45 | Lactase, factor in establishing the common identity of Rigvedic & Harappan | Shrikant Talageri скачать в хорошем качестве

45 | Lactase, factor in establishing the common identity of Rigvedic & Harappan | Shrikant Talageri

International Colloquium on the Emerging Perspectives of the Harappan Civilization | February 10 - 12, 2023 Talk 45: Lactase persistence as a factor in establishing the common identity of the Rigvedic and Harappan civilizations Abstract: There have been many studies establishing the commonality or common identity of the Rigvedic and the Harappan Civilizations on the basis of different data. Here, I present the data concerning what is known as lactase persistence: lactase is the enzyme in the body which helps to digest milk, and in all mammals (including human beings) it decreases sharply after the weaning phase. However, in many (but not all) communities of humans, where dairy products are an important part of the diet, the human body continues to produce this enzyme into adulthood. In the “Aryan” debate, the fact that North Indians, like Europeans, continue to have lactase persistence, that the Rigvedic culture (like the reconstructed PIE culture) is known to be a very much “pastoral” culture where cattle and milk play a central role, and that both North Indians and Europeans are aided in this by the same mutation, which enables lactase persistence, is treated as proof of the invasion of India by “pastoral Aryans” after 2000 BCE. However, the above conclusion contains many basic flaws: 1. The Harappan culture was also a pastoral culture: The Harappans were actually one of two ancient people who domesticated cattle: one in Turkey and the other in the Harappan areas in present-day Pakistan. 2. All the cattle in India, till recent colonial and modern times, have only belonged to the single "indicine line" of domesticated cattle. Which means that the cattle in the Rigveda were of the local indicine line. 3. In fact, recent scientific genetic studies of cattle have confirmed that the Indian humped zebu cattle, domesticated in the Harappan area since 1000s of years, spread out into West Asia 2200 BCE. The Mitanni people also migrated to West Asia from northwestern India during that period, which characterizes the appearance not only of the indicine Harappan cattle but also of the Indian elephant and the Indian peacock in West Asia. 4. The phenomenon of lactase persistence in the Harappan areas goes back as far as 5000 BCE:, when the Harappans domesticated the indicine cattle, long before any alleged arrival of "Aryans" after 2000 BCE as per the AIT. 5. The distribution of high lactase persistence in India is restricted almost exactly to the areas of the Harappan sites in the Harappan days: i.e. roughly the same people occupy those areas today whose ancestors occupied them in the days of the Harappan civilization. And the Dravidian speakers in the South are low in lactase persistence, and cannot have migrated from the indicine-cattle-breeding from the Harappan areas, and must by and large have always been people of the South. Speaker: Shrikant G Talageri Speaker's Profile: Shrikant G Talageri completed his education in Mumbai. With wide interests in philosophy, history, culture and linguistics, he made a special study of his mother tongue, Konkani. He has also made an in-depth study of the theory of an Aryan invasion of India, and proposed a fresh internal chronology of the Rigveda. He has authored several books, in particular The Aryan Invasion Theory: A Reappraisal (1993), The Rigveda: A Historical Analysis (2000), and The Rigveda and the Avesta: The Final Evidence (2008), marshalling linguistic and textual evidence, among other, for the Out of India Theory (OIT)