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Archiver > GENBRIT > 2006-01 > 1137570317
From:
Subject: Re: Most recent common ancestors
Date: 17 Jan 2006 23:45:17 -0800
References: <1137338990.456458.231910@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com> <mo4ms15t5bs77ev0ds8bhs690882gdmb15@4ax.com> <1137393583.764351.82280@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com> <dqfnp4$11q$1@newsg4.svr.pol.co.uk> <1137537283.462245.280940@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> <dqk8dk$api$1@news6.svr.pol.co.uk>
In-Reply-To: <dqk8dk$api$1@news6.svr.pol.co.uk>
Rob wrote:
> Bronwen,
>
> Do not Inuit's come from Iceland? Is Iceland not a part of Europe?
There are no inuits in Iceland but Iceland is part of Europe.
Inuits live in Greenland, a North American country.
> As for Vikings in America's there is a growing belief due to artefactual
> recovery that the Vikings more by error than attempts landed in the US there
> are also a few claims that the Romans did but we scotch on that idea.
>
> Yes I knew about the Skull that was believed to be from Early Japanese
> tribes.
>
> As for sickle cell I stand corrected.
>
> Yes I was referring to the recent discoveries of Mongolian geno types found
> in some native Americans.
>
> Rob
>
> <> wrote in message
> news:...
> >I am not sure what you mean by "Mongolian blood" unless you are
> > referring to the recent tracing of some Native American genotypes to a
> > particular valley in Mongolia. It is also true that the blood types of
> > Mongolians and that of Native Americans are completely different. What
> > Viking connections? There are many Scandinavian-Native American
> > communities today in the Western Subarctic but they do not derive from
> > the time of the Vikings.
> >
> > "Race" is a social construct not a biological fact. When a skull, for
> > example, is identified as "Caucasian" or "African" forensically, the
> > reference is to which modern gene pool the skull most closely resembles
> > rather than to "race" - especially since skulls from racially mixed
> > people may favor one genetic line over the other. A recent controversy
> > has existed over the "racial" identity of "Kennewick Man", found in the
> > state of Washington. Because the skull was different from those of
> > modern Native Americans, the press ran off with the incorrect
> > assumption that it was "Caucasian" (therefore, "white" people were in
> > American earlier than "Indians"). In fact, the skull did not resemble
> > that of Modern Europeans, either. It most closely resembled the Ainu,
> > aboriginal populations of Japan and Sakhalin Island. The Ainu and the
> > "Indians" of the Northwest Coast were known to be in contact prior to
> > the arrival of Europeans in the area.
> >
> > As for sickle cell trait, you are incorrect to restrict the population
> > to the Caribbean area. The cell is found among all African groups,
> > inside and outside of Africa, and, as well, is found in some American
> > Indians, Europeans and South Pacific Islanders. It appears to have
> > conferred some degree of protection against malaria originally. Of
> > course, it might also appear in people with mixed ancestry and could
> > lead to illness if both parents have ancestors from an affected grouo
> > and carry the trait. I never suggested that all humans are of a single
> > gene pool; a gene pool is more local and accounts for the existence of
> > specific traits (think of Huntington's chorea for example). I only said
> > that humans are a single species and subspecies - if you believe that
> > is untrue, tell me what human subspecies you know about?
> >
> > How do you figure that Siberia and Alaska were ever European? Europeans
> > have had a notoriously difficult time establishing any sort of foothold
> > in either place. See my earlier post about the connection between
> > Siberian and Alaskan Inuit people and the *ancient* boat technology
> > that they used. There is a reason why the umiak, kayak and shark-bowed
> > Aleut watercraft are still around and are the still the best technology
> > for their areas. The USSR used to complain about how it was able to
> > assimilate non-Russian ethnic groups throughout their claimed territory
> > except in the Siberian region. It seems that when they put up their red
> > tents on the tundra in the middle of an aboriginal community, they
> > would get up one morning and find themselves alone. They never
> > successfully assimilated these people. If you go to the Native villages
> > in Arctic and Subarctic US and Canada, you will find that while many
> > foreign objects and ideas have been accepted by the Native people, they
> > are generally less assimilated than Native people elsewhere in North
> > America. At the time the US "bought" Alaska from Russia, neither
> > government would have been capable of governing it without the help of
> > aboriginal people. In World War II, Inuit women worked in factories to
> > make parkas for the US military because it was the most effective
> > outerwear in the climate. Just google the genome project - it's not a
> > secret. Most of it is dedicated, however, to the medical benefits of
> > mapping the human genome and only incidentally to the geographic
> > mapping of traits. - Bronwen
> >
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