September 20, 2004

Demic diffusion of Han Chinese culture

The Han are the most important ethnic group in China. This study shows that while Han Y-chromosomes are relatively homogeneous, with southern Hans having mostly patrilineages of northern origin, in mtDNA the southern Hans are about evenly split between northern and southern matrilineages. The spread of the Han culture and the northern Han people into the south occurred during the last 2,000 years.

Nature 431, 302 - 305 (16 September 2004); doi:10.1038/nature02878

Genetic evideznce supports demic diffusion of Han culture

Bo Wen et al.

The spread of culture and language in human populations is explained by two alternative models: the demic diffusion model, which involves mass movement of people; and the cultural diffusion model, which refers to cultural impact between populations and involves limited genetic exchange between them. The mechanism of the peopling of Europe has long been debated, a key issue being whether the diffusion of agriculture and language from the Near East was concomitant with a large movement of farmers. Here we show, by systematically analysing Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA variation in Han populations, that the pattern of the southward expansion of Han culture is consistent with the demic diffusion model, and that males played a larger role than females in this expansion. The Han people, who all share the same culture and language, exceed 1.16 billion (2000 census), and are by far the largest ethnic group in the world. The expansion process of Han culture is thus of great interest to researchers in many fields.


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