🚀 go-pugleaf

> Peter Ashby (p-ashby@nimr.MAPS.mrc.ac.uk) wrote on 5 Oct 1998 21:03:48 GMT:
> 
{Yuri said}
> Rebecca L. Cann and J.K. Lum are the scholars who are supporting
> Polynesian -- American links recently based on DNA. They have studied the
> DNA of living Pacific populations and compared their findings to the DNA
> of native Americans. They found that several mitochondrial DNA lineages
> occur both in the Pacific area and among Amerindians.
> 
> Bonatto et al. actually AGREE with Cann & Lum on this. So this is very
> significant. 

Yuri, I can make no judgement from this. References please. Title,
Journal, date, volume, page number.
 
> 
> And thus, your game is up, Peter. Certainly the latest DNA finding cannot
> be seen as contradicting Heyerdahl. Supporting him is more like it. 

Yet again you demonstrate your fundamental misuderstanding of the nature
of evidence and proof. You even admit yourself that they can be
interpreted in more than one way. I really am almost ready to give up on
you. I originally entered this debate because you cross posted to
soc.culture.new-zealand and your use of science was so appalling I
couldn't let it pass. I thought (naivly) that I could point out the error
of your ways and improve your reasoning. It is obvious that my mission has
been doomed from the start. There are none so blind as them who will not
see.
 
Yours pessimistically

Dr. Peter Ashby


Peter,

Obviously Yuri did not want to give you a cite. I finally got connected
again with a library.:

J. Lum, R.L. Cann, J.J. Martinson, and L.B. Jorde. 1998. �Mitochondrial
and Nuclear Relationships among Pacific Island and Asian Populations�
*American Journal of Hman Genetics* 63:613-624.

The bottom line is that both mt-DNA and STR data support an Asian origin
for Pacific Island (including Rapa Nui) populations. The end of the
abstract says: �These results are consistent with an initial settlement of
Remote Oceania from island Southeast Asia [New Guinea, Australia] and with
extensive postcolonization male-biased gene flow from Near Oceania.� 

As usual it is always nice to read the original source rather than
someone�s tendentious summary. There is no evidence that Cann supports
Amerindian migration to Oceania. What is needed is a direct quote to that
effect from Cann.

-- 
Bernard Ortiz de Montellano