Historically, piecing together the puzzles of human cultural
history has largely been the preserve of archaeology. However, recent advances
in the retrieval ofancient
samples of DNAfrom human remains has allowed researchers to peer into the
past in unprecedented detail.

A newstudy published in
BMC遗传学now addsPCRalongside
pickaxes in the archaeological toolbox, by delving into the cultural past of
ancient Peru. Mateusz Baca and colleagues from the University of Warsaw andUniversidad Católica de Santa Maria
were able to isolate DNA from the remains of individuals buried in ceremonial
burial mounds dating from the time prior to Europeancolonization of the
Americas.

By using a
combination ofsex–linkedandautosomalgenetic markers, the researchers were able to
piece together a jigsaw of familial relations between individuals from this isolated
Andean community living 4000m up, in the shadow of theCoropuna volcano. Until now, knowledge
about how social groups were organized in this pastoral society of llama and alpaca
herders was largely inferred from ethnographic and archaeological findings. However,
by utilizing modern techniques of DNA extraction from fragments of bones and
teeth found at the site, the team were able to confirm that this community were
organized in a patriarchal society based around the traditional family unit of
Native South Americans—theayllu.

Although such
genetic studies are prone to similar problems to their traditional archaeological
counterparts – this site for example had been subject to extensive looting – the
isolated nature of this high-altitude community fortunately meant that samples
were extraordinarily well-preserved, a boon that would certainly be shared by both
disciplines.

This study
adds to a number of excellent recent studies published inBMC遗传学at the interface
of science and cultural history since the launch of the Human Population
Genetics section under Section EditorGuido Barbujani. These
include studies on the evolution of language among ethnic groups inThailandand thePhilippines,
genetic structure ofisolated
modern-day ethnic groups, and the genetic impact of large scalehuman migrations into the
Americas.

This new combination
ofIndiana Jones-meets-CSIpromises to open
a new window onto human cultural history as never before, even if a fluorescent
band on an电泳
gelwill never quite look as pretty on a museum shelf.