A Desire to Oversimplify Migration

[EthiopianSon]

Perhaps I have been reading the wrong stuff, but theories about migrations of various DNA groups almost always seem to imply there was a single bunch of people that wandered around together for hundreds/thousands of years and then one day settled in some location of particular relevance to the person making the theory.

Just as an example, if you take R1b, some people say it entered Europe via the Mediterranean, others via the Danube and still others via the more northerly Steppes. Seeing as the haplogroup was formed thousands of years ago surely it is very likely that it quickly splintered into many many many different groups, some of which subseqently moved into Europe via different routes and at different times?

Why is it it always seems that people put forward one route/one point in time theories?

[rms2]

You have to remember that "R1b" in these discussions does not usually actually mean R1b, i.e., R-M343. It is code or shorthand for something much younger and much further downstream, like R-M269, at the oldest, or R-L11, or something in between. I don't think anyone is arguing "R1b" entered Europe at the M343 stage in its development.

[EthiopianSon]

Are you serious or joking? (where are the emoticons around here?) People posting X when they mean Y is a different issue, but doesn't help matters either.

[rms2]

Are you serious or joking? (where are the emoticons around here?) People posting X when they mean Y is a different issue, but doesn't help matters either.

I'm serious. A lot of people use "R1b" as a shorthand for R-M269, R-L11, or one of the haplogroups in between those two. It's just easier, especially when you're unsure at just exactly what SNP stage they were.

Very few people are goofy enough to think that our ancestors entered Europe as R-M343.