The Clash of Culture and Genetics

DNA research, and the inexpensive access to DNA tests, can be a sobering discovery to many. When everything you thought about yourself, your family, and your culture is appropriated and not factual, people can react with denial or with a new sense of discovery.

When I had my own DNA tested, and then my mother's, I was shocked to find that we are of 100% Northern European descent, with a very rare mitochondrial haplogroup. My mother told me we are Jewish on the maternal side; we are not, although she still stands by that. My maternal grandmother told me that we have Native American on the fairly recent maternal side, but as a genealogist I've been unable to find it (admixtures in the past few hundred years won't show up on the deep DNA tests, I'm told). So, what is TRUE when  DNA, familial stories passed down through the generations, intermarriage between different groups, and the culture we practice and pass down to our kids is thrown in the same pot and stirred?

A mystery! That's what!

Razib discusses this on his blog Gene Expression.

"There is also a general insight. How can a people “forget” their past origins? How can they create entirely fictive genealogies? As economists would say: incentives matter. Many human populations emerge through a process of genetic amalgamation, but cultural identity is not governed by the laws of segregation. Cultural identity and memory can rupture and shift far more rapidly because the laws of cultural inheritance are more plastic and protean. There was a clear folk migration of massive numbers of Germans into what became England, but their history and folkways were adopted wholesale by the native peoples whom they conquered. This sort of process likely has occurred many times across human history."

And from the comments, poster AG adds:

"I was indoctrinated by my family as pure blood Northern Han who are proud of people as origin of Han culture. I believe the family tale without any doubt until modern ancestry genetic analysis comes. DNA analysis indicates my 90% mongol ancestry.
When I studied the hometown village history, it all made sense now. The very village was established right after fall of Mongol Yuan dynasty. Many Mongol soldiers served under Ming (Han) emperor were settled in the region and converted into farmers as Han people. Mongol names and intermarriage were forbidden under Ming laws.
Mongols are not very ethnic centritric in the first place. We are happily embracing inter-ethnic marriage and new ethnic identity."

The Banks of the Tollense

There is a lot of conjecture associated with this article, but I found it fascinating.

About 3200 years ago, two armies clashed at a river crossing near the Baltic Sea. The confrontation can’t be found in any history books—the written word didn’t become common in these parts for another 2000 years—but this was no skirmish between local clans. Thousands of warriors came together in a brutal struggle, perhaps fought on a single day, using weapons crafted from wood, flint, and bronze, a metal that was then the height of military technology. 

Struggling to find solid footing on the banks of the Tollense River, a narrow ribbon of water that flows through the marshes of northern Germany toward the Baltic Sea, the armies fought hand-to-hand, maiming and killing with war clubs, spears, swords, and knives. Bronze- and flint-tipped arrows were loosed at close range, piercing skulls and lodging deep into the bones of young men. Horses belonging to high-ranking warriors crumpled into the muck, fatally speared. Not everyone stood their ground in the melee: Some warriors broke and ran, and were struck down from behind.

The Creation Of The Federal Reserve

This is a good video. I learned things I didn't know. H/T: Dean Garrison at The DC Clothesline

Trey Gowdy. 'Nuff Said.

The Merovingian Bestseller

I've always been interested in anthropology, archaeology, and genetics. I enjoy sifting through the articles written by Dienekes and Razib Khan. They take important research and boil it down to a few statements that are more easily digested by hobbyists like me.

I've been reading about a group of scientists who did a genetic study of nine sarcophagi excavated from the Merovingian necropolis in Jau-Dignac et Loirac (7th–8th century AD, Aquitaine, southwest France). These individuals were grouped together, and so imagine the scientists surprise when they recovered five distinct haplogroups: J, H, K, X2 and W from eight of the individuals that rested together. Talk about a family melting pot! From Dienekes:

The presence of perinatal remains in one sarcophagus was particularly striking because access to this type of funerary structure during this period was generally reserved for older children. Moreover, we demonstrated genetically that the perinatal remains were not related maternally to two women found in the same sarcophagus (whereas the maternal relationship between the two young women could be determined), and we proposed different possible explanations for this unexpected observation.

Oh, what a great book could be written as to why these mostly unrelated people were buried together! Who could best write such a book? Colleen McCullough, for a grand sweeping saga? Ken Follet, for a tale woven around Merovingian stonemasons? Elizabeth Kostova for a dark and spooky adventure? If you could select the author, who would you choose?

Hocus Pocus

I've always wondered why black Americans descended from slaves support Obama; they have absolutely NOTHING in common with him. With a tight election right around the corner, a few intrepid genealogists have combed through musty courthouses to plug this gaping hole in the only way they COULD plug it...they tied his mother to slaves.  And not just any ol' slave either. No way. Not for The One.

Wave a magic wand, make a wild  guess here and there, close your eyes, mumble the letters "DNA", and presto! Obama is the grandson of John Punch! Cool, huh?


Here are the supporting documents at Ancestry.com.

The Cahuachi of Peru

National Geographic has a stunning slide show of the Nazca Lines and the Cahuachi culture.  The photography is simply amazing!

Here is a photograph I found of a Cahuachi painted gourd:

This is a Cahuachi textile.  Isn't it gorgeous?

A Strange Antiquities Case

This is one very weird situation...

The prosecution of the largest-ever American Indian artifacts looting case has been rattled by the apparent suicide of the government informant who broke open the investigation during more than two years of undercover work.

The death marks the third suicide in the case since investigators announced last June that they had charged more than two dozen people with illegally excavating, collecting and dealing artifacts including pottery, stone pipes and ancient jewelry.

Two defendants killed themselves shortly after their arrests, and now the government has lost its most important witness to a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Overzealous prosecutors?  Guilt-ridden grave robbers?  An ancient Native American curse?    Hmmm...

Tour of Zominthos, Crete

Here is some background information on the archaeological dig. 

The archaeological site of Zominthos is located in the mountains of central Crete, the largest of the Greek islands and the fifth-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Crete’s geographic position in the southernmost part of the eastern Mediterranean and its natural environment played a definitive role in the birth, development, and character of the Minoans (ca. 3100–1050 B.C.), the first European civilization.

This video is stunning!



I would love to work a season at a dig such as this one.