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| − | {{GeographyPortal}}
| + | #REDIRECT [[Question: Is DNA Haplogroup X2a proof that the Book of Mormon fits best in a geography located in the Great Lakes region?]] |
| − | {{Question}}
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| − | ==Question==
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| − | I've heard some members claim that the Book of Mormon fits best in a geography located around the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_lakes Great Lakes], and that this is supported by a mitochondrial DNA ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mtdna mtDNA]) group called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_X_(mtDNA) Haplotype X2a]. What can you tell me about this?
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| − | ===Source(s)===
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| − | * {{MeldrumDVD1}}
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| − | ==Answer==
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| − | ''An additional argument for a Great Lakes setting is made on textual grounds.
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| − | * See FAIR wiki article on [[Book_of_Mormon_geography:New_World:Great_Lakes_geography|Great Lakes setting]]''.
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| − | While FAIR applauds the efforts of Latter-day Saints to defend the Book of Mormon against critics attacks, at present we feel unable to endorse this idea as persuasive evidence for the Book of Mormon's antiquity.
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| − | Some members of FAIR have had a look at the speculations along these lines. The goal seems to be that proponents of this theory want to prove the Book of Mormon with DNA by tracking mtDNA haplotype X among native Americans.
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| − | The theory postulates that type X comes from the Levant (i.e., Israel/Palestine), and then reaches Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Western New York with the Lehi colony. Proponents of this model argue, then, that this group actually sailed around Africa and up through the South Atlantic and into the Gulf of Mexico. They then have them landing in what is now Louisiana.
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| − | But when Nephi's group fled from Laman's faction, advocates of this model have ''both'' the Nephi and Laman factions migrating north to the area designated above. There is no textual evidence in the Book of Mormon to support this.
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| − | ===Problems of dates===
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| − | The biggest difficulty with this speculation, however, is the problem of dating. Haplotype X, which is centered in Europe and the Levant is thought to have reached North America much earlier than the Lehi party, and to have brought the distinctive [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clovis_culture Clovis culture] to the Americas (which dates from before 12,000 years ago). This culture involves what is often called the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clovis_point Clovis Point] tools—that is, pressure flaked tools (arrow heads and so forth), which are not found in Alaska and Asia. This has led some revisionists to advance what has been called the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solutrean_hypothesis Solutrean Hypothesis]—that is, that haplotype X got to North America (and specifically to the northeast) by people migrating from Europe on tiny skin boats along the edge of ice flows. Even if true, what exactly any of this has to do with the Book of Mormon is not clear, since such immigration would precede Lehi by thousands of years.
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| − | Thus, even if haplotype X2a has its origins on the Middle East, if those origins are thousands of years before the Book of Mormon timeframe, it is difficult to use them as strong evidence for the Book of Mormon account. At best, this demonstrates that the Bering land bridge is not the only source of the pre-Columbian American Indians.
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| − | In addition, many of these proponents have not consulted, and hence are quite unfamiliar with, the sophisticated literature already published on the Book of Mormon by believing scholars. For example, they have not addressed archaeologist John Clark's assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of a Great Lakes model.
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| − | ===New data casts multiple founding theory in question===
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| − | A February 2008 genetics study on American population migration states:
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| − | :...the differential pattern of distribution and frequency of haplogroup X led some to suggest that it may represent an independent migration to the Americas. Here we show, by using 86 complete mitochondrial genomes, that all Native American haplogroups, including haplogroup X, were part of a single founding population, thereby refuting multiple-migration models.
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| − | :Our results strongly support the hypothesis that haplogroup X, together with the other four main mtDNA haplogroups, was part of the gene pool of a '''single Native American founding population'''; therefore they do not support models that propose haplogroup-independent migrations, such as the migration from Europe posed by the Solutrean hypothesis. (emphasis added){{ref|feb2008}}
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| − | ==Conclusion==
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| − | While interesting, at present it does not seem that haplogroup X can serve as good evidence of the Book of Mormon's antiquity given the problems of dating and the failure of the model to come to grips with textual issues from the Book of Mormon. Doing so would require us to misrepresent the current state of scientific evidence. This claim also fails to interact responsibly with a fairly large body of literature which has led most LDS scholars to reject the Great Lakes region as a feasible match to the Book of Mormon's requirements.
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| − | This conclusion will, of course, need to be revised if further information comes to light.
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| − | ''An additional argument for a Great Lakes setting is made on textual grounds.''
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| − | {{SeeAlso|Book_of_Mormon_geography:New_World:Great_Lakes_geography|l1=Great Lakes setting]]
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| − | ==Best articles to read next==
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| − | {{LearnMore}}
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| − | # FAIR's reviews of Rod Meldrum's DVD, ''DNA Evidence for Book of Mormon Geography''. {{wikilink|url=Book_of_Mormon_geography/Models/Limited/Meldrum_2003}}
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| − | #{{FR-14-1-3}}<!-- Clark-->
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| − | #{{FR-6-2-5}}<!-- Clark-->
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| − | #{{FR-8-2-2}}<!-- Clark-->
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| − | ==Endnotes==
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| − | #{{note|feb2008}} Nelson J.R. Fagundes, Ricardo Kanitz, et al., "Mitochondrial Population Genomics Supports a Single Pre-Clovis Origin with a Coastal Route for the Peopling of the Americas," ''The American Journal of Human Genetics'' 82/3 (28 February 2008): 583-592. {{link|url=http://www.ajhg.org/AJHG/fulltext/S0002-9297(08)00139-0#}}
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| − | ==Further reading==
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| − | ===FAIR wiki articles===
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| − | {{BoMGeographyWiki}}
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| − | ===FAIR web site===
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| − | {{BoMGeographyFAIR}}
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| − | ===External links===
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| − | {{BoMGeographyLinks}}
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| − | ===Printed material===
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| − | {{BoMGeographyPrint}}
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