Scratching my head! - Pt 2 - Major statistical analysis gap in Narasimhan paper undermines steppe->Brahmin theory

In a previous post, I had critiqued Narasimhan et al 2019 for the inference that steppe ancestry is significantly related to modern Indian Brahmin groups, and hence provides evidence that this steppe ancestry is causal to the Indo Aryan languages.

Nevertheless, the fact that traditional custodians of liturgy in Sanskrit (Brahmins) tend to have more Steppe ancestry than is predicted by a simple ASI-ANI mixture model provides an an independent line of evidence—beyond the distinctive ancestry profile shared between South Asia and Bronze Eastern Europe mirroring the shared features of Indo-Iranian and Balto- Slavic languages (58)—for a Bronze Age Steppe the origin for South Asia’s Indo-European languages.

I gave 3 main reasons why this reasoning and analysis was faulty.

1. Correlation is not causation, Brahmin steppe can be enriched by way of intermarriage with steppe rich brides. It may not have anything to do with the steppe causing the formation of brahmin jAtis.

Scratching my head! - Criticism of Narsimhan VM et al 2019 - Pt 1

In this post, I will start getting my thoughts about the seminal SC Asian paper organized in written form. I have had these stored in my head for 2 years. The data in the paper is absolutely fantastic, and we get the first aDna from South Asia ie Swat valley. But there are so many conclusions and data analysis choices made by the authors that left me scratching my head, so much so that this post got delayed because I just have so much to say but don't know where to begin.