Raz,

Maybe the Central Asians were being selected for drinking mare's milk - which according to this article on Kumis - fermented mare's milk - has 40% more lactose than cow's milk?
cow's milk averages 4.8% lactose and mare's 6.3%

Don't know if milking mares started before milking cows, but it's a possibility - or else their was greater selection pressure, due to higher lactose content.

Hazaras are only sort of caucasians. You've written before about their unusual Genghisid ancestry.

And the Kalash are reputedly descendents of Alexander the Great's army (on the male side), if you beleive Wikipedia.

So perhaps the non standard LP gene also results in an unusual ability to creat world-spanning empires. Should we fear Daghestani Nogais global domination in the near future?

(Internet searches on the Kalash also show a cultural obsession with milk -- milk festivals and so on)

Hazaras are only sort of caucasians. You've written before about their unusual Genghisid ancestry.

yeah, in the US we'd call 'em eurasians.

And the Kalash are reputedly descendents of Alexander the Great's army (on the male side), if you beleive Wikipedia.


that's a myth it seems, the genetics doesn't support it.

"There's other things lurking in the background"
There are dark clouds hurtling through the sky
And it's no good whining
About a silver lining
For we know from experience that they won't roll by,
With a scowl and a frown
We'll keep our peckers down
And prepare for depression and doom and dread,
We're going to unpack our troubles from our old kit bag
And wait until we drop down dead.

They're morbid in Mongolia
And querulous in Quebec,
There's not a man
In Baluchistan
Who isn't a nervous wreck,
In Maine the melancholia
Is deeper than tongue can tell,
In Monaco
All the croupiers know
They haven't a hope in Hell.
In far away Australia
Each wallaby's well aware
The world's a total failure
Without any time to spare.
Hurray! Hurray! Hurray!
Suffering and dismay.

Again a paper that does not include India.The Pakistani samples seem to be the same ones that are churned in every paper I've read ;they always seem to exclude Punjabi Pakistani popultions.

And the Kalash are reputedly descendents of Alexander the Great's army (on the male side), if you beleive Wikipedia.
Sounds like a mystery fit for the best Kalash historian in the world.

Again a paper that does not include India.The Pakistani samples seem to be the same ones that are churned in every paper I've read ;they always seem to exclude Punjabi Pakistani popultions.

sindhi is probably good enough. you know the directionality of the allele frequencies.

The Kalash link led me to learn about their 'Festival of the Budulak'

In this custom (which most say is now extinct but some say still exists), once a year a strong young boy is selected to be the Budulak. In the Summer, he goes up into the mountains, takes care of the goats, eats lots of cheese and abstains from any kind of sex. He grows strong and fat. After six months in the mountains, he is brought down for a festival. During the festival, for a period of 48 hours, the Budulak is allowed to have sexual intercourse with any woman he wants. He can have sex with any virgin girl, or anybody's wife or daughter, or even with his own mother or sister, if he wants. He is supposed to try to have sex with as many women as possible. If one of them becomes pregnant and has a child, the child and the mother are considered to be blessed.

Refrains from "any kind of sex", blueshifter? Sounds as if you're getting into Slick Willie territory there.