Rocha Jorge
IPATIMUP, Institute of Pathology and Molecular Immunology of the University of Porto.
J Anthropol Sci. 2010;88:5-8.
For a human population geneticist, an interest in Africa hardly requires an explanation. With the highest time depth of human history and over 2000 linguistic groups spreading across highly diverse geographical settings, Africa harbors a tremendous variety of genetic patterns that remain to be explained. My own interest in African populations started with São Tomé, a tiny plantation island located at the heart of the Gulf of Guinea that was peopled by slaves imported from the adjacent areas of the mainland. Presently, I am still interested in insular populations related to the slave trade, like the Cape Verde Archipelago, facing Senegal. Moreover, I became involved in the study of genetic diversity of continental areas like Angola and Mozambique, lying at the southwestern and southeastern edges of the Bantu expansions, respectively. The area of Angola, in particular, is especially interesting for understanding the push of Bantu-speaking peoples out of the rain forest into the arid steppes of southwestern Africa. In southern Angola, the cultural and geographical proximity between Bantu and Khoisan cattle herders poses intriguing questions about the development of the relatively isolated Southwest African pastoral scene and the nature of the interactions between the vanguard of the Bantu expansions and the non-Bantu peoples from the desert.
对于一位人类群体遗传学家来说，对非洲感兴趣几乎无需解释。非洲拥有人类历史上最久远的时间深度，2000多个语言群体分布在高度多样的地理环境中，蕴含着众多有待解释的遗传模式。我本人对非洲人群的兴趣始于圣多美，这是一个位于几内亚湾中心的小型种植园岛屿，岛上居民是从大陆邻近地区进口的奴隶。目前，我仍对与奴隶贸易相关的岛屿人群感兴趣，比如佛得角群岛，它与塞内加尔隔海相望。此外，我还参与了对大陆地区遗传多样性的研究，如安哥拉和莫桑比克，它们分别位于班图扩张的西南和东南边缘。特别是安哥拉地区，对于理解说班图语的民族从雨林向非洲西南部干旱草原的迁徙尤为有趣。在安哥拉南部，班图人和科伊桑牧民在文化和地理上的接近，引发了关于相对孤立的西南非牧区发展以及班图扩张先锋与沙漠中的非班图民族之间互动性质的有趣问题。
