences of Single Gene and Chromosomal Disorders

To investigate using a Western Australian (WA) genealogical database for the identification of single gene and chromosome disorders among families. Hospital admissions for single gene and chromosome disorders recorded during 2000-2006 were identified from the WA Hospital Morbidity Data System. The proportion of these conditions occurring in family groups was then identified using genealogical links created through the WA Family Connections Genealogical Project. There were 216 family clusters among 11,303 people who were recorded as having a genetic or chromosomal disorder on their hospital admission record. The most common single gene conditions found to occur in multiple family members included blood clotting disorders such as Factor VIII deficiency and Von Willebrand's disease, followed by cystic fibrosis, myotonic dystrophies, neurofibromatosis, tuberous sclerosis, and osteogenesis imperfecta. Single gene disorders most commonly occurring in multiple family members have been identified using the WA Family Connections Genealogical Project. These disorders reflect the most common single gene disorders requiring hospital admission, but which are not fatal before reproductive age and do not result in a loss of fertility. They are also restricted to disorders with earlier onset, as the WA Family Connections Genealogical Project currently covers 2-3 of the most recent generations. This study demonstrates the utility of record linkage genealogies to identify kindred with genetic disorders, offering a rich resource of information for focused genetic epidemiological research.

Authorship and Shaw's Shakes Versus Shav

Authorship and Shaw's <i>Shakes Versus Shav</i>

Evolving Hamlet:

Evolving <i>Hamlet</i>:

Anthropological papers of the University of Alaska: The Dene-Yeniseian connection (review)

Reviewed by: Anthropological papers of the University of Alaska: The Dene-Yeniseian connection Michael Dunn Anthropological papers of the University of Alaska: The Dene-Yeniseian connection. Ed. by James Kari and Ben A. Potter. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2010. Pp. vi, 363. ISBN 9781555001124. $40. This collection of papers presents and discusses a landmark achievement in linguistics: Edward Vajda's first demonstration of a plausible genealogical link between languages of Eurasia and languages of the Americas (apart from the more recent circumpolar movements of Eskimo languages). Dramatic discoveries are rare in historical linguistics: as befits an old and often library-bound discipline, the pace of change in historical linguistics is slow, and most contributions are of the incremental type. In contrast, the Dene-Yeniseian hypothesis is a big step, and whatever the eventual consensus of its truth turns out to be, the proposal of Dene-Yeniseian is an important event in the development of historical linguistics and deserves all our attention. The collection is based on papers presented at the Dene-Yeniseian Symposium held at the University of Alaska in February 2008. It starts with two useful and informative introductions: the editors' introduction giving the historical background to the Dene-Yeniseian hypothesis, followed by an introduction from the linguistic perspective by BERNARD COMRIE, which explains to a non-specialist readership the basic principles of the comparative method in historical linguistics and sketches the typological characteristics of the two component families, Yeniseian and Na-Dene. EDWARD J. VAJDA presents the case for the Dene-Yeniseian link in a sixty-six-page paper, which he follows with another paper in which he discusses Dene-Yeniseian in the context of other long-range comparative hypotheses, with generous acknowledgment of all possible intellectual precursors to the idea. Vajda makes clear his sympathy for the 'long ranger' tendencies in historical linguistics, but sticks to a mainstream approach in his analysis.1 Part 2 of the collection contains interdisciplinary perspectives from human genetics (G. RICHARD SCOTT and DENNIS O'ROURKE), archaeology (BEN A. POTTER), areal phonology and Na-Dene historical linguistics (JEFF LEER), 'geolinguistics' (JAMES KARI), comparative kinship (JOHN W. IVES, SALLY RICE, and Edward J. Vajda), and folklore (YURI E. BEREZKIN, ALEXANDRA KIM-MALONEY). Part 3 of the collection is devoted to commentaries: a series of reviews of the evidence for the Dene-Yeniseian hypothesis by major figures in linguistics. While all of the authors of this section agree that the evidence for [End Page 429] the Dene-Yeniseian hypothesis is high quality and that the hypothesis should be taken seriously, there is not unanimous agreement that it has been decisively proven. The core linguistic case for Dene-Yeniseian follows the gold standard of historical linguistics, and includes evidence for the common origin of certain morphological systems, as well as evidence for regular sound change. The evidence for shared morphological systems comes from several domains. There is evidence that both Yeniseian and Na-Dene tense-aspect-mood markers have evolved from an original bipartite verb system, with auxiliary and content verbs both hosting their own affixes. The pronominal systems are more problematic: Vajda states (53) that the lack of apparent cognacy relations between any first- and second-person pronouns is one of the reasons that few linguists have bothered to look further into Dene-Yeniseian connections. A number of possible cognates are investigated, along with a possible homology between the relative location of speech-act-participant and third-person agreement prefixes. Three 'shape prefixes' appear to have cognates in the two families, as do a set of elements that gave rise to Na-Dene classifiers. Finally, Vajda shows homologies between rather complex action nominal derivations (generally called 'infinitives' in descriptions of Yeniseian, and 'gerunds' in Na-Dene), which have been independently reconstructed in the two families. In his discussion of the phonological systems, Vajda describes how a number of coda-reduction processes acting in parallel in Yeniseian and Na-Dene can explain idiosyncrasies in one family by the phonological outcomes in the other. Likewise, tones (observed in Yeniseian Ket and sporadically...

Beyond nature and culture

Between identification  , a means of specifying the properties of existing beings, and relations, a means of specifying the general form of the links between those beings, two kinds of connection are possible. Either the plasticity of a relational schema makes it possible for it to structure interactions in a variety of ontologies, which will then present a family likeness despite the heterogeneity of their essential principles; or, alternatively, one of the modes of identification is able to accommodate several distinct relational schemas and this introduces into an ontological configuration widely distributed in space (a cultural region, for example) the kind of concrete diversity of customs and norms from which ethnologists and historians love to draw their material. The second case is what we shall now be considering. However, the combinations made possible by the conjunction of a mode of identification and a relational mode are too numerous for us to consider them all in a systematic and detailed fashion, especially since some of them turn out not to be possible for reasons of logical incompatibility, as we shall soon see. So let us limit ourselves to considering the variations of ethos that various relational schemas imprint upon one particular mode of identification: this will be animism. The demonstration will certainly not be complete, but it will at least provide the beginnings of a proof that anthropology can always hope to find when it enters into some detail in a comparative study of a number of cases. As Mauss, mobilizing John Stuart Mill in his support, declared, ―a well made experiment is enough to demonstrate a law‖ (Mauss 1950: 391).

Placement stability in kinship and non-kin foster care: A Canadian study

Abstract We compared the stability of kinship and non-kin foster placements in the cases handled by one Ontario (Canada) child protection agency in 2008–2010. Non-kin placements were four times more likely than kin placements to end within the first month; this difference then decreased, but kin placements remained significantly more stable in months 2 through 6. Kin placements were also more likely to end successfully by discharge to parents, whereas non-kin placements were much more likely to end because the child moved to another placement. Children's ages did not differ between placement types, and the stability difference persisted when children who had been physically or sexually abused were distinguished from those who had not. Within kin placements, those that were preceded by a non-kin foster placement were more stable than those that were not, and those involving genealogical, marital or adoptive links of kinship were more stable than placements with unrelated nominal “kin”. Our results generally support the current policy preference for kin placements, but we conclude by discussing why cautious interpretation remains warranted.

COMMENSALITY AND FOOD PROHIBITION

Until recently, Savu island in eastern Indonesia had no written traditions, and kinship ties were recalled through a variety of mnemonic devices some of which were neither oral nor auditory. This article deals with a set of ceremonies involving commensality and food prohibition. The second ceremony called ‘The matter of the chicken's head’ (manu kètu lai), takes place once in the life of a woman when her marriage no longer produces children and is one of the mechanisms used in Savu for building social memory across generations as well as within one generational level. The article analyses the ceremonial practices leading to processes of knowledge and memory transmission of these particular ceremonies. No special ritual text is uttered and messages are conveyed in other ways. The precedence among the generations as well as at one generational level is visually demonstrated. The ceremonial food shared at each meeting, an essentially incorporating practice, also contributes to recollecting the events. In addition, the gift exchange allows the switch in gendered positions between the respective parties. Finally, this article exposes how the ultimate purpose of ‘the matter of the chicken's head’ reaches beyond memorising genealogical links.

La tierra emparentada: Acerca de los muyu o "suertes" (sistema de barbecho sectorial) en Marcapata, Perú

This paper describes and analyzes the sectoral fallowing system of a sector of the Marcapata Collana ayllu (department of Cusco) from the perspective offered by other case of studies about the same system from both Peru and Bolivia, the rest of the agro-pastoral activities in which the Marcapatenian families are engaged, and the genealogical links existing among them. The aim of this work, aside from dealing with the specificities of the Marcapatenian case, is to establish in which sense and how far an economic or productive phenomenon could be understood from the point of view of the kinship relationships existing among the families engaged in it. Also consider its comparative scope in order to understand other similar case of studies in the Central Andes.

Update to Heyer's "One Founder/One Gene Hypothesis in a New Expanding Population" (1999)

Update to Heyer's "One Founder/One Gene Hypothesis in a New Expanding Population" (1999) Evelyne Heyer and Frederic Austerlitz Keywords Saguenay Population (Quebec), Recessive Disorders, Cultural Transmission of Fertility, Genetic Drift, Linkage Disequilibrium, Mutation. "One Founder/One Gene Hypothesis in a New Expanding Population" (Heyer 1999) was written as part of a more global project aiming to understand the processes by which several inherited recessive disorders reached a high frequency in the Saguenay region of Quebec. In the paper Heyer focused on a specific question: Was it likely that each disorder had been introduced in the ancestral population by a single founder? The Saguenay population was known for a long time for having been under strong founder effect (Bouchard and DeBraekeleer 1991). Indeed, approximately 5,000 founders who settled in "nouvelle-France" in the 17th century are the ancestors of more than 300,000 individuals living nowadays in the Saguenay region (Heyer and Tremblay 1995). This is a tremendous population growth in only 10-12 generations. The question remained whether this strong increase alone could explain the high occurrence of severe genetic disorders in this population. Under the one founder/one gene hypothesis the increase in carrier frequency is from 1/5,000 to 1/25 (average present carrier frequency of most common recessive disorders). This represents a strong level of genetic drift, which is quite unlikely in a standard Wright-Fisher population (i.e., a population of neutral genes without specific demographic processes). Using ascending genealogies in the Human Biology paper, Heyer proved that such an increase was expected from the genealogical network of the population, confirming the one founder/one gene hypothesis. The next step of the work was to find the demographic process that could explain this tremendously strong increase of frequency of the disease alleles. Heyer showed the existence of a peculiar sociodemographic process: the inheritance of fertility through cultural transmission. This was evidenced by a positive correlation between the number of progeny of an individual and the number of progeny of his or her parents. Heyer computed this correlation using the demographic database built up by the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Demography and [End Page 657] Genetic Epidemiology (http://www.uqac.ca/grig), which includes all the demographic events and the genealogical links between individuals from the Saguenay population for more than 10 generations. Basically, individuals belonging to large sibships were more likely to produce numerous offspring than individuals with few siblings. More specifically, in the Saguenay population, what was transmitted was the number of effective children, that is, the number of children who settled and had themselves at least one child in the population (Heyer and Cazes 1999). The total number of children, which also includes children who settled outside the population and children who did not reproduce, was much less transmitted from one generation to the next. Austerlitz and Heyer (1998) showed through a simulation study that this cultural transmission of fertility made possible the strong increase in frequency of inherited disorders observed in the Saguenay population. It also decreased by a large amount the effective population size of the population, from the 17,000 calculated based on demographic growth to only 900 when fertility transmission was included. Indeed, despite fast population growth, the effective population size decreased through time (Mourali-Chebil and Heyer 2006)! This decrease in population size can be explained by the fertility transmission, the effect of which cumulates through generations, therefore increasing drift over time. The fertility transmission detected in the demographic-genealogical database has also been studied for the whole Quebec population for the first two centuries of settlement (Gagnon and Heyer 2001). Fertility transmission speeds up the genetic differentiation between regions (Gagnon et al. 2006). Fertility transmission is a clear example where our strong capacity as humans to transmit not only genes but also culture has an impact on our genetic evolution. This interaction between cultural forces and genetic evolution has been one of the major focuses of our research since then. In short, using demographic data, we were able to measure the cultural transmission of demographic behavior from one generation to the next and to evaluate the effect of this transmission on the evolution of...

The Constitution’s Peoples: Approaching Community in the Context of Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982

Modern negotiations between the Crown (or private parties) and Canada’s Aboriginal peoples are largely based on the legal principles articulated in major court decisions. Yet those decisions have not yet confronted a fundamental question: how, in the first instance, do we determine which groups can lay claim to the Aboriginal and treaty rights “recognized and affirmed” by section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982? The author argues that this question ought to form the theoretical cornerstone of the doctrine of Aboriginal and treaty rights. It is also of critical significance to the continuing process of reconciliation between the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal elements of Canadian society. The interlocutors in this process must be identifiable. The community recognition needed to give effect to section 35’s inherently group-centred approach cannot be purely subjective or purely objective in nature. Neither a process of unilateral declaration nor one of pure observation can accurately identify the communities at issue under section 35. Rather, the inquiry requires an exercise of interpretation. To this end, the author proposes guidelines to focus and assist the interpretive process. This analysis ultimately entails a reconsideration of some of the prevailing orthodoxies in Aboriginal law jurisprudence, including the “test” for determining the existence of Aboriginal rights (from R. v. Van der Peet) and the notion that an individual member of a modern, rights-holding, Aboriginal community must prove an ancestral or genealogical link to a member of the group at some earlier time (from R. v. Powley).

Linkage and linkage disequilibrium scan for autism loci in an extended pedigree from Finland

Population isolates, such as Finland, have proved beneficial in mapping rare causative genetic variants due to a limited number of founders resulting in reduced genetic heterogeneity and extensive linkage disequilibrium (LD). We have here used this special opportunity to identify rare alleles in autism by genealogically tracing 20 autism families into one extended pedigree with verified genealogical links reaching back to the 17th century. In this unique pedigree, we performed a dense microsatellite marker genome-wide scan of linkage and LD and followed initial findings with extensive fine-mapping. We identified a putative autism susceptibility locus at 19p13.3 and obtained further evidence for previously identified loci at 1q23 and 15q11-q13. Most promising candidate genes were TLE2 and TLE6 clustered at 19p13 and ATP1A2 at 1q23.

Notas sobre lingüística histórica (II)

Campbell & Poser offer what is probably the most accurate and balanced discussion on the issue, i.e. genealogy in linguistics. Authors make use of the research done with well known language families, already with a contrasted tradition in the field of historical and comparative linguistics, e.g. Indo-European and Uralic, to show how historical linguists work and why this is a very serious, complex, and sometimes not well-considered specialization, where unfortunately there is too much free space for the unfounded elucubrations of dilatants and amateurs. It is very regretable that authors did not actualize some of the topics to adapt them to current times (e.g. including new genealogical links likely to be proven in a near future) or to re-check some observations on the historiography of historical and comparative studies of some philologies to avoid obvious mistakes. All in all, this is a must reading for all those who, having already gained some insights into general matters, wish to go deeper in the field.

Maternal Transmission of Multiple Sclerosis in a Dutch Population

To investigate the parental relationship of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) from an extended pedigree with extensive genealogical information up to the middle of the 18th century. Multiple sclerosis is a complex disease resulting from genetic and environmental factors. Parent-of-origin effect, a phenomenon when the same allele may express differently depending on the sex of the transmitting parent, may influence the risk for MS. We investigated parental relationships between patients with MS using extensive genealogical information available from the Genetic Research in Isolated Populations program. We compared the average kinship of the parents of MS patients. We further explored the distribution of shortest genealogical links between parents of MS patients. Subjects Twenty-four MS patients from the isolated population who could be linked within a large complex pedigree, including 2471 people in total. The results consistently indicate a higher prevalence of maternal transmission of MS. The kinship between mothers of patients was 3.8 times higher than that between fathers (bootstrap P = .01). Among the 814 shortest connections between parents, 333 were maternal (40.9%, vs 25.0% expected), 98 were paternal (12.0%, vs 25.0% expected), and 383 were maternal-paternal (47.1%, vs 50.0% expected) (P < .001). Mothers of MS patients were more closely related than their fathers. This skewed relationship shows evidence for a maternal effect in MS. The most likely explanation is a gene-environment effect that takes place in utero.