A Staff Reporter
DIMAPUR, DECEMBER 14
Cultural anthropologist, Dr Abraham Lotha on Monday delivered a lecture on “Understanding Naga ancestral journey through DNA studies” – based on the findings of a DNA analysis of his own gene performed by experts from the National Geographic’s Genographic Project – at Elim Hall, Dimapur Ao Baptist Arogo.
Monday’s lecture was the first of a series that has been initiated by The Morung Express, a local newspaper. The Genographic Project, according to its website, uses cutting-edge genetic and computational technologies to analyze historical patterns from participants around the world to better understand our human genetic roots.
Since it was first launched in 2005, the Genographic Project has recorded 7,42,652 participants from over 140 countries across the globe.
At the very beginning of the lecture, co-chair Aheli Moitra – and Dr Abraham Lotha, later – underscored that it was not an attempt to undermine the traditional Naga oral history but to provide a parallel understanding.
According Lotha, the motive behind the attempt was not to answer but to churn out more questions in the process. He asserted that the findings presented at the lecture were “too simplistic to make a definite conclusion.”
A salient feature of the analysis, as presented by Dr Lotha, was how his DNA sample was broken down to identify genetic markers to trace his maternal as well as paternal ancestry – separately. The maternal ancestry is traced through genetic markers found on mitochondrial DNA which is passed to a child only through the mother while the Y chromosome is examined to determine paternal ancestry.
“My maternal lineage began about 1,50,000 years ago. My maternal ancestors travelled out of Africa and along the coastline of Asia toward Indonesia. Many of my cousins continued until they reached Australia. They founded the Aboriginal population there,” Dr Lotha said of the findings from his DNA analysis.
“My paternal lineage began at least 1,80,000 years ago. My paternal ancestors journeyed from Africa to Asia, settling in the region of southern China. There they were among the first people to develop rice agriculture.
“This event led to a population explosion and my ancestors expanded throughout the region. Some of my cousins went north into Japan, while others travelled south, with some eventually heading out to sea in the great Polynesian migration.”
Conversely, this reinforces the idea of Africa as the place of human origins. According to Dr Lotha, it is time for Nagas to explore beyond Mongolia (as their zero point of migration) and “put date and time” on the term “time immemorial.”
He suggested that similar DNA analysis on samples from different Naga people could throw up some very interesting findings. “It will be interesting to find out how one are we really (as a people)? Or whether it will negate or corroborate our oral history.”
Akum Longchari, editor of The Morung Express, shared that the whole exercise was simply a manifestation that we are in the process of creating meaning together. “I see no conflict between oral history and this. The only difference is the point of reference,” he noted.
Akum also shared that Nagas can forge a new “sense of Naganess” – while tracing its ancestral journey – based on the values of a shared humanity. “If Africa can give us the heart of humanity, then we as the Naga people can think out of the box and embrace the values of shared humanity.”
He offered that the new “Naganess” could be determined not by our identity or ethnicity but by the values that we represent as a people.
