The Origin of the Ashkenazi Jews

Interesting reading and links from Razib:

"Roughly the Ashkenazi Jews are a half and half mix of a Middle Eastern population and various European groups. The majority of the European ancestry is “Southern European,” probably something like Italian. But, a minority of the European ancestry is like “Eastern European.” Additionally, the former admixture pre-dated the bottleneck, and probably dates to ~1000 A.D., while the latter event post-dates the bottleneck."

*snip*

And from the comment section, Dx states:

"As to the 2nd wave, there is a curious onomastic tidbit. While traditional Ashkenazi male given names are a mix of Hebrew, German, and Romance etymologies, the female given names have an additional, and historically widespread, layer of etymologically Slavic names. The traditional given names are after a deceased ancestor, and thus show remarkable (albeit by no means perfect) persistence over time. The thing about these etymologically Slavic feminine given names is that they come from Old Czech, and are already attested in the old Prague records. It could be interpreted as a hint that Prague, hypothesized to be the earliest post-bottleneck population center, is also where the elements of the sex-biased admixture took place. Alas, no ancient DNA…" 

Modernity Has Not Been Kind to the Celt

From the pen of Apollon Zamp: 

"Throughout history, the denizens of rural Appalachia have been at a high risk of death from gunshot wounds, stabbings, and blunt force trauma. This is the seeming end result of piling too many Scots-Irishmen together and expecting them to co-exist peacefully (cf. a certain six counties of Ulster). Those causes of death have been replaced by the much less mediapathic,[1]but no less lethal, trio of diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure.[2] Fast forward a couple of centuries and the main threat facing a mountaineer is the face he looks at in the mirror every morning. In the immortal words of the comic strip Pogo, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”The singular question any intelligent and curious observer is left with is: Why?Or, in other words: What happened to the Appalachia of yesteryear? Who’s responsible for its decline? How did it come to this?

The best answers I can provide are, respectively: it’s dead; the Federal government; and the inevitable progress of the welfare state."

I know most of you aren't into the American anthropology thing like I am, but I think you'll really enjoy this article. Thanks to the Baron at GOV for sharing this.

ET, Put Down Those Rosary Beads and Phone Home!

This article by Michael Snyder is a little on the wild side. Who knows what mysteries are chronicled in the vast book repository at the Vatican?

So what would happen someday if “aliens” showed up and claimed that they seeded life on this planet, guided our evolution and are now here to lead us into a new golden age?

And what would happen if the Catholic Church gave those aliens their stamp of approval?

That sounds absolutely bizarre, but there are very important Vatican officials that are apparently thinking very hard about these things.

  

 H/T: Dean Garrison at the DC Clothesline

Genetics and Anthropology: Subjects For A Snowy Day

Mycenaean art.

Golden hair in unusual places.

Travels in Ethiopia.

Ancestral ghosts.

“Nothing in history makes sense except in light of demography.” 

"What the researcher above captured was a snapshot in time, freezing a moment which was transitory, as the ancient substrate of Southeast Asia was absorbed into the advancing wave of farmers. One could go on in this vein. We know so much more than we did in the past, and not to be hyperbolic, but some of what we know suspect resembles Conan the Barbarian more than the wildest imaginings of prehistorians of the past generation. But that’s one of the great things about scholarship: it can confound pedestrian expectations. And on occasion which captures the ineffable aspects of truth obscured should astound us"

It's interesting that Razib Khan, one of my favorite smart guys, is now blogging at The Unz Review.  I wish him continued success.

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