Raziskava aDNK razkriva "družinske in sorodstvene" sisteme prazgodovinskih skupnosti

Information about “family and kinship” systems (which is routinely studied by social anthropology and ethnography) of prehistoric societies is unavailable due to obvious reasons. Tools of starodavni DNK research along with archaeological contexts have successfully reconstructed family trees (pedigrees) of individuals who lived about 6000 years ago at British and French sites. Analysis reveals patrilineal descent, patrilocal residence and female exogamy were common practice at both the European sites. At the Gurgy site in France, monogamy was the norm while there is evidence of polygamous unions at the British site of North Long Cairn. Tools of starodavni DNK research has come handy to the discipline of anthropology and ethnography in studying kinship systems of prehistoric communities which would not have been possible otherwise.  

Anthropologists or ethnographers routinely study “family and kinship systems” of societies but conducting such studies of prehistoric ancient societies is a different ballgame altogether because all that is available to study are contexts and some archaeological remains including artifacts and bones. Fortunately, things have changed for good courtesy advances in archaeogenetics or ancient DNA (aDNA) research. Now it is technically possible to collect, extract, amplify and analyse sequences of DNA extracted from ancient human remains who lived thousands of years ago. Biological Kinship between individuals which is key to understanding caregiving, resource sharing and cultural behaviours among members of family is inferred using kinship identifcation softwares. Notwithstanding limitations arising due to low coverage, the softwares provide consistent inference of kin relationships¹. S pomočjo aDNA tool, it is increasingly possible to shed lights on “family and kinship” systems of prazgodovinske skupnosti. Pravzaprav molekularna biologija morda spreminja krajine antropologije in etnografije.   

Grobišče neolitske Britanije v Hazleton North Long Cairnu v Gloucestershiru na jugozahodu Anglija je zagotovil ostanke ljudi, ki so živeli pred približno 5,700 leti. Genetske analize 35 posameznikov s tega mesta so vodile do rekonstrukcije družinskega rodovnika petih generacij, ki je pokazal razširjenost patrilinearnega porekla. Bile so ženske, ki so se razmnoževale z moškimi iz linije, toda hčer iz linije ni bilo, kar je pomenilo prakso patrilokalnega bivanja in ženske eksogamije. En samec se je razmnožil s štirimi ženskami (kar kaže na poligamijo). Niso bili vsi posamezniki genetsko blizu glavni liniji, kar nakazuje, da sorodstvene vezi presegajo biološko sorodstvo, kar kaže na prakse posvojitev^2.  

V novejši večji študiji, objavljeni 26^th Julij 2023, 100 posameznikov (ki so živeli pred 6,700 leti okoli 4850–4500 pr. n. št.) z neolitskega grobišča Gurgy 'Les Noisats' v regiji Pariške kotline na severu sodobnega časa Francija preučevala francosko-nemška skupina raziskovalcev iz laboratorija PACEA v Bordeauxu v Franciji in z Inštituta Max Planck za evolucijsko antropologijo v Leipzigu v Nemčiji. Posamezniki s tega najdišča so bili povezani z dvema rodovnikoma (družinskima drevesoma), ki zajemata sedem generacij. Analiza je pokazala, da so bili skoraj vsi posamezniki povezani z družinskim drevesom po očetovi liniji, kar kaže na patrilinearni izvor. Poleg tega nobena odrasla ženska ni imela svojih staršev/prednikov pokopanih na tem mestu. To kaže na prakso ženske eksogamije in patrilokalne rezidence, namreč ženske so se selile iz svojega rojstnega kraja v kraj svojega moškega reproduktivnega partnerja. Bližje sorodstveno sorodstvo (razmnoževanje med tesno povezanimi posamezniki) ni bilo. Za razliko od britanskega neolitskega najdišča v Hazleton North Long Cairn, na francoskem najdišču ni bilo polbratov in sester. To nakazuje, da je bila monogamija običajna praksa na mestu Gurgy^3,4.  

Thus, patrilineal descent, patrilocal residence and female exogamy were commonly practiced at both the European sites. At the Gurgy site, monogamy was the norm while there is evidence of polygamous unions at the site of North Long Cairn. Tools of starodavni DNK research combined with archaeological contexts can give fair idea of “family and kinship“ systems of prehistoric communities which would not be available to anthropology and ethnography otherwise.  

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Reference:   

1. Marsh, WA, Brace, S. & Barnes, I. Sklepanje biološkega sorodstva v starodavnih zbirkah podatkov: primerjava odziva starodavnih programskih paketov, specifičnih za DNK, na podatke z nizko pokritostjo. BMC Genomics 24, 111 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-023-09198-4 
2. Fowler, C., Olalde, I., Cummings, V. et al. Slika visoke ločljivosti sorodstvenih praks v grobnici iz zgodnjega neolitika. Narava 601, 584–587 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04241-4 
3. Rivollat, M., Rohrlach, AB, Ringbauer, H. et al. Obsežni rodovniki razkrivajo družbeno organizacijo neolitske skupnosti. Narava (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06350-8 
4. Max-Planck-Gesellschaft 2023. Novice – Družinska drevesa iz evropskega neolitika. Objavljeno 26. julija 2023. Na voljo na https://www.mpg.de/20653021/0721-evan-family-trees-from-the-european-neolithic-150495-x 

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