The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum #5

=> Reexmining The Genetics of Modern Assyrians Article

Reexmining The Genetics of Modern Assyrians Article
Posted by Anonymous (Guest) - Thursday, February 23 2012, 8:13:39 (UTC)
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"For most of that period Assyrians existed as a Christian minority in non-Christian majority populations, and adherence to their religion, abundantly documented in the historical record, would have provided a "genetic barrier" to gene flow from external groups. In analyzing other groups in similar situations, Cavalli-Sforza et al. arrived at this opinion: "The important conclusion is that the genetic origin of groups that have been surrounded for a long time by populations of different genetic type can be recognized as different only if they have maintained a fairly rigid endogamy [ marriage within the group] for most or all the period in which they have been in contact with other groups," although genes contributed by external groups ("gene flow") can be tolerated for many centuries or even millennia by a population, provided they are not on a large scale. Later in this article we will see an analogous situation with Jews, where a religious difference allowed them to maintain their genetic characteristics as a minority over many centuries while living among non-Jewish majority populations. In any case, the data provide unequivocal evidence that Assyrians as a people are distinguishable from all other population groups in their genetic characteristics and are not a part of any other population."

If you read this carefully, you'd know exactly what Professor L.L. Cavalli-Sforza was explicating by this quote.

"The important conclusion is that the genetic origin of groups that have been surrounded for a long time by populations of different genetic type can be recognized as different only if they have maintained a fairly rigid endogamy [ marriage within the group] for most or all the period in which they have been in contact with other groups," although genes contributed by external groups ("gene flow") can be tolerated for many centuries or even millennia by a population, provided they are not on a large scale."

In other words, Assyrian people can be genetically differentiated on the basis of their endogamy. Because they have been copulating with members their ethnic group for centuries, incrementally accruing cumulative homogeneity over time. However, this doesn't mean we lack admixture at all. As Professor Luca stated, genes can be tolerated for a long time, provided that gene flow isn't received on a large scale.

The keyword here is large scale, so small scale admixture cannot be precluded.

There's another quote I want to share, that seems to be purposely opted out by Nationalists.

"In point of fact, however, all of the seven populations of interest are quite close to each other. There are no wide separations between any of them. This despite the fact that they contain members of three major language families: Indo-European (Iranian, Kurdish), Turkic (Turkish) and Semitic (Iraqi, Jordanian, Lebanese - Arabic; Assyrian - Aramaic). As the authors state, "In spite of the complex history of the Middle East and the great number of internal group migrations revealed by history, as well as the mosaic of cultures and languages, the region is relatively homogeneous" [genetically]."

So while Assyrians can be delineated with regard to their DNA profiles, the genetic boundaries being drawn here shouldn't be thought of as austere. All the groups being surveyed in this study are all and I repeat, all related. This may seem counterintuitive and unorthodox, but that is the truth. During prehistory, the Middle East was home to hunter-gatherers that sojourned from Africa. These hunter-gatherers formed tribes, and those tribes were a catalyst in the development of ethnic groups.

When you think about, an ethnic group is nothing more then the extension of tribal affiliations, which we superficially assign to ourselves. These labels have no objective meaning at all. Because in the end, we're all kin. And we shouldn't let such petty, transient differences separate us.



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