Racial admixture in Northern Europeans Mongol strain:has been known for a long time that the Sámi, or Lapp, people of Northern Scandinavia are of Northern Asiatic origin, and that they have mixed heavily with Nordic elements to produce a wide variety of physical types, all of whom claim to be Sámi. This has been further complicated by the Sámi's own definition of their group as 'anyone with one Sámi ancestor" leading to a large number of what would otherwise be indistinguishable Nordic types claiming to be members of the Sámi tribe.
In chapter 24 of this book, mention was made of this Sámi group, along with some illustrations. Here are some more examples of Sámi:
Above: Sámi physical types vary from (left) overtly Nordic; slightly Mongoloid (center) and overtly Mongoloid (right).
Above: A meeting of the Sámi parliament in Finland appears to be dominated by Nordic looking types.
The Sámi are however small in number: it is estimated that currently there are only about 75,000 Sámi in all, spread over Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.
Total Population No. of Sámi
Norway 4,534,996 40,000
Sweden 8,924,000 15-25,000
Finland 5,185,492 6,500
Russia 143,671,873 2,000
(Population statistics from The Online Population Index Counter, US Census Bureau,
http://www.anthro.mankato.msus.edu/information/population/ and "The Sámi in Finland"
http://virtual.finland.fi/finfo/english/saameng.html)
It is thus clear that Finland has the lowest number of Sámi of the Scandinavian countries. Yet it is precisely Finland where it is claimed that the largest amount of Northern Asiatic genetic input has been.
This Northern Asiatic genetic input has been estimated to be as high as 55 percent in Finland, 8 percent in Norway, and 55 percent in Latvia and Lithuania. These estimates are based on the existence of a genetic marker, 'Tat-C' or 'Haplogroup N3', which, it is claimed, originated amongst Asiatic tribes in Siberia.
GENETIC ARGUMENTS IN FAVOR OF 'ASIATIC' ORIGIN OF TAT-C
Despite the latest research (see below) strongly suggesting that the "Tat-C" marker is actually a Paleolithic trace marker from an original Ice-Age population of North Eastern Europe, and not an exclusively Northern Asiatic trait, it is still worthwhile to overview the the presumption that Tat-C is an Asiatic marker.
So for example, in a report prepared titled Dual Origins of Finns Revealed by Y Chromosome Haplotype Variation by Rick Kittles et. al. and published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, Volume 62, pages 1171-1179, in 1998, it is asserted that Finns have a dual origin: European and Asian:
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AJHG/journal/issues/v62n5/970788/970788.text.html American Journal of Human Genetics, 62:1171-1179, 1998
0002-9297/98/6205-0023
Dual Origins of Finns Revealed by Y Chromosome Haplotype Variation
Rick A. Kittles, Markus Perola, Leena Peltonen, Andrew W. Bergen, Richard A. Aragon, Matti Virkkunen, Markku Linnoila, David Goldman, and Jeffrey C. Long
Received December 5, 1997; accepted for publication March 13, 1998; electronically published April 17, 1998.
Summary
Thus, mixed or dual origins for the Finns have been proposed. Here we present genetic evidence for the dual origins of Finns by evaluating the pattern of Y chromosome variation in 280 unrelated males from nine Finnish provinces.
The geographic distribution and time of expansion for the two common Y haplotypes correlate well with archeological evidence for two culturally and geographically distinct groups of settlers. Also, a northeastern to southwestern gradient of Y haplotype frequencies provides convincing evidence for recent male migration from rural areas into urban Finland.
Compound haplotypes were constructed by use of seven Y-specific microsatellite loci, a restriction site at the Y alphoid satellite DYZ3 locus (Santos et al. 1995), and a deletion polymorphism at the DYF155S2 locus (Jobling et al. 1996) for 280 unrelated males from nine Finnish provinces. The deletion polymorphism is common in populations with Asian ancestry and has been observed in Finland at a frequency of 55% (Jobling et al. 1996). Y chromosome compound haplotypes constructed by use of these Y-specific loci are extremely informative for population genetic studies, mainly because of the high mutation rates of microsatellite loci, their paternal/clonal inheritance, and an effective population size, 25% that of autosomes. Here we present genetic evidence in support of two independent groups of settlers founding Finland, one from Asia and the other from Europe.
Three distinct haplogroups were observed. Haplogroup A is the largest (55%), and all members of this group of haplotypes share the DYF155S2 deletion polymorphism associated with several Asian populations (Jobling et al. 1996). Haplogroups B and C do not possess the deletion, but are defined by the presence or absence of the HindIII restriction site at the DYZ3 locus. Haplogroup B, the second largest group of haplotypes (29%), possesses the restriction site. Haplogroup B is phylogenetically complex and is composed of four subgroups. All four subgroups are found in other European populations (unpublished data).
Figure 2 (above) depicts the geographic distribution of haplotypes A/49 and B/69. Interestingly, haplotype A/49 was found in highest frequency in the eastern provinces of Northern Karelia, Kuopio, and Kymi. The most striking of these provinces is Northern Karelia, where 50% of males possess haplotype A/49, whereas only 2% possess haplotype B/69. The opposite pattern is observed in the southwest.
Haplotype A/49 is restricted to Finland and has not been found in other Scandinavian populations (unpublished data). The other common Y haplotype (B/69) lacks the deletion polymorphism and is observed in other European populations. From the geographical distribution and molecular divergence of haplotypes A/49 and B/69, we conclude that they represent two major founding Y chromosome lineages in Finland.
Our results argue against the single-origin model. Specifically, we find evidence that the initial group of settlers provided a substantial contribution (55%) to the present Finnish Y chromosome gene pool. These settlers were of Asian ancestry and were followed by a second, genetically distinct wave of settlers. This second group, possessing haplogroup B, may have arrived in Finland with the wave of agriculturists who shaped much of the genetic landscape of Europe (Sajantila and Paabo 1995). These estimates are consistent with archeological data that suggest that the first settlers were Uralic speakers who arrived 4,000 years ago (Fodor and Czeizel 1991) and that a later group settled along the southern shores 2,000 years ago (Luho 1976).
Full article at:
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AJHG/journal/issues/v62n5/970788/970788.text.html A study by Jeffrey Lell et, al, titled The Dual Origin and Siberian Affinities of Native American Y Chromosomes, published in the American Journal, of Human Genetics, volume 70, pages 192-206, in 2002, asserted that the 'Tat-C' marker was 'Siberian' in origin:
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AJHG/journal/issues/v70n1/013099/013099.text.html Am. J. Hum. Genet., 70:192-206, 2002,
The American Society of Human Genetics.
The Dual Origin and Siberian Affinities of Native American Y Chromosomes '
Jeffrey T. Lell, et. al.
The Tat-C haplogroup was observed at significant frequencies in each of the southern Middle Siberian populations studied. Surprisingly, it reached its highest frequency in the Siberian Eskimos and Chukchi from the Chukotkan peninsula. The Tat-C haplogroup was absent in the Lower Amur and Sea of Okhotsk region populations that have maintained greater geographic and/or linguistic isolation (e.g., the Udegeys, Nivkhs, and Upriver Negidals) and was only detected in the populations likely to have had recent contact or shared origins with the populations of southern Middle Siberia (e.g., the Okhotsk Evenks, Ulchi/Nanai, and Downriver Negidals). Because the Tat-C polymorphism originated on a Y chromosome containing the DYS7C deletion (haplogroup 7C), which was present only in the Middle Siberian Tuvans, Buryats, Tofalars, and Yenisey Evenks, the Tat-C haplogroup probably entered the Lower Amur and eastern Siberia from southern Middle Siberia. This conclusion is consistent with the previous hypothesis that the Tat-C and 7C haplogroups arose in central Asia and migrated west to northern Europe and east to Chukotka (Zerjal et al. 1997).
On this basis, the assumption has been made that around 55% of Finnish Y Chromosomes, 47% of Lithuanian Y Chromosomes, 32% of Latvian Y-Chromosomes, 37% of Lithuanian Y-Chromosomes, and 5.7% of Norwegian Y-Chromosomes are 'Asiatic' in origin.
As Y-Chromosomes make up, in theory, just under half of an individuals' DNA (the other two components being autosomal DNA, inherited from both parents and mtDNA, inherited only from the maternal line), this would imply that up to 27 percent of Finns, 24% of Lithuanians, 16% of Latvians and 2.6% of Norwegians could be of mixed ancestry.
This assertion has been given credence by the existence of some obviously mixed Nordic-Asiatic types which do exist in North Eastern Europe: for example, these two specimens from Sweden and Russia:
Illustrations from HFK Günther's "Racial Elements of European History", Methuen & Co. 1927
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LATEST RESEARCH REJECTS ASIATIC ORIGIN OF TAT-C
However, the situation is not as simple as might seem. In reality, recent research indicates that the 'Tat-C' marker could well have been an original Caucasian Paleolithic marker of a Ice Age or Pre-Ice Age population, which spread west, and not east.
The foremost proponent of this belief is the Estonian professor of evolutionary biology Richard Villems, who explained the origin of Tat-C in an article titled "The Finno-Ugric connection, genetics-wise, could be bigger than imagined", published in the Helsingin Sanomat, International Edition, Tuesday 30.1.2001 ):
http://www.helsinki-hs.net/news.asp?id=20010130IE4 The Finno-Ugric connection, genetics-wise, could be bigger than imagined
Even the Balts are relatives, despite their language
By Jukka Rislakki in Tallinn
The latest genetics research indicates that we Finns have a great many "relatives" out there in Eastern Europe and Siberia, and that these peoples share a common ancestor who was apparently Finno-Ugric in origin. At the same time, it would seem that the Estonians are genetically closer to their Latvian neighbours than they are to their linguistic relatives the Finns.
All the "ancient East Europeans" - the group does not include the Slavic tribes, who only turned up around 1400 years ago - have a 40 to 50% incidence of a common paternal genetic inheritance, in other words a unique male Y-chromosome polymorph, according to the Estonian academician and professor of evolutionary biology Richard Villems.
The ancient East European races in this context refers to the Balts, the Finns, the Sámi peoples of Lapland, and other races related to the Finno-Ugric stock.
Man emerged originally from Africa, but it is possible that the "Adam" of East European man, or at least one of the Adams, was a Finno-Ugrian, says Villems. In addition to his duties at the University of Tartu, the 56-year-old Villems is Director of the Estonian Biocentre.
"Although the Balts (the Latvians and Lithuanians) each speak an Indo-European language, unlike us Finno-Ugrians, they exhibit this chromosome pattern roughly as often as do the Finns, the Karelians, the Estonians, the Sámi, and other Finno-Ugrian groups", Villems argues.
In this respect the Balts differ from other Indo-Europeans, whether they may speak Slavic, Germanic, or Romance languages.
The remainder of the paternal line comes from the West. On the maternal side, our genetic history ties us inextricably with the Western Europeans. Estonians have only 0.5% Mongol lineage and the Finns around 1%, with the Sámi showing a slightly larger incidence.
The peculiar Y chromosomal DNA variant, known as Tat C, is also dominant in almost all the indigenous peoples of Siberia, from the nomadic Yakuts right across to the Chukchis and Siberian Inuits living on the shores of the Bering Strait - regardless of what language they may communicate in.
According to Prof. Villems, the "point" in all this is that among the Finno-Ugric races of Europe this genetic inheritance is much more diverse, more multibranched, and hence apparently older than among any of the Siberian peoples.
It is characteristic of the European Finno-Ugrians both in the area of the Baltic Sea and in the Volga region (the ethnic Maris living in the Mari Republic east of Nizhni-Novgorod and west of the Urals). "It is an original Finn-Ugric feature. We have observance of between 35 and 60%, or about half of the paternal inheritance, and it has penetrated to some extent into Norway and rather less to Sweden."
The figures for Poles, Slovaks, and Hungarians are already very very small, however, and in Western and Mediterranean Europe they go right down to zero."
Researchers at Oxford also spotted the spread of this "Northern Gene" three years ago. Villems shrugs his shoulders, "But they simply accepted the old theory: they believed it confirmed the idea that the Finno-Ugric tribes originated from Siberia."
Villems asserts that the contrary is true, however: the movement was one from west to east and not westwards from Siberia. He argues that the genetic variant could have been transported for instance by warriors. "And at the same time they could possibly have carried the proto Finno-Ugric language with them".
The same gene morphism has been found from the Inuits of Greenland. On seeing how this mutation has spread right the way across the northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere and nowhere else, the professor has started to wonder if we might be dealing with a gene that somehow helps us to acclimatise ourselves - to withstand extreme cold.
He also believes that our Finno-Ugrian ancestors might well have been living here a good while before the last Ice Age (around 20,000 years ago). "They could perhaps have arrived even at the same sort of time as the first great wave of migration as man spread into Europe some 40,000 years ago."
There were people living the whole time along the southern fringes of the continental ice mass. When the ice sheets were was at their most extensive, the Finno-Ugric tribe would have lived for some time down in the region between the Don and Dniester rivers, in what is now part of the Ukraine. Radio carbon dating studies show that this area was more densely settled during the Ice Age than it was either before or afterwards.
Professor Villems sides with those scholars of linguistics who claim that the original Finno-Ugric tongue was spoken widely through Northern Europe - in Fenno-Scandia and the Baltic region all the way down to the German coast. "This fits the picture very well."
Languages change immeasurably more quickly than do features of genetic inheritance. Villems regards it as a given that our common genetic identity emerged well before the Indo-European language that is spoken by the Latvians and the Lithuanians.
More advanced grain cultivating cultures and the Indo-European language strain gradually penetrated into the north. They never made it up to the coldest areas. The language boundary remained where it is today: between Estonia and Latvia.
But the gene frontier would have none of this. "One could say that the Estonians are genetically a shade closer to the Karelians and to the Latvians - at least to the northern Latvians - than they are to the Finns, from whom they are divided by the Gulf of Finland. In this way the Estonians also have a tad more of the Central European about them."
Amongst the Latvians one can of course also see the influence of the Livonian Knights (the crusading order that conquered and converted this area in the 13th century). But what is perhaps most bizarre of all is that even the Lithuanians have much the same frequency of occurrence of that Y chromosome as do the Estonians and the Finns.
"Just across the border in Poland, however, it disappears abruptly. There's a very striking genetic frontier there, in spite of the fact that the two nations are neighbours with nothing much in the way of rivers or mountain ranges to prevent access either way, and they have even lived under the same rulers for centuries!"
The same paradox exists to the south-east: the Balts and the Belarussians have a similar genetic wall between them, and the frequency of the Y chromosome mutation in Belarus is very low.
"This sort of thing gets one thinking about how people behaved. Apparently the societies were very clearly separated. I mean, the gene would have travelled in a flash if the soldiers from one group had raped the women of another, for instance."
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 24.1.2001
Note the research which Professor Villems quotes which states that Finns have "less than one percent" Mongol ancestry.
The Russian Journal of Genetics (
http://www.maik.rssi.ru/cgi-bin/journal.pl?name=geneng&page=main) Editor in Chief, Georgii P. Georgiev, Institute of Gene Biology, Moscow, Russia, in its March 2003 edition, observed that no definite conclusion could be made as to the racial origin of Tat-C, and confirmed that it could well be a Caucasoid marker spread amongst several racial groupings:
http://www.maik.rssi.ru/cgi-bin/search.pl?type=abstract&name=geneng&number=3&year=2&page=309 Russian Journal of Genetics 38(3): 309-314; Mar 2002
Polymorphism of the Y-Chromosome Diallelic Loci
in Ethnic Groups of the AltaiSayan Region
M. V. Derenko, B. A. Malyarchuk, G. A. Denisova, Ch. M. Dorzhu, O. N. Karamchakova, F. A. Luzina, E. A. Lotosh, I. K. Dambueva, U. N. Ondar, and I. A. Zakharov
Received April 10, 2001
Abstract—Using the data on five diallellic Y-chromosome loci (DYS199, 92R7, SRY1532, RBF5, and DYS287) polymorphism, genetic structures of the five Turkic-speaking ethnic groups of the Altai–Sayan upland (Tuvin-ians, Sojots, Shorians, Khakassians, and Southern Altaians (Altai-Kizhi), were described. The gene pools of the populations examined were characterized by the presence of pronounced paleo-Caucasoid component (92R7-T-lineages). The frequency of this component increased westward, reaching more than 70% in Shorians and Southern Altaians. Haplotype TAT-C (RBF5 locus) was observed
Ethnic groups of the Altai-Sayan region are different in respect of their anthropological features, though they share the prevalence of Turkic language and culture in their genesis. The formation of the indigenous anthropological type of the Altai-Sayan upland is traced back to the Neolithic and characterized by intense admixture of the European and Mongoloid groups. In most indigenous people of the region, namely, Southern Altaians, Tuvinians from the steppe regions, and some groups of Khakassians, the most Mongoloid, Central Asian type prevails. This type is a complex racial genetic structure, the origin of which traces back to the Mongoloid groups that underwent admixture at different periods of time (from the ancient times to the late Middle Ages). In respect of their anthropologic features, Shorians along with some Ugric and Samoyed peoples are typical representatives of the Uralic race. The features of the Uralic race, occupying intermediate position between large Mongoloid and Caucasoid races, can be also observed among Northern Altaians and some of the Khakassian groups [1-3].
Haplotype 3, defined by the TAT-C allele and found in 14.6% of Tuvinians, 5.4% of Altaians, 11.8% of Sojots, and 18.8% of Khakassians, cannot be unambiguously attributed to either Mongoloid or Caucasoid lineages. It is established that TAT-C allele of the RBF5 locus is distributed predominantly in Northern Eurasia.
Maximum frequencies of this allele were observed in Yakuts (86%), Buryats from Mongolia (52%), and also in such Finno-Ugric peoples as Finns (61%), Estonians (37%), and Maris (33%) [12, 17]. The TAT-C allele was also found in populations of the Volga-Ural region with the frequencies varying from 9% in Mordovians to 68% in Udmurts [26]. Zerial et al. suggested that this mutation first arose in the populations of Asia and then dispersed over the territory of Northern Europe reaching Finland, which can indicate substantial genetic contribution of Mongoloids to the development of Northern European peoples [17]. These authors also advanced an alternative hypothesis concerning the origin of the TAT-C allele. Specifically, high frequency of the ancestral, in respect of the TAT-C allele, Y-chromosome variant LLY22g-A (17%) revealed in Maris is considered to be the evidence of the emergence of the TAT-C allele in this particular population [12]. The presence of the TAT-C allele in the Russian gene pool with frequencies varying from 15 to 21% is explained by the presence of considerable proportion of the Finno-Ugric and/or Turkic admixture in the modern Russians [17, 27].
Since in Tuvinians the tribe attribution is determined down the male lineage, it is thus possible to correlate the information on the origin of certain tribal groups with the Y-chromosome variants. For instance, the carriers of the TAT-C allele in Tuvinian population are the representatives of the Irgit tribe. This allele was found in the five of six members of the tribe examined. In addition, this allele is a marker for Y chromosomes in the representatives of three other tribes, namely, the Turkic by its origin Oorzhak tribe and two Mongolian tribes (Salchak and Mongush). Thereby, TAT-C haplotype in the Tuvinian gene pool may be either of Turkic, or of Mongolian descent. Some authors also suggest the Samoyedic origin of the Irgit tribe [28]. This in turn can serve as a confirmation of the Finno-Ugric origin of the TAT-C allele. The use of a combined approach based on the analysis of Y-chromosome diallelic and microsatellite loci variation along with the inclusion in the analysis of other Turkic and Finno-Ugric populations would provide detailed estimation of the contributions of different by the descent components to the gene pool of the present-day population of the region examined
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Some other important points to consider about Tat-C:
- There is, contrary to what one would expect if Tat-C was an exclusive Asiatic marker, no north-south frequency gradient of the Tat C allele from the Lapps to the Lithuanians; instead there is a sharp east-west cline both in Scandinavia and on the Baltic area. (Rootsi et al. 2000: 152). In other words, if Tat-C was a purely Asiatic marker, its gradient should run from North to South - but it does not, as even the Kittles report (above) showed.
- Mongoloid admixture in NE Europe and Tat-C are two separate, not-necessarily related issues. There is no doubt some Mongoloid admixture in NE Europe (as indicated by the presence of low levels of East Asian mtDNA). But, as Professor Villems has pointed out (above), there is reason to question if Tat-C actually originated in Mongoloids. In addition, Tat-C levels are not well correlated with levels of Mongoloid admixture.
- Even if Tat-C originated in Siberia, this doesn't necessarily mean that it is a Mongoloid trait. As the skeletal evidence has clearly shown, some of the earliest populations of central and western Siberia were not Mongoloid at all, at least in the era prior to the expansion of Mongoloid races from the Far East.
- Tat-C is associated with both NE Europeans and Arctic Asians. Similarly, haplogroup HG26, ancestral to HG1, is found at very low levels in western Europeans, and relatively high levels in some Mongoloid groups. But this doesn't mean western Europeans are descended from Mongoloids. It means that Mongoloids and Europeans share a common male ancestor, and that a Y-chromosome with a newer mutation came to dominate among western Europeans.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion then, there are three potential scenarios to be drawn from this welter of evidence:
(1) Some northeastern Europeans descend almost totally from cold-adapted 'Caucasoids', any Mongoloid admixture being insignificant enough to have little effect on their phenotype;
(2) Some northeastern Europeans are a mix of 'Caucasoids' and an archaic Central Asian type intermediate between 'Caucasoids' and Mongoloids;
(3) Some northeastern Europeans derive large amounts of their ancestry from both 'Caucasoids' and evolved Mongoloids.
Based on current evidence, scenario (1) seems the most likely, although scenario (2) could also be possible. Scenario (3), although favored by those unfamiliar with the research around the dubious origins of Tat-C, is increasingly considered unlikely, and northeastern European pigmentation argues against significant Mongoloid admixture (and certainly rules out large amounts of recent Mongoloid admixture).
Finally, the reader is referred to a study by Guglielmino et. al., who found that Finns have a maximum 10% "Uralic" admixture, a number obtained by comparing Finns to Europeans and to some majority Caucasoid Uralic-speaking populations. Even this does not imply that Finns are 10 percent Mongoloid, merely that Finns are genetically closer to the Caucasoid component of some of the other "Uralic" groups than are most Europeans.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=2221031&dopt=Abstract 1: Am J Phys Anthropol. 1990 Sep;83(1):57-68
Uralic genes in Europe.
Guglielmino CR, Piazza A, Menozzi P, Cavalli-Sforza LL.
Dipartimento di Genetica e Microbiologia, Universita di Pavia, Italy.
We have analysed data of three European populations speaking non-Indoeuropean languages: Hungarians, Lapps, and Finns. Principal coordinate analysis shows that Lapps are almost exactly intermediate between people located geographically near the Ural mountains and speaking Uralic languages, and central and northern Europeans. Hungarians and Finns are definitely closer to Europeans. An analysis of genetic admixture between Uralic and European ancestors shows that Lapps are slightly more than 50% European, Hungarians are 87% European, and Finns are 90% European. There is basic agreement between these conclusions and historical data on Hungary. Less is known about Finns and very little about Lapps.
PMID: 2221031 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE
Topic: Racial Admixture in various European Populations (Read 10412 times)