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A genetic history of the pre-contact Caribbean

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel M. Fernandes

    (University of Vienna
    University of Coimbra)

  • Kendra A. Sirak

    (Harvard Medical School
    Harvard University)

  • Harald Ringbauer

    (Harvard Medical School
    Harvard University)

  • Jakob Sedig

    (Harvard Medical School
    Harvard University)

  • Nadin Rohland

    (Harvard Medical School
    Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT)

  • Olivia Cheronet

    (University of Vienna)

  • Matthew Mah

    (Harvard Medical School
    Harvard University
    Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT
    Harvard Medical School)

  • Swapan Mallick

    (Harvard Medical School
    Harvard University
    Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT
    Harvard Medical School)

  • Iñigo Olalde

    (Harvard Medical School
    CSIC–Universitat Pompeu Fabra)

  • Brendan J. Culleton

    (The Pennsylvania State University)

  • Nicole Adamski

    (Harvard Medical School
    Harvard Medical School)

  • Rebecca Bernardos

    (Harvard Medical School
    Harvard Medical School)

  • Guillermo Bravo

    (University of Vienna
    University of Granada)

  • Nasreen Broomandkhoshbacht

    (Harvard Medical School
    Harvard Medical School
    University of California)

  • Kimberly Callan

    (Harvard Medical School
    Harvard Medical School)

  • Francesca Candilio

    (Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the city of Cagliari and the provinces of Oristano and South Sardinia)

  • Lea Demetz

    (University of Vienna)

  • Kellie Sara Duffett Carlson

    (University of Vienna)

  • Laurie Eccles

    (The Pennsylvania State University)

  • Suzanne Freilich

    (University of Vienna)

  • Richard J. George

    (University of California)

  • Ann Marie Lawson

    (Harvard Medical School
    Harvard Medical School)

  • Kirsten Mandl

    (University of Vienna)

  • Fabio Marzaioli

    (Campania University ‘Luigi Vanvitelli’)

  • Weston C. McCool

    (University of California)

  • Jonas Oppenheimer

    (Harvard Medical School
    Harvard Medical School
    University of California)

  • Kadir T. Özdogan

    (University of Vienna)

  • Constanze Schattke

    (University of Vienna)

  • Ryan Schmidt

    (CIBIO–InBIO, University of Porto)

  • Kristin Stewardson

    (Harvard Medical School
    Harvard Medical School)

  • Filippo Terrasi

    (Campania University ‘Luigi Vanvitelli’)

  • Fatma Zalzala

    (Harvard Medical School
    Harvard Medical School)

  • Carlos Arredondo Antúnez

    (University of Havana)

  • Ercilio Vento Canosa

    (Matanzas University of Medical Sciences)

  • Roger Colten

    (Yale University)

  • Andrea Cucina

    (Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán)

  • Francesco Genchi

    (Sapienza University of Rome)

  • Claudia Kraan

    (National Archaeological–Anthropological Memory Management (NAAM))

  • Francesco Pastina

    (Sapienza University of Rome)

  • Michaela Lucci

    (Sapienza University of Rome)

  • Marcio Veloz Maggiolo

    (Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo)

  • Beatriz Marcheco-Teruel

    (Medical University of Havana)

  • Clenis Tavarez Maria

    (Museo del Hombre Dominicano)

  • Christian Martínez

    (Museo del Hombre Dominicano)

  • Ingeborg París

    (Universidad de Los Andes)

  • Michael Pateman

    (Turks and Caicos National Museum Foundation
    AEX Bahamas Maritime Museum)

  • Tanya M. Simms

    (University of The Bahamas)

  • Carlos Garcia Sivoli

    (Universidad de Los Andes)

  • Miguel Vilar

    (National Geographic Society)

  • Douglas J. Kennett

    (University of California)

  • William F. Keegan

    (University of Florida)

  • Alfredo Coppa

    (University of Vienna
    Harvard Medical School
    Sapienza University of Rome)

  • Mark Lipson

    (Harvard Medical School
    Harvard University)

  • Ron Pinhasi

    (University of Vienna)

  • David Reich

    (Harvard Medical School
    Harvard University
    Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT
    Harvard Medical School)

Abstract

Humans settled the Caribbean about 6,000 years ago, and ceramic use and intensified agriculture mark a shift from the Archaic to the Ceramic Age at around 2,500 years ago1–3. Here we report genome-wide data from 174 ancient individuals from The Bahamas, Haiti and the Dominican Republic (collectively, Hispaniola), Puerto Rico, Curaçao and Venezuela, which we co-analysed with 89 previously published ancient individuals. Stone-tool-using Caribbean people, who first entered the Caribbean during the Archaic Age, derive from a deeply divergent population that is closest to Central and northern South American individuals; contrary to previous work4, we find no support for ancestry contributed by a population related to North American individuals. Archaic-related lineages were >98% replaced by a genetically homogeneous ceramic-using population related to speakers of languages in the Arawak family from northeast South America; these people moved through the Lesser Antilles and into the Greater Antilles at least 1,700 years ago, introducing ancestry that is still present. Ancient Caribbean people avoided close kin unions despite limited mate pools that reflect small effective population sizes, which we estimate to be a minimum of 500–1,500 and a maximum of 1,530–8,150 individuals on the combined islands of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola in the dozens of generations before the individuals who we analysed lived. Census sizes are unlikely to be more than tenfold larger than effective population sizes, so previous pan-Caribbean estimates of hundreds of thousands of people are too large5,6. Confirming a small and interconnected Ceramic Age population7, we detect 19 pairs of cross-island cousins, close relatives buried around 75 km apart in Hispaniola and low genetic differentiation across islands. Genetic continuity across transitions in pottery styles reveals that cultural changes during the Ceramic Age were not driven by migration of genetically differentiated groups from the mainland, but instead reflected interactions within an interconnected Caribbean world1,8.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel M. Fernandes & Kendra A. Sirak & Harald Ringbauer & Jakob Sedig & Nadin Rohland & Olivia Cheronet & Matthew Mah & Swapan Mallick & Iñigo Olalde & Brendan J. Culleton & Nicole Adamski & Rebecca , 2021. "A genetic history of the pre-contact Caribbean," Nature, Nature, vol. 590(7844), pages 103-110, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:590:y:2021:i:7844:d:10.1038_s41586-020-03053-2
    DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-03053-2
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Selina Carlhoff & Wibhu Kutanan & Adam B. Rohrlach & Cosimo Posth & Mark Stoneking & Kathrin Nägele & Rasmi Shoocongdej & Johannes Krause, 2023. "Genomic portrait and relatedness patterns of the Iron Age Log Coffin culture in northwestern Thailand," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    2. Jennifer Birch & Turner W. Hunt & Louis Lesage & Jean-Francois Richard & Linda A. Sioui & Victor D. Thompson, 2022. "The role of radiocarbon dating in advancing Indigenous-led archaeological research agendas," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-6, December.

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