Was Madagascar Founded By Women?

[ellisonz]

Madagascar Founded By Women
The discovery negates a prior theory about how the island was first found.
By Jennifer Viegas
Tue Mar 20, 2012 07:01 PM ET

Madagascar was first settled and founded by approximately 30 women, mostly of Indonesian descent, who may have sailed off course in a wayward vessel 1200 years ago.

The discovery negates a prior theory that a large, planned settlement process took place on the island of Madagascar, located off the east coast of Africa. Traditionally it was thought to have been settled by Indonesian traders moving along the coasts of the Indian Ocean.

Most native Madagascar people today, called Malagasy, can trace their ancestry back to the founding 30 mothers, according to an extensive new DNA study published in the latest Proceedings of the Royal Society B,. Researchers focused on mitochondrial DNA, passed down from mothers to their offspring. Scientists assume some men were with the women.

“I’m afraid this wasn’t a settlement by Amazon seafarers!” lead author Murray Cox told Discovery News. “We propose settlement by a very small group of Indonesian women, around 30, but we also presume from the genetics that there were at least some Indonesian men with them. At this stage, we don’t know how many.”

More: Discovery Channel News

Interesting theory. DNA testing is really impacting how we look at some of these questions and opening new windows into possible answers.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. The Economist suggests that they may have been slaves

That answer bears on a second question: was the colonisation of Madagascar a deliberate act or an accident? The first is possible. At the time, much of the Malay Archipelago was in the hands of the Srivijayan empire, an entity that could certainly have sent expeditions across the Indian Ocean, had it so willed. But there is no historical evidence that it did. In any case if it had, it is likely that a successful colonisation by one group would have been followed by others, as happened when Europeans discovered the Americas.

Most likely, then, the first Malagasy were accidental castaways, news of whose adventure never made it back home. But there is still a puzzle. Most ships’ crews are male. Though the number of men in the original party will remain obscure until an analysis like Dr Cox’s is done on the Y-chromosome of Malagasy men (Y-chromosomes include DNA passed exclusively down the male line in the way that mitochondrial DNA is passed down the female line), the presence of women on board a trading vessel would have been unusual. Unless, of course, the women themselves were the objects being traded. Possibly, then, Madagascar was colonised by an errant slave ship. Which would make its history even stranger than anyone had previously thought.

http://www.economist.com/node/21550759?fsrc=scn%2Ftw%2Fte%2Far%2Fthirtylostsouls

[bemildred]

2. I've heard they are necessary for reproduction.

(Women, I mean. Don't need more than one or two men.)

[Bucky]

4. That's why you gotta be careful around 'em.

Also they can help with the cookin' and cleanin'

[pscot]

3. I'm hold out for Amazon seafarers

DNA bedamned!