From Martin Evison, University of Sheffield
Much blood is spilt in conflicts fuelled by doubtful beliefs in the
biological nature of ethnic identity and it is unfortunate that Roger Lewin
(“Ancestral echoes”, 5 July, p 32)
has chosen to frame the debate over European
origins as an either/or question based on genetics.
Both the mitochondrial and nuclear genetic data suggest that most Europeans
are descended from both Near Eastern “farmers” and indigenous “foragers”. The
geneticists only disagree about their relative contributions and, either way,
individual Europeans will probably have genes from each source. So why bother to
postulate exclusive descent from one or other group?
However the genetics debate resolves itself, explanations of cultural
development may be very different. A simple equation of cultural and biological
roots reinforces a misleading view of social history.
