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From: Bonnie Schrack <>
Subject: Re: [DNA] RE: Sloan's Thesis as to the Origin of English People
Date: Fri, 02 Jun 2006 23:06:05 -0400


Hi Gareth and Sam,

This is an intriguing topic. What is extremely frustrating about
Matthew Leeming's website is that there is a great deal of promotion for
his 2003 expedition, for which he wanted funding, but whether it took
place, we hear nothing, and I have not been able to find any report of
results of this proposed -- and most interesting -- study.

Maybe the conditions in Afghanistan became too dangerous for the study
to go forward.

I did find this nice page at Wikipedia on the Nuristanis:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuristani

They are also mentioned here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_people

If Sam managed to spend time there, he certainly was fortunate.
Isolated and remote mountain villages inhabited by unique cultural
groups speaking endangered languages, these are the places I dream of
visiting.

If anyone manages to find any results of this proposed expedition, I
would surely like to hear about it. Apparently there was related DNA
testing that went on in 2002, in Macedonia and probably other places, in
connection with the legends about Alexander. An article on that said
the BBC was going to publish something on it.

As far as this region, don't forget the Quintana-Murci study, Where West
Meets East: The Complex mtDNA Landscape of the Southwest and Central
Asian Corridor, in which they sampled the mtDNA of:

50 Turkisha -- Anatolia, Turkey -- Altaic language

58 Caucasusa -- Georgia (north/south) -- Caucasian language

42 Persian -- Central and southern central Iran --
Indo-European language
40 Turkish -- Mostly eastern and western Azerbaijan --
Altaic language
37 Gilaki -- Northern Iran, southwestern Caspian Sea area --
Indo-European language
21 Mazandarian -- Northern Iran, southeastern Caspian Sea area --
Indo-European language
20 Kurdish -- Western Iran -- Indo-European language

17 Lur -- Southwestern Iran (Zagros Mountains) -- Indo-European
language
39 Baluch -- Southwestern Pakistan, Baluchistan -- Indo-European
language
38 Brahui -- Southwestern Pakistan, Baluchistan -- Dravidian
language
44 Parsi -- Southeastern Pakistan, Karachi -- Indo-European language
23 Sindhi -- Southeastern Pakistan, Sindhi -- Indo-European language
100 Pakistania -- Karachi, Southeastern Pakistan -- Indo-European
language
44 Pathan -- North West Frontier Province and Balochistan --
Indo-European language
33 Makrani -- South Pakistan, Makran Coast -- Indo-European language
23 Hazara -- North West Frontier Province and Balochistan --
Indo-European language
44 Hunza Burusho -- Northern Pakistan, Karakorum Mountains --
Language isolate
44 Kalash -- North West Frontier Province -- Indo-European language
34 Gujarati -- Northwestern India, Gujarat -- Indo-European language
42 Uzbek -- Surkhandarya, Uzbekistan -- Altaic language
41 Turkmen -- Turkmenistan -- Altaic language
32 Kurdish -- Turkmenistan -- Indo-European language
44 Shugnan -- High Pamirs, Tajikistan -- Indo-European language

Here is what I would like to find out: the web pages say that the people
formerly known as Kafirs (which means infidels) became known as
Nuristanis (Nuristan means land of light) because they "were forcibly
converted to Islam during the rule of 'Iron' Amir Abdur Rahman" in
1895. What I want to know is what their religion was, before this
forced conversion.

Bonnie

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