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Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2007-11 > 1195613762


From: "Lawrence Mayka" <>
Subject: Re: [DNA] PLOS Genetics: admixture study of European Americans
Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2007 20:56:02 -0600
In-Reply-To: <bd0.1f3fb584.3474341f@aol.com>


Another case of the abstract not matching the data. The abstract pretends
that (north)eastern Europeans such as Poles simply do not exist in the
American population, or that they are fully described as a mixture of
northwest Europeans, southeastern Europeans, and Ashkenazi Jews. Needless
to say, this makes no sense whatsoever, as yDNA and mtDNA statistics show.

But the text of the article carries the real truth:
---
We note that Spain occupies an intermediate position between northwest and
southeast Europe, while Poland lies close to Sweden and UK, supporting a
recent suggestion that the northwest-southeast axis could alternatively be
interpreted as a north-southeast axis [8].
---

In other words, the incorrectly named "northwest" Europe is simply northern
Europe--all of it. This is a crucial distinction! The nomenclature of
"northwest" Europe vs. southeastern Europe is a transparent attempt to frame
Europe as Paleolithic Nordics and Celts vs. Neolithic Mediterraneans,
whereas the data suggests that all of northern Europe constitutes one large
gene pool of ambiguous or mixed origin.

Shockingly, the authors' method of classification contradicts their own
data:
---
A subset of these samples self-reported their ancestry by indicating one or
more of the following: "Scandinavian", "Northern European", "Central
European", "Eastern European", "Southern European", "East Mediterranean", or
"Ashkenazi Jewish"; we simplified this classification as follows:
individuals indicating one or more of "Scandinavian", "Northern European",
or "Central European" with no other ancestries were reclassified as
"IBD-NWreport", individuals indicating one or more of "Eastern European",
"Southern European", or "East Mediterranean" with no other ancestries were
reclassified as "IBD-SEreport", individuals indicating "Ashkenazi Jewish"
were reclassified as "IBDAJreport" regardless of other ancestries...
---

In other words, Polish-Americans who classified themselves as Eastern
European were insultingly "simplified" into Southeastern Europeans, whereas
Polish-Americans who classified themselves as Central European were
insultingly "simplified" into Northwestern Europeans. Or to put it another
way, the authors' own method pre-assumes their intended conclusion.

> [mailto:] On Behalf Of
>
..
> Here, we
> investigate empirical patterns of population structure in
> European Americans,
> analyzing 4,198 samples from four genome-wide association
> studies to show that
> components roughly corresponding to northwest European,
> southeast European and
> Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry are the main sources of European
> American population
> structure.


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