----- Original Message -----
From: "gerryreinhartwaller2001" <waluk@...>
To: <nostratic@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, May 10, 2002 9:40 PM
Subject: [nostratic] Re: Origins of I-E


[Gerry]
> Aren't you basing the "steppe hypothesis" on morphological & cultural
> evidence?

[Alexander]
Actually every hypothesis suggests a zone for searching the IE homeland
depending on the features which are accepted as the early IE ones. The
question is : "Where is the most probable location of people who meet the
following demands: ... ?" Put instead of dots your ideas about the people
who spoke PreIE and its daughter languages and you'll get the answer. Your
own answer.

As to the "steppe hypothesis" (better - steppe hypotheses), the basic idea
behind it is specific adaptation of early IE to the life under the steppe
conditions (livestock breeding with the tendency to nomadism as economical
basis, using domesticated horse, some later - invention of the spoked wheel
and light chariots) accompanied by the specific cultural complex (kurgans,
sceptres, stone axes, unusual clothes, no potter wheel etc.). The linguistic
evidences of borrowings from and into other languages are also of a great
importance here.

If you don't agree principally with these characteristics of early IE, you
will not accept steppe hypotheses, naturally.

[G]
>Your placement of the IE homeland at Middle Volga does
> sound a bit "Russocentric"
[A]
:))))))
A strong counterargument, isn't it?
BTW, my homeland is St.Petersburg, not Russia.

[G]
> but nevertheless, how does your
> information match the genetic maps (Cavalli-Sforza for example)?
[A]
I find genetic mapping very interesting and useful for some problems of
ethnogenesis. However, I'm afraid, in the case of the steppe belt this can't
help. There were dozens of mighty waves of migrations in both directions
during millennia there. After every next wave not so much remains from the
previous one. What can give a genetic map reflecting the present situation?

Alexander