Didn't get the notification, just happened to be reading this thread and found your post! Great discussion so far, and I am glad it has avoided the usual mud slinging and juvenile pseudo-science.
@WebMaster I know you've got a very busy schedule, but can you please have a look at the tagging system. This is the fourth or fifth time I've been tagged and I haven't gotten any notifications.
As for the dontometric and dental morphology analyses, it is incomplete, and there certain facets that need to be clarified, first as one of the Indian posters, who's name I've forgotten stated, where did they get these ancient samples from, and how they are extrapolating data from such a small sample to such a large group. But here it is:
"The Awans are a well-known ethnic group found in the southern districts of the Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan. Awans claim to be immigrants from western Afghanistan. However, Brandreth (Ibbetson, 2001) asserts that Awans emigrated from north-central Afghanistan. Other researchers claim the Awans are indigenous South Asians, being related to either Rajput or Jat populations of peninsular India (Cunningham, 2010) or to local ethnic groups of the northern Indus Valley of Pakistan (Dani, 1993).
This investigation is based on measurement of maximum mesiodistal lengths and buccolingual breadths of all permanent teeth, except third molars, and assessment of dental morphology variations scored in accordance with the Arizona State University Dental Morphology System in a sample of 176 Awan young adults. These data were contrasted with 21 samples of prehistoric and living individuals from Pakistan, peninsular India, Central Asia, and the Iranian Plateau. Patterns of intersample differences were examined with neighbor-joining cluster analysis and principal coordinates analysis.
Results obtained from odontometric and dental morphology analyses are highly congruent. In both cases, Awans are identified as possessing closest affinities to prehistoric inhabitants of the Indus Valley, with more distant affinities to living ethnic groups from the Hindu Kush highlands and inhabitants of peninsular India. Awans share little to no affinities to prehistoric inhabitants of Central Asia. Such results suggest that the living Awans of Mansehra District most likely represent the descendants of indigenous populations of the Indus Valley of Pakistan, and provide no support for claims of Central Asian or peninsular Indian origins."
http://meeting.physanth.org/program...ndia-a-dental-morphometric-investigation.html
@Joe Shearer
Thanks buddy.
What did the scientists use as the IVC samples for the measurements?
Cheers, Doc
