Mountain Laboratory of Anthropological Genetics

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Tanzania: African Y Chromosome and mtDNA Diversity and the Antiquity of Click Languages

Tanzania occupies a region of Africa which is linguistically, culturally, sociologically, and genetically complex. Populations speaking languages representing all four of the linguistic super-families present in Africa are located in close proximity to one another. In addition, these populations practice a variety of subsistence methods. Although they have been the focus of many ethnographic, linguistic, and archaeological studies, Tanzanian populations have been studied very little at the genetic level.

The Hadzabe and Sandawe, two populations that currently practice (or in the recent past have practiced) a predominantly hunter-gatherer lifestyle, are linguistic isolates whose languages contain click consonants and have been a challenge to classify. Little is known about their relationship to one another, to neighboring peoples who speak distinct languages and practice different subsistence methods, or to southern African Khoisan-speaking peoples who also speak languages containing click consonants and are hypothesized to have originated in East Africa. The specific goals of this research project are to characterize genetic variation in the Hadzabe, Sandawe, and neighboring populations; to reconstruct the relationship of these East African populations to one another and to southern African Khoisan-speaking populations; and to test hypotheses regarding the possible origin of modern humans in East Africa.

This research is expected to contribute both to the general knowledge of genetic diversity within sub-Saharan Africa and to the understanding of ancient and historical relationships among East African populations. In addition, because East Africa is the likely source of populations migrating out of Africa, these data will provide important new insights into the origin and evolution of modern humans in Africa and will make possible the testing of a wide range of hypotheses concerning the global spread of modern humans out of Africa.

This is a collaborative project conducted jointly by members of the Mountain and Tishkoff research groups.

Funding

The study of Tanzanian Genetic Diversity was initially supported by the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation, and is currently supported by the National Science Foundation:

Leakey Foundation, Recent and Evolutionary History of the Hadza and Neighboring Populations. National Science Foundation (Collaborative project with Sarah Tishkoff), Genetic variation among linguistically diverse Tanzanian populations; implications for East African history and modern human origins.

For further information, please contact the Mountain lab.