Anthropology.net

According to this press release, Oded Lipschits from the department of Archaeology in Tel Aviv University has found evidence that Assyrians were establishing ‘local administrative centers,’ branch offices if you may, that kept tabs on their Judaen vassals. This ain’t really surprising finding by itself, from the very start of the Assyrian empire, they have been well known for their diplomacy, even though it was a rather domineering legacy. The cuneiform library founded by Sargon II holds bountiful records of envoys between Assyria, Babylon and Elam which lasted for over 800 years.

But, knowing where this site is located gives this news a bit more significance to the find. The site, Ramat Rachel, was actually a suburb of ancient Jerusalem. It is about 2,700 years old. During this time, the Neo-Assyrian empire was the regional power and they –for the most part– practiced a polytheistic religion, Ashurism. Under certain situations, they were tolerant of other ethnicities, ways of life… So, the fact that the Assyrian ‘embassy’ was located two miles away, indicates to Lipschits that the Assyrian overlords decided ‘to take a few steps back, and not appear to be interfering with the city’s religious center and local culture.’

I do have problems with where Lipschits takes this observation. From the press release,

“The Assyrians built their economic hub for the region two miles south of Jerusalem at Ramat Rachel. They created elaborate gardens, stocked their cellars with the wine and olive oil they collected in taxes, and quietly but carefully monitored Jerusalem.

“You can see Jerusalem from Ramat Rachel, but when you’re inside Jerusalem’s City of David, you can’t see Ramat Rachel at all,” says Lipschits. “The Assyrians kept a watchful eye, but didn’t let the locals feel a dominant foreign presence.

“It was smart for the Assyrian managers to take a few steps back, and not appear to be interfering with the city’s religious center and local culture. Businesses today could be advised to adopt similar strategies with their branch offices in foreign locations,” he surmises.”

I really don’t know enough about the Assyrian presence in Ramat Rachel other than what was reported in this release. But I, for one, am cautious to use them as a template for good business practices. I find it far too common nowadays for people who study the past to draw tangents to modern day life. In doing so they overlook the pretty obvious facts that make their claims much less utopic.

In this case, like many early empires, the Assyrian one was forged out and maintained out of rather horrible things such as war, slavery and totalitarianism. One of the earlier Assyrian kings, Ashurnasirpal II, decimated Aramaeans and set the tone for the Assyrians to bask in their ruthlessness. Their social structure was largely founded by a land-holding class which consisted almost entirely of military commanders who grew wealthy from the spoils taken in war. Their dominance was not successfully challenged until Battle of Nineveh, when the Neo-Assyrian Empire collapsed under the invasion of Iranian peoples from the east. During this time, under the rule of Cyrus the Great, the Assyrians were exposed to live by one of the first human rights edicts of the time, the Charter of Cyrus the Great. It was not until then that the Assyrian dominance over Judeah subsided.

So, while it may have been beneficial for the Assyrians near Jerusalem to step back and not put pressure on their Judean state, can they really be a reliable model for modern day economical ethics and societies?

Razib shares with us an overview of a new PLoS One paper which investigated the selection of an allele of alcohol dehydrogenase found in high frequency in some East Asian peoples. I gotta hand it to him for the snarky title of his post. Alcohol dehydrogenase is an enzyme that functions to break down alcohols which could otherwise be toxic. There are many classes of alcohol dehydrogenases. The specific allele in this study, ADH1b*47His, is associated with a decrease in the risk of alcoholism. How? These class of alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) alleles expedite the metabolism of alcohols. Alleles that metabolize alcohols slower, such as the ADH2 and ADH3 variants, are associated with alcoholics.

The observation that ADH1b*47His is found in high frequencies in some East Asian populations have got Hui Li and coauthors curious to figure out if there has been some sort of selection to confer this decrease of alcoholism allele to be present in many peoples. They recently published their study in the free and open access journal, PLoS One. The research behind this paper, “Ethnic Related Selection for an ADH Class I Variant within East Asia,” involved looking at 30 different SNPs in the ADH gene of 24 different populations. It was observed that the unique ADH1b alleles correlated directly with ethnic groups, which I think is completely fascinating from an anthropological perspective.

In their population screen, it was observed that the ADH1b*47His allele is found highest in Korean-Japanese, Han Chinese, Hmong-Mien, Daic, and Austronesian people. Further, investigation of the ADH gene revealed that ADH1b*47His is actually a SNP that falls smack dab in the regulatory region of ADH. Regulatory regions are portions of a gene where promoters, inhibitors, and other transcription factors bind preferentially. Any alteration of these regions of genes ultimately effects how much product is made.

As Razib highlighted, the authors think that the real focus of selection may be the regulatory region. Well, no duh, the derived promoter allele probably increased expression levels of the enzyme and with more enzyme available, that ultimately helped people process alcohol more efficiently and faster. Clearly there’s a selective advantage to having more enzymes available to oxidize toxic agents. But the authors are a bit conservative in saying that detoxifying alcohol is primary reason why ADH1b*47His is present in high frequency in East Asian people. In fact, they suggest that ADH1 alleles have something to do with cancer, infectious diseases, etc. Makes sense, I mean these enzymes are detoxifying agents.

I know this post was heavy on population genetics, biochemistry and some physiology. I have to review that to some extent to give a background on ADH. I do want to point out again that this study yet again shows us that there are genetic differences between ethnic groups. Be it in ADH, or any other ancestry inherited marker, ethnic populations do exhibit some clearly definable genetic differences.

Li, H., Gu, S., Cai, X., Speed, W.C., Pakstis, A.J., Golub, E.I., Kidd, J.R., Kidd, K.K., Harpending, H. (2008). Ethnic Related Selection for an ADH Class I Variant within East Asia. PLoS ONE, 3(4), e1881. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0001881