A genetic focus on the peopling history of East Asia: Critical views

Abstract

Population genetic studies may provide crucial information for our knowledge on human peopling history and have been extensively applied to reconstruct East Asian prehistory in the last 10 years. However, different genetic investigations are not always consistent with each other and some results are conflicting or misinterpreted. This represents a main obstacle for scholars of other disciplines like archaeologists and linguists who try to relate the genetic information on past human migrations to their own results on the spread of domesticated crops or animals or on the dispersal of the main language families. In this paper, we review the current genetic evidence related to the peopling history of East Asia with a critical view on some interpretations. In this way, we hope to provide a useful reference for further interdisciplinary studies on our past. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010.