TRAMES 1, 5, 2001

THE CONCEPTS OF RICHARD INDREKO ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF THE FINNO-UGRIC SPEAKERS AND THE POPULATION GENETICS OF THE EXTANT NORTH-EAST EUROPEAN POPULATIONS

Kristiina Tambets, Siiri Rootsi, Toomas Kivisild, Richard Villems

University of Tartu and Estonian Biocentre

Abstract. Archaeologists define their findings in terms of cultures and industries, linguists operate with languages, and the basic unit in biological anthropology is population. Intermarriages of these three systems have raised, and are still doing so, fascinatingly controversial speculations. In the current paper our intention is to discuss the accumulating data of population genetics in a specific context: in the light of scenarios of Richard Indreko, suggested in his half a century old paper. Our approach is to couple the genetic evidence (mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome data) of Finno-Ugric speaking populations with this archaeological vision.

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