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Khoisan hunter-gatherers have been the largest population throughout most of modern-human demographic history

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  • Hie Lim Kim

    (Center for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics, Pennsylvania State University, 310 Wartik Lab, University Park
    Singapore Centre on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 60 Nanyang Drive, SBS-01N-27)

  • Aakrosh Ratan

    (Center for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics, Pennsylvania State University, 310 Wartik Lab, University Park
    University of Virginia)

  • George H. Perry

    (Pennsylvania State University, 513 Carpenter Building, University Park)

  • Alvaro Montenegro

    (Ohio State University, 154 North Oval Mall
    Campus do Litoral Paulista, Unesp—Univ Estadual Paulista)

  • Webb Miller

    (Center for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics, Pennsylvania State University, 310 Wartik Lab, University Park)

  • Stephan C. Schuster

    (Center for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics, Pennsylvania State University, 310 Wartik Lab, University Park
    Singapore Centre on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 60 Nanyang Drive, SBS-01N-27)

Abstract

The Khoisan people from Southern Africa maintained ancient lifestyles as hunter-gatherers or pastoralists up to modern times, though little else is known about their early history. Here we infer early demographic histories of modern humans using whole-genome sequences of five Khoisan individuals and one Bantu speaker. Comparison with a 420 K SNP data set from worldwide individuals demonstrates that two of the Khoisan genomes from the Ju/’hoansi population contain exclusive Khoisan ancestry. Coalescent analysis shows that the Khoisan and their ancestors have been the largest populations since their split with the non-Khoisan population ~100–150 kyr ago. In contrast, the ancestors of the non-Khoisan groups, including Bantu-speakers and non-Africans, experienced population declines after the split and lost more than half of their genetic diversity. Paleoclimate records indicate that the precipitation in southern Africa increased ~80–100 kyr ago while west-central Africa became drier. We hypothesize that these climate differences might be related to the divergent-ancient histories among human populations.

Suggested Citation

  • Hie Lim Kim & Aakrosh Ratan & George H. Perry & Alvaro Montenegro & Webb Miller & Stephan C. Schuster, 2014. "Khoisan hunter-gatherers have been the largest population throughout most of modern-human demographic history," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 5(1), pages 1-8, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:5:y:2014:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms6692
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6692
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    Cited by:

    1. John M. Gowdy, 2021. "Hunter Gatherers and the Crisis of Civilization," Annals of the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi. An Interdisciplinary Journal of Economics, History and Political Science, Fondazione Luigi Einaudi, Torino (Italy), vol. 55(1), pages 35-54, June.

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