For the record, male's taking up local wives would still have left a
strong pattern in the local Y-DNA (male specific) genepool, and yet
specifically Caucasian Y haplotypes are not spread in any easy-to-
recognize way into the Indo-European language areas, although they
may once have been. There is on the other hand significant but thin
spread of Balkan Y haplotypes like E3b1 and J2e, which appear, based
on mutation diversity to be just the right age to be first-farmer-
spread. What makes the story even a bit neater is that both are
branches of Middle Eastern families.
However I agree with you that it is unlikely that such early farmers
spread what we would recognise as the Indo-European family of
languages, because this group simply seems to be too recent.
This of course leaves open the possibility that, for example, these
farmers and potters spoke Indo-Anatolian of a form more distantly
related to Indo European, but we have no evidence for that except
perhaps that we have to explain why a language in Turkey probably had
it's closest cousin over on the other side of the Black Sea, with
either the Caucasus or Balkans in between. The Caucasus is possible,
but there are so many languages there which are not descended from
Indo Anatolian. Might both have originated with people who once lived
in the Black Sea basin?
I also agree that trade and similar peaceful cultural contact may
have led to the spread of Indo European into Europe, though
presumably without the male-specific mass migration you posit. (There
is a more broad mixture of genetic haplotypes which seems to spread
from East to West, but not particular Y haplotypes.)
In fact, there are some words which seem to have been in present in
Indo European which came from the Middle East, which was of course
more civilised at the time. There are also possibly words and
technologies that they exported to the Middle East. So like the much
earlier Balkan farmers, the Indo Europeans may have been middle men
with more advanced cultures to the south.
A good model for this type of cultural spread from advanced south to
primitive north by a single non-southern "contact culture" might in
fact be the Celts in classical times, whose descendents are
genetically very difficult to distinguish from Basques, and therefore
presumably not to be explained by massive movements of conquering
peoples.
Best Regards
Andrew
--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "C. Darwin Goranson"
<cdog_squirrel@...> wrote:
>
> It's not impossible that Renfrew is right. However, for that ot be
> so, the Indo-European languages would need to have remained
> unchanging or barely changing for thousands of years. Even Basque
> doesn't take that long to change - compare some of the inscriptions
> from Early Roman-Era Iberia in languages related to Basque! Also,
> attributing the spread of agriculture to the Proto-Indo-Europeans
> seems like an attempt to glorify them.
>
> On the other hand, Gimbutas makes the PIEan culture into a savage
> one that introduced war into a part of the word that didn't know a
> thing of it, and forced a father-worshiping culture on mother-
> reverers. That idea of "Old Europe" is far too utopian. No, there
> were surely wars; name one culture that hasn't ever fought a war.
As
> for the Indo-Europeans, it seems quite likely, from reconstructed
> words about reciprocity and equivalent exchange, that there was
much
> trading between their culture and the Old European cultures of
> goods, and as is known, where goods are transfered, so are words
and
> some customs.
>
> Is it possible that the Indo-Europeans were in fact merely
> aggressive businessmen? That the expansions Mrs. Gimbutas speaks of
> are major eras of trade with the cultures of Old Europe? The Indo-
> Europeans might well have set up trading posts in urban centres of
> Old Europe, or as close to those as existed. Whether or not there
> were subsequent military incursions is up for grabs, but is it
> possible that the Indo-Europeans trusted these trading partners
> enough to take some of their women as wives? This would allow the
> mixture of cultures that is seen in every branch of Indo-European,
> but since this was taking the woman in, the children would be
> brought up in the Proto-Indo-European tradition, while being told
> Old European stories by their mothers.
>
> Since the archaeological record rarely shows a SUDDEN change from
> one culture to another, the idea of trading with and gradual
> absorption of cultures by the Proto-Indo-Europeans seems to work.
If
> there are archaeological clues pointing to war and such, this might
> still be Proto-Indo-European in origin - BUT IT COULD EQUALLY BE A
> NON-PIEan INVASION.
>