It has been widely debated whether or not the Kalash
Tribe in Pakistan
[Picture from Les Alans]
In a recent
study by British, Italian and Pakistani scientists, DNA samples of
23 Kalash
people living in three different valleys have been collected and analyzed to be
compared with the DNA of ancient hunter-gatherers and European farmers. The
result shows that the Kalash have a closest affinity with hunter-gatherers from
Siberia , meaning that they are from northern
Eurasian origin. This widely contradicts an earlier analysis according to which a
genetic miscegenation between Kalash
and western Eurasian had occurred, which led to the association of this tribe
with Alexander the Great.
I cannot judge whether this latest analysis
should be more reliable than the previous one. For now, I would simply put
another question mark to this theory. Maybe in the future there will be more
substantial evidence.
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