Aug 20, 2008

We're All Georgians, Well Not Really

In case it was keeping you up at night, Slate.com offers an expliation of the age old question: do white people really come from the Caucasus?

The answer? "It's highly unlikely."

We have the Germans to thank for this dubious racial theory. Come to think of it, for a while, the Germans seemed to specialize in dubious racial theories.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Genetically on deep ancestry, yes, Europeans and other whites come from the Caucasus. Southern Europeans will show twice as much as northern Europeans. Originally mtDNA group U came from the Caucasus and they northern Europe. Later on farmers from there would settle in southern Europe. Germans are related also. Europeans are 10 to 30% related to people in the Caucasus. We still carry genetic markers in common with them. Many genetic testing companies have shown this to be true with National Geographic's Genographic project showing that's where we were for quite a while before coming into Europe and we would continue to come from there into Europe. These markers show up on Gedmatch when you run your raw data through from genetic testing companies.

Anonymous said...

I meant to say that U group settled in northern Europe from the Caucasus. Many scientists have shown this to be true. However, these were people living in the Caucasus thousands of years ago. I came in at 30% Caucasian and I'm Italian in ancestry. Even my northern European husband came in at 15%. All Europeans are part of the farmers from this area who either came in through Anatolia or went over the Black Sea into Europe. We all mixed in Europe. I'm not dark. I'm a pale northern Italian.