Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past, David Reich (Oxford University Press, 2018). The following is an email exchange between the Psmiths, edited slightly for clarity. Jane: The problem with history is that there just isn’t enough of it. We’ve been around for, what, fifty thousand years? Conservatively.
> He replied in that morose Slavic way with a long, sad disquisition about how the Bulgarian race was in its twilight, their land was being colonized by others, their sons and daughters flying off to strange lands and mixing their blood with that of alien peoples... He then launched into a lecture about how the Bulgarians weren't even native to their land
A lot to digest and a lot of topics to comment on but I will limit myself to one of my main interests at the moment, which is whether the aborigines of Papua and Australia are in fact the last vestiges of Homo Erectus (whom they resemble). We know that Homo Erectus populated modern Indonesia so it's not a big stretch to think that they made it to New Guinea and Australia. I will probably be jailed for this thought.
> He replied in that morose Slavic way with a long, sad disquisition about how the Bulgarian race was in its twilight, their land was being colonized by others, their sons and daughters flying off to strange lands and mixing their blood with that of alien peoples... He then launched into a lecture about how the Bulgarians weren't even native to their land
OK! I'd have a drink with that guy.
I miss having Slavic friends.
A lot to digest and a lot of topics to comment on but I will limit myself to one of my main interests at the moment, which is whether the aborigines of Papua and Australia are in fact the last vestiges of Homo Erectus (whom they resemble). We know that Homo Erectus populated modern Indonesia so it's not a big stretch to think that they made it to New Guinea and Australia. I will probably be jailed for this thought.
Ok, re the Indian Jātis, you may be interested in the Catholic church in India sometimes upholding local bans on exogamous marriages (and sometimes not) https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/indian-archdiocese-makes-marriage