BAMAD no.24
Brit-Am
DNA and
Anthropology Updates
Updates in DNA studies along with Anthropological Notes of general interest with a particular emphasis on points pertinent to the study of Ancient Israelite Ancestral Connections to Western Peoples as explained in Brit-Am studies.
Brit-Am
Research
Revelation
Reconciliation
The Brit-Am Rose
Official Symbol of Brit-Am
1. Deception Detection
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040731/bob8.asp
Psychologists try to learn how to spot a liar
Carrie Lock
2. DNA: Are Amerindians and Welshmen
Related?
An interesting article followed by equally interesting discussion not overduly
encumbered by technical terminology
Wales, England, Cornwall, genetics....
http://www.gnxp.com/MT2/archives/001140.html
Extract:
Recent research shows that the Y-chromosome genetic markers M45 and M173 are
found in many Siberian and Native American populations, those markers being
common amongst the Irish and Welsh as well.
3. More than 10% of Lebanese Christians
of West European Origin
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article3635086.ece
Crusaders sowed seeds of modern Beirut
Mark Henderson, Science Editor
The genetic legacy of the Crusades can be seen today in the chromosomes of
Lebanese Christian men, according to new research that shows many have a
European ancestry.
A disproportionate number of the Middle Eastern country's Christian men carry a
Y chromosome that is clearly of Western European origin, which scientists
believe was carried to the region by Crusaders and pilgrims between the 11th and
13th centuries.
This genetic signature is more often seen among Christians, and more rarely in
Lebanon?s Muslim or Druze communities. The Y chromosomes of many Muslim men
trace their ancestry to earlier migrations from the Arabian Peninsula, as Islam
spread during the 7th and 8th centuries.
The findings, from a study of 926 Lebanese men, show how human movements that
are known from historical records can be detected in modern DNA. They suggest
that both Christian and Muslim communities in Lebanon owe their origins, at
least in part, to different founding events, which may have influenced the
development of different religious traditions. All three of the main Lebanese
ethnic groups, however, still share many more genetic similarities than they
have differences, the study found.
Pierre Zalloua, of the Lebanese American University in Beirut, who led the study
with Chris Tyler-Smith, of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute near Cambridge,
said: "This is the most careful and comprehensive study of these populations
ever undertaken, and it's revealed new insights into the complex history of my
country."
The research, which is published in the American Journal of Human Genetics,
focused on the male Y chromosome, which can be used to chart patrilineal
descent. While women have two X chromosomes, men have one X and one Y, and the Y
is always inherited from their fathers. As it is never paired with a partner, it
escapes a process called recombination that shuffles the code of every other
chromosome in each new individual. Like a surname, it is thus usually
transmitted intact in the male line from generation to generation, altered only
by rare spontaneous mutations.
These mutations can be used to identify categories of Y chromosome, known as
haplogroups. Men from the same haplogroup must have shared a common male
ancestor in the past.
The study, funded by the National Geographic Society's Genographic Project ,
found that 10 per cent of Lebanese Christian men belong to a Y haplogroup known
as R1b, which is of Western European origin. Just 6 per cent of nonChristians
had this kind of Y chromosome.
This indicates that more Christians than non-Christians have at least one male
ancestor from Western Europe, and fits with the region's history. More than
250,000 men from England, France, and what are now Germany and Italy travelled
to the Levant during the four Crusades between 1095 and 1204, and thousands
stayed to build and to garrison castles.
A more detailed look at Christians from the R1b haplogroup narrowed down the
geographical origins of their Crusader ancestors. One in five had a sub-type
known as WES, which is specific to Western Europe - particularly Germany, the
Low Countries and Burgundy, northern Italy, Spain and the British Isles. These
regions also provided the bulk of the Crusader armies.
A different Y chromosome haplogroup, J*, was found to be present in 25 per cent
of Muslim men, compared with 15 per cent of Christians and Druze. This
haplogroup is of Arabian origin, and probably reached Lebanon during the Islamic
expansions of the 7th and 8th centuries.
The scientists found the Druze have a higher number of men belonging to
haplogroup E3b, which is of Middle Eastern and North African origin.
Brit-Am Note:
A letter to the
GENEALOGY-DNA list
http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/GENEALOGY-DNA/2008-03/1206661946
by Ken Nordtvedt contests the specificity to Western Europe of the WES mentioned
according to available data.
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