Historical Relatedness Research Articles

Insights from homozygous signatures of cervus nippon revealed genetic architecture for components of fitness.

This study investigates the genomic landscape of Sika deer populations, emphasizing the detection and characterization of runs of homozygosity (ROH) and their contribution towards components of fitness. Using 85,001 high-confidence SNPs, the investigation into ROH distribution unveiled nuanced patterns of autozygosity across individuals especially in 2 out of the 8 farms, exhibiting elevated ROH levels and mean genome coverage under ROH segments. The prevalence of shorter ROH segments (0.5-4Mb) suggests historical relatedness and potential selective pressures within these populations. Intriguingly, despite observed variations in ROH profiles, the overall genomic inbreeding coefficient (FROH) remained relatively low across all farms, indicating a discernible degree of genetic exchange and effective mitigation of inbreeding within the studied Sika deer populations. Consensus ROH (cROH) were found to harbor genes for important functions viz., EGFLAM gene which is involved in the vision function of the eye, SKP2 gene which regulates cell cycle, CAPSL involved in adipogenesis, SPEF2 which is essential for sperm flagellar assembly, DCLK3 involved in the heat stress. This first ever study on ROH in Sika deer, to shed light on the adaptive role of genes in these homozygous regions. The insights garnered from this study have broader implications in the management of genetic diversity in this vulnerable species.

COMPARATIVE TYPOLOGY OF THE ENGLISH AND UZBEK LANGUAGES

Comparative linguistics, or comparative-historical linguistics (formerly comparative philology ) is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness. This article focuses on the comparative typology of English, Uzbek and discusses the formation of comparative typology as a science, its methods of analysis, and the relations it with other linguistic subjects. Key words-comparative typology, confrontative linguistics, contrastive linguistics, linguistic characterology, comparativists, notions of a type of a language and a type in a language, linguistic universals, recessives and uncials

Conservation status and historical relatedness of South African communal indigenous goat populations using a genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism marker.

Indigenous goats form the majority of populations in smallholder, low input, low output production systems and are considered an important genetic resource due to their adaptability to different production environments and support of communal farming. Effective population size (N e ), inbreeding levels, and the runs of homozygosity (ROHs) are effective tools for exploring the genetic diversity and understanding the demographic history in efforts to support breeding strategies to use and conserve genetic resources. Across populations, the current N e of Gauteng was the lowest at 371 animals, while the historical N e across populations suggests that the ancestor N e has decreased by 53.86%, 44.58%, 42.16%, and 41.16% in Free State (FS), North West (NW), Limpopo (LP), and Gauteng (GP), respectively, over the last 971 generations. Genomic inbreeding levels related to ancient kinship (F ROH > 5 Mb) were highest in FS (0.08 ± 0.09) and lowest in the Eastern Cape (EC) (0.02 ± 0.02). A total of 871 ROH island regions which include important environmental adaptation and hermo-tolerance genes such as IL10RB, IL23A, FGF9, IGF1, EGR1, MTOR, and MAPK3 were identified (occurring in over 20% of the samples) in FS (n = 37), GP (n = 42), and NW (n = 2) populations only. The mean length of ROH across populations was 7.76 Mb and ranged from 1.61 Mb in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) to 98.05 Mb (GP and NW). The distribution of ROH according to their size showed that the majority (n = 1949) of the detected ROH were > 5 Mb in length compared to the other categories. Assuming two hypothetical ancestral populations, the populations from KZN and LP are revealed, supporting PC 1. The genomes of KZN and LP share a common origin but have substantial admixture from the EC and NW populations. The findings revealed that the occurrence of high N e and autozygosity varied largely across breeds in communal indigenous goat populations at recent and ancient events when a genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) marker was used. The use of Illumina goat SNP50K BeadChip shows that there was a migration route of communal indigenous goat populations from the northern part (LP) of South Africa to the eastern areas of the KZN that confirmed their historical relatedness and coincides with the migration periods of the Bantu nation.

At the boundaries of syntactic prehistory.

Can language relatedness be established without cognate words? This question has remained unresolved since the nineteenth century, leaving language prehistory beyond etymologically established families largely undefined. We address this problem through a theory of universal syntactic characters. We show that not only does syntax allow for comparison across distinct traditional language families, but that the probability of deeper historical relatedness between such families can be statistically tested through a dedicated algorithm which implements the concept of 'possible languages' suggested by a formal syntactic theory. Controversial clusters such as e.g. Altaic and Uralo-Altaic are significantly supported by our test, while other possible macro-groupings, e.g. Indo-Uralic or Basque-(Northeast) Caucasian, prove to be indistinguishable from a randomly generated distribution of language distances. These results suggest that syntactic diversity, modelled through a generative biolinguistic framework, can be used to provide a proof of historical relationship between different families irrespectively of the presence of a common lexicon from which regular sound correspondences can be determined; therefore, we argue that syntax may expand the time limits imposed by the classical comparative method. This article is part of the theme issue 'Reconstructing prehistoric languages'.

Genome Data Uncover Conservation Status, Historical Relatedness and Candidate Genes Under Selection in Chinese Indigenous Pigs in the Taihu Lake Region.

Chinese indigenous pig breeds in the Taihu Lake (TL) region of Eastern China are well documented by their exceptional prolificacy. There are seven breeds in this region including Meishan (MS), Erhualian (EHL), Jiaxing Black (JXB), Fengjing (FJ), Shawutou (SWT), Mi (MI), and Hongdenglong (HDL). At present, these breeds are facing a great threat of population decline, inbreeding depression and lineage admixture since Western commercial pigs have dominated in Chinese pig industry. To provide better conservation strategies and identify candidate genes under selection for these breeds, we explored genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers to uncover genetic variability and relatedness, population structure, historical admixture and genomic signature of selection of 440 pigs representing the most comprehensive lineages of these breeds in TL region in a context of 1228 pigs from 45 Eurasian breeds. We showed that these breeds were more closely related to each other as compared to other Eurasian breeds, defining one of the main ancestral lineages of Chinese indigenous pigs. These breeds can be divided into two subgroups, one including JXB and FJ, and the other comprising of EHL, MI, HDL, MS, and SWT. In addition, HDL was highly inbred whereas EHL and MS had more abundant genetic diversity owing to their multiple conservation populations. Moreover, we identified a list of candidate genes under selection for body size and prolificacy. Our results would benefit the conservation of these valuable breeds and improve our understanding of the genetic mechanisms of body size and fecundity in pigs.

A new reference genome for Sorghum bicolor reveals high levels of sequence similarity between sweet and grain genotypes: implications for the genetics of sugar metabolism

BackgroundThe process of crop domestication often consists of two stages: initial domestication, where the wild species is first cultivated by humans, followed by diversification, when the domesticated species are subsequently adapted to more environments and specialized uses. Selective pressure to increase sugar accumulation in certain varieties of the cereal crop Sorghum bicolor is an excellent example of the latter; this has resulted in pronounced phenotypic divergence between sweet and grain-type sorghums, but the genetic mechanisms underlying these differences remain poorly understood.ResultsHere we present a new reference genome based on an archetypal sweet sorghum line and compare it to the current grain sorghum reference, revealing a high rate of nonsynonymous and potential loss of function mutations, but few changes in gene content or overall genome structure. We also use comparative transcriptomics to highlight changes in gene expression correlated with high stalk sugar content and show that changes in the activity and possibly localization of transporters, along with the timing of sugar metabolism play a critical role in the sweet phenotype.ConclusionsThe high level of genomic similarity between sweet and grain sorghum reflects their historical relatedness, rather than their current phenotypic differences, but we find key changes in signaling molecules and transcriptional regulators that represent new candidates for understanding and improving sugar metabolism in this important crop.

GOBUSTAN ROCK ART, CARPET FIGURES, TOPONYMS AND ANCIENTNESS

The aim of the study to analyze Gobustan rock engravings, petroglyphs, and carpet figures in terms of mythology, history, and philosophy. Methods. The study used the method of comparative historical methods, statistics. Results: Ancient calendars have to be systematically investigated and historical ties amongst them ought to be explored from different viewpoints. Calendars in Gobustan rock engravings and carpet figures, next to bringing new insights into history, can give new impetus to the reinvestigation of human history. Rock drawings and carpet figures of Gobustan suggest a new approach for undiscovered layers of history, in terms of mythology, philosophy, and antiquity. Geographical toponyms and their systematic explanations, alongside material sources, can contribute to the historical ties of the world’s nations. Adopting a new approach to these engravings and figures perhaps will shed insight into the hidden layers of human history. Scientific novelty. There is a natural interrelatedness amongst rock arts of seventeen countries of the world. Owing to this feature, new research on Gobustan rock art of much needed. Figures, given in this paper, put forward new arguments concerning historical relatedness and ties of the world nations. Priorities for the development of ethnic festivals in the Gobustan have been identified in order to attract additional tourist flows and promote the development of ethnic culture. All of these state that humanity has a single starting point and the transmission has happened from this point. Gobustan rock engravings and carpets, not being studied by the world, suggest that initial point and the cradle of the civilization was Azerbaijan, which is geographically located between the West and the East. It also demonstrates that, Azerbaijan was one of the earliest prehistoric human settlements in the world, of course, along with its toponyms. Located between southeastern foothills of the Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian Sea.

Морфология исторических кварталов как потенциал успешного социального развития городского центра г. Улан-Удэ

The article reveals the morphology of the historical quarters of the city of Ulan-Ude at around the turn of the 18th century. An ensemble of historic buildings and new buildings integrated into the modern environment was studied alongside the characteristics of the formation of the city using topological and morphological analysis. An additional task consisted in the identification of factors resolving contradictions between the development of a commercialised city and the preservation of the historical compact centre. Methods of visual, historical town planning and compositional analyses were used in the study. The illustrations are rep-resented by the graphic-analytical works of the authors supplemented by personal photographic materials. Historical, social and functional research was conducted alongside a study of the historical development of the old centre of Ulan-Ude in forming the structure of the city. A chronological, topological, morphological analysis of the architectural and planning organisation of the central part of Ulan-Ude were fulfilled and the main zones of town-planning mutations of historical quarters in the period from the XVII to the XXI centuries were revealed in terms of the morphology of the building. Factors in the integration of modern architectural objects alongside historical buildings are discussed and topological features of the space in the architec-tural and town-planning structure of the centre of Ulan-Ude described. Connections between locations and the "crowdedness" of routes in the socio-spatial model of the city were determined and the intensity of pe-destrian traffic and its distribution in network sections identified to help inform strategies and alternatives for the development of the historical centre. In providing an objective description of the architectural and planning structure of the historic quarter, the study identifies the relationship of the historic quarter with its surrounding landscape and presents the historical relatedness of objects to the city's structure along with the functional and compositional features of the formation of the historic quarter. A consideration of chang-es in the modern architectural environment of the city offers the possibility of meaningful planning and the formation of the social efficiency of the historical city centre. The generalisation of research on the example of the given object allowed us to make recommendations for improving urban space and optimising the social and economic development of historic quarters.

Lexical comparisons of signed languages and the effects of iconicity

Lexical comparisons of signed languages present new methodological challenges not found in comparisons of spoken languages. Two standards for comparing wordlists are examined using a sample of four European sign languages that are not known to be related to each other and a second sample of different dialects of the signed languages of Spain. The use of different standards is shown to affect the numerical results; comparing signs on the basis of probable historical relatedness typically yields percentages that are 5-10% greater than comparisons on the basis of similarity. The amount of iconicity inherent in signed languages affects the wordlist scores even more. Comparing lexical items that were chosen for their low potential for iconicity resulted in significantly lower scores among unrelated languages than did word lists of basic vocabulary or highly iconic signs. Conversely, the non-iconic word list comparison showed greater similarity between closely related language varieties. Therefore, wordlists that are low in iconicity give more insightful results than wordlists that include significant numbers of iconic items.

Conservation status and historical relatedness of Italian cattle breeds

BackgroundIn the last 50 years, the diversity of cattle breeds has experienced a severe contraction. However, in spite of the growing diffusion of cosmopolite specialized breeds, several local cattle breeds are still farmed in Italy. Genetic characterization of breeds represents an essential step to guide decisions in the management of farm animal genetic resources. The aim of this work was to provide a high-resolution representation of the genome-wide diversity and population structure of Italian local cattle breeds using a medium-density single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array.ResultsAfter quality control filtering, the dataset included 31,013 SNPs for 800 samples from 32 breeds. Our results on the genetic diversity of these breeds agree largely with their recorded history. We observed a low level of genetic diversity, which together with the small size of the effective populations, confirmed that several breeds are threatened with extinction. According to the analysis of runs of homozygosity, evidence of recent inbreeding was strong in some local breeds, such as Garfagnina, Mucca Pisana and Pontremolese. Patterns of genetic differentiation, shared ancestry, admixture events, and the phylogenetic tree, all suggest the presence of gene flow, in particular among breeds that originate from the same geographical area, such as the Sicilian breeds. In spite of the complex admixture events that most Italian cattle breeds have experienced, they have preserved distinctive characteristics and can be clearly discriminated, which is probably due to differences in genetic origin, environment, genetic isolation and inbreeding.ConclusionsThis study is the first exhaustive genome-wide analysis of the diversity of Italian cattle breeds. The results are of significant importance because they will help design and implement conservation strategies. Indeed, efforts to maintain genetic diversity in these breeds are needed. Improvement of systems to record and monitor inbreeding in these breeds may contribute to their in situ conservation and, in view of this, the availability of genomic data is a fundamental resource.

Origins and spread of fluted-point technology in the Canadian Ice-Free Corridor and eastern Beringia

Fluted projectile points have long been recognized as the archaeological signature of early humans dispersing throughout the Western Hemisphere; however, we still lack a clear understanding of their appearance in the interior "Ice-Free Corridor" of western Canada and eastern Beringia. To solve this problem, we conducted a geometric morphometric shape analysis and a phylogenetic analysis of technological traits on fluted points from the archaeological records of northern Alaska and Yukon, in combination with artifacts from further south in Canada, the Great Plains, and eastern United States to investigate the plausibility of historical relatedness and evolutionary patterns in the spread of fluted-point technology in the latest Pleistocene and earliest Holocene. Results link morphologies and technologies of Clovis, certain western Canadian, and northern fluted points, suggesting that fluting technology arrived in the Arctic from a proximate source in the interior Ice-Free Corridor and ultimately from the earliest populations in temperate North America, complementing new genomic models explaining the peopling of the Americas.

Dyadic value distance: Determinants and consequences

This paper establishes a measure of bilateral differences in values using 857 questions from the World Values Survey. We explore the determinants of value distance, linking it to geography as well as the historical relatedness of populations across 90 countries. Furthermore, we assess the explanatory power of value differences for economic development and find a close association between bilateral value distances and differences in GDP per capita.

The Effect of Collective Transitions on the Organization and Contents of Autobiographical Memory: A Transition Theory Perspective.

In this article, we tirst outline a minimalist approach to the organization ot autobiographical memory called transition theory. This theory assumes that the content and organization of autobiographical memory mirror the structure of experience and reflect the operation of basic memory processes. Thus, this approach rests on an analysis of the environment that emphasizes repetition, co-occurrence, change, and distinctiveness. We then report a study that tested a set of predictions derived from transition theory. The predictions concerned both the temporal distribution of memorable personal events and the use of public events and historical periods to date those events. To test these predictions, we collected word-cued memories, event-dating protocols, and historical relatedness ratings from 2 groups of Bosnians; on average, people in the younger group were in their early 40s at the outset of the Siege of Sarajevo (1992); those in the older group were in their mid-50s when they experienced this collective transition. As predicted, participants in both groups produced a robust living-in-history effect, often (-25%) referring to the civil war or the Siege of Sarajevo when dating event memories. They also displayed an upheaval bump, recalling more events from the war years than from prewar and postwar years, and a reminiscence bump, recalling more events from late adolescence and early adulthood than from earlier or later periods. Finally, this study demonstrated, for the first time, the existence of a before/after effect. Specifically, participants often mentioned the war when dating historically unrelated events for the prewar and postwar years. We conclude by considering extensions of transition theory and the significance of our findings for existing models of autobiographical memory.

Future Tense and Economic Decisions: Controlling for Cultural Evolution.

A previous study by Chen demonstrates a correlation between languages that grammatically mark future events and their speakers' propensity to save, even after controlling for numerous economic and demographic factors. The implication is that languages which grammatically distinguish the present and the future may bias their speakers to distinguish them psychologically, leading to less future-oriented decision making. However, Chen's original analysis assumed languages are independent. This neglects the fact that languages are related, causing correlations to appear stronger than is warranted (Galton's problem). In this paper, we test the robustness of Chen's correlations to corrections for the geographic and historical relatedness of languages. While the question seems simple, the answer is complex. In general, the statistical correlation between the two variables is weaker when controlling for relatedness. When applying the strictest tests for relatedness, and when data is not aggregated across individuals, the correlation is not significant. However, the correlation did remain reasonably robust under a number of tests. We argue that any claims of synchronic patterns between cultural variables should be tested for spurious correlations, with the kinds of approaches used in this paper. However, experiments or case-studies would be more fruitful avenues for future research on this specific topic, rather than further large-scale cross-cultural correlational studies.

Commentary: Large-scale psychological differences within China explained by rice vs. wheat agriculture.

Commentary: Large-scale psychological differences within China explained by rice vs. wheat agriculture.

Zionism and Aladura's shared genealogy in John Alexander Dowie

In this article, the author historically describes the process by which Faith Tabernacle Congregation was established by an Evangelist (and later Overseer) in John Alexander Dowie's Christian Catholic Church in Zion. He then explains the similarity of both churches' African missions – the Christian Catholic Church in South Africa and Faith Tabernacle in Nigeria. Both American churches, with a distinct genealogical relationship to one another, significantly affected very similar Christian movements, which were the Zionist movement in South Africa and the Aladura movement in Nigeria. Both of these movements are frequently credited with institutionalizing divine healing within African Christianity, and many scholars argue that African Pentecostalism begin within these movements. In the conclusion, the author reflects historiographically on this relationship: the Christian Catholic Church to Faith Tabernacle and particularly Zionism to Aladura. He argues that the historical relatedness between the two churches challenges the generally held notion that healing in African Christianity is only an expression or continuity of a ‘primal African religiosity.’ The Christian Catholic Church in South Africa and Faith Tabernacle in Nigeria did not represent the conjoining of opposing cultural forms, as in discussions of syncretism, but the hybridizing of very similar religious beliefs and practices with respect to disease, health, and healing.

Correlational Studies in Typological and Historical Linguistics

We review a number of recent studies that have identified either correlations between different linguistic features (e.g., implicational universals) or correlations between linguistic features and nonlinguistic properties of speakers or their environment (e.g., effects of geography on vocabulary). We compare large-scale quantitative studies with more traditional theoretical and historical linguistic research and identify divergent assumptions and methods that have led linguists to be skeptical of correlational work. We also attempt to demystify statistical techniques and point out the importance of informed critiques of the validity of statistical approaches. Finally, we describe various methods used in recent correlational studies to deal with the fact that, because of contact and historical relatedness, individual languages in a sample rarely represent independent data points, and we show how these methods may allow us to explore linguistic prehistory to a greater time depth than is possible with orthodox comparative reconstruction.

Toward a syntactic phylogeny of modern Indo-European languages

The Parametric Comparison Method (PCM, Guardiano & Longobardi 2005, Longobardi & Guardiano 2009) is grounded on the assumption that syntactic parameters are more appropriate than other traits for use as comparanda for historical reconstruction, because they are able to provide unambiguous correspondences and objective measurements, thus guaranteeing wide-range applicability and quantitative exactness. This article discusses a set of experiments explicitly designed to evaluate the impact of parametric syntax in representing historical relatedness, and performed on a selection of 26 contemporary Indo-European varieties. The results show that PCM is in fact able to correctly identify genealogical relations even from modern languages only, performing as accurately as lexical methods, and that its effectiveness is not limited by interference effects such as ‘horizontal’ transmission. PCM is thus validated as a powerful tool for the analysis of historical relationships not only on a long-range perspective (as suggested by Longobardi & Guardiano 2009), but even on more focused, though independently well-known domains.

Long-Term Barriers to the International Diffusion of Innovations

We document an empirical relationship between the cross-country adoption of technologies and the degree of long-term historical relatedness between human populations. Historical relatedness is measured using genetic distance, a measure of the time since two populations’ last common ancestors. We find that the measure of human relatedness that is relevant to explain international technology diffusion is genetic distance relative to the world technological frontier (“relative frontier distance”). This evidence is consistent with long-term historical relatedness acting as a barrier to technology adoption: societies that are more distant from the technological frontier tend to face higher imitation costs. The results can help explain current differences in total factor productivity and income per capita across countries.

Hand Talk: Sign Language among American Indian Nations (review)

Hand Talk: Sign Language among American Indian Nations, by Jeffrey E. Davis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010, 244 pp., cloth, $95, ISBN 978-0-5218-7010-8, paperback, $32.99, 978-0-5216-9030-0) With this volume, Jeffrey Davis makes a major contribution to our knowledge of a significant signing tradition, the signed language used as a lingua franca and for other purposes over a very wide part of North America - the language commonly known as Plains Indian Sign Language or Plains Sign Talk. Most of the focus of the signed language linguistics that has emerged during the past half century has been on the signed languages of deaf people. Here Davis applies, in comprehensive fashion, the techniques of this emergent discipline to a signed language that was developed and used primarily by hearing people. It is significant that Davis maintains and demonstrates, in fact, that this signing is a language in every meaningful sense of the word and that it is not simply a surrogate for a spoken language or a complex gestural system. In this regard, Davis documents the existence of and describes in some detail the wealth of historical materials, written, illustrated, and filmed, concerning PISL, a language that is certainly endangered. In addition, the author maintains a web site where readers may view examples of the illustrations, photographs, and video material that form the corpus for the book's analyses. The overall work would represent an important addition to the literature on signed languages for these reasons alone, but it is Davis's historical and linguistic analyses that elevate Hand Talk to the first rank. To make the case for the linguistic status of PISL, Davis examines its structure at the level of phonology, morphology, and syntax employing the concepts of sign language linguistics that have been developed since the last comprehensive study of the language was conducted by LaMont West in i960. Students of the history of sign language studies will be particularly interested in chapters 2 through 6 that provide detail on the development of sophisticated linguistic treatments of PISL. Davis provides in-depth discussions of the work of Garrick Mallery in the 1870s and '80s, that of Hugh Scott in the 1930s, and the aforementioned study by La Mont West, carried out under the influence of major figures in the field of anthropological linguistics, including Alfred Kroeber. Davis shows that West's work in the late 1950s, in particular, paralleled that of William C. Stokoe during the same period. In this regard, Davis concludes that [t]he level of linguistic analysis and description conducted by West in the late 1950's did not occur for until Stokoe, Croneberg, and Casterline (1965) developed a phonetic notational system for signs and compiled the first comprehensive dictionary of ASL (97). Davis even discusses what happened to the mysterious West after he completed his doctoral dissertation on PISL (never published) at Indiana University. The linguistic meat of the book is contained in chapters 7 (Comparative Studies of Historical Relatedness) and 8 (Linguistic Analysis of PISL). In these chapters, Davis uses the tools of modem linguistics (including socio- and historical linguistics) to support, in essence, three major assertions: 1. …