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Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2004-01 > 1075356160


From: "Louis" <>
Subject: Re: [DNA] Pedigree collapse-- concept help
Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 22:02:40 -0800
References: <20040129033442.69075.qmail@web41813.mail.yahoo.com>


Andrew,

Thank you so much for these incredible articles.
Louis

----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew Bond" <>
To: <>
Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2004 7:34 PM
Subject: Re: [DNA] Pedigree collapse-- concept help


> Here are a few other links that may be of interest to people.
>
> http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2002/05/olson.htm
>
> http://www.stat.yale.edu/~jtc5/pubs/Ancestors.pdf
>
> Andrew Bond
>
> Louis <> wrote:
> The recent discussion about Charlemagne and the notion that all Europeans
(and even many non-Europeans) must be descended from him due to the enormous
number of ancestors we would have back in 800 AD., has really made me look
at pedigree collapse theory much more closely.
>
> I am still having some trouble with the concept of PEDIGREE COLLAPSE.
>
> My question is related to the following paragraph from the book The
Mountain of Names, by Alex Shoumatoff, 1985:
>
> The farther back one traces any person's genealogy the greater the rate of
duplication grows, until finally, when there is more cousin intermarriage
than input from new people, the shape of one's pedigree stops expanding and
begins to narrow. Each person's complete family tree, in other words, is
shaped like a diamond. In the beginning it expands upward from him in an
inverted triangle. At some point, hundreds of years back, the rate of
expansion peaks, the base of the inverted triangle is reached and,
overwhelmed by "collapse," the pedigree starts to narrow again, eventually
coming to a point at a theoretical first couple--Adam and Eve. (from The
Mountain of Names, Alex Shoumatoff, 1985).
>
> QUESTION:
>
> 1) "Every person's Pedigree Chart is shaped like a diamond." Can we
calculate, with relative accuracy, the time in human history that our
pedigree chart stops exapanding and begins to collapse? Did this peak occur
during "recent times", the "Neolithic", or the "Paleolithic"? Remember,
anatomically modern humans have been around since about 100,000 years ago.
>
> 2) What logic is used in making this calculation?
>
>
> Thank you,
> Louis Loccisano
>
>
> ==============================
> Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration
> Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. Click to learn more.
> http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4930&sourceid=1237
>
>
> ==============================
> Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration
> Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. Click to learn more.
> http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4930&sourceid=1237
>


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