Human Diversity seminar 21.10.2026, Rohrlach

Time: Wednesday 21.10. at 11:45-13:15

11:45-12:15 Coffee and tea served
12:15-13:15 Seminar
Location: Aava lecture room, 1st floor, Arcanum (Arcanuminkuja 1, Turku) and Zoom
Please sign up here by Monday 19.10. by 12pm to ensure your coffee or tea and savory pasty

Dr. Adam Ben Rohrlach, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany

Using Networks to uncover and explore Genetic- and Cultural-relatedness

Recent ancient DNA publications have begun to focus on every individual from a cemetery, or from several nearby cemeteries. Using measures of genetic relatedness, networks are formed by “linking” related individuals, and inferences are made by looking at the observable patterns, or from surface-level statistics in the networks. Here, we introduce the use of network regression and clustering methods to analyse these networks, allowing us to statistically test hypotheses about demographic and cultural observations.

Such questions may be, can we form “communities” or “clusters” of related individuals, and can these be understood as a mating network? Do similarities in unique burial items or customs correlate with individuals being closely genetically related? Are these patterns consistent, and even connected, across cemeteries, different sites or even different regions? Importantly, we explore these patterns while accounting for the many nuisance variables that could obscure these inferences, such as location, distance, or biased sampling. To illustrate the potential of this new approach, we introduce these methods in a historical contexts, showcasing how we can uncover patterns of cultural similarity between genetically-related individuals.

Event poster PDF here.

If you would like to meet Ben, please contact ronan.osullivan@utu.fi

All welcome!