-Caveat Lector-
Here is a discussion between various geneticists on the gentic history of
the Jews.
Gentically, various dispersed groups have more in common than with their
gentile hosts.
Thus unless the Khazars were one of the lost tribes(no impossible), the Jews
are descendents of the biblical people, predominantly.
Ironically the same gentic tests also prove that the Jews are not
predominantly semites, but are more closely related to the
armenians.(remember that the middle east was a melting pot of various
peoples. Abrahams was from as mentioned in the bible came from near the
caucus mountains and the gentic ancestry also fits that pattern.
John
========================================================
Ken,
Thanks for the note. My problem is that I'm not an expert in the area, so
have to rely on the experts. Of course one cannot do this mindlessly, and
must pay attention to the methodological debates. As I see it, the Cavalli
school holds the high ground, at least for the time being. Also, as you
conclude in your note, selection and drift are probable factors. The point
is that when these are taken into account, not much room is left for
interbreeding. What is interesting with MacDonald's account is that it is
actually compatible with a degree of exogamy. His model has a strong
contingent element and it is an empirical question how much interbreeding
took place in each area.
Frank
>Thanks for the informative posting. I am short-term in the midst of
>something else, but I hope to have time to read the sources you provide.
> My only initial reactions are 1) I hesitate to dismiss ABO frequencies
>across the board as "selectively determined" when so many potential
>selective pressures have been purported to act upon the system and none
>are or have been global (or even pan-Old World) in scope; 2) a very
>sound explanation for the cline seen in the E=>W gradient in the B
>allele remains the degree of Mongol "penetration" of the local gene
>pools; 3) the movement of genes, memes, etc from NE Africa to the Middle
>East is well attested archaeologically and skeletally during the
>Neolithic and early Bronze periods at a time not too long prior to the
>establishment of the hierarchical and competing later Bronze/Iron Age
>systems in the Middle East; so that 4) any greater genetic clustering of
>Jews (some exceptions noted) with "Europeans", seems counterintuitive
>given the probable genetic origin of the Middle Eastern populations from
>which they derive. This clustering with European must then come from
>selection, drift or interbreeding. But you've given me food for
>thought. Thanks again -Ken
>
>Frank Salter wrote:
>>
>> Frank Salter here.
>>
>> I'm working on the concept of ethnicity, and recently reviewed the
evidence
>> of Jewish genetic identity. The literature I found (it might not be
>> exhaustive) strongly supports Kevin MacDonald's view that traditional
>> Judaism is a cultural group strategy that has resulted in the fairly
>> rigorous genetic segregation of its members.
>>
>> I began my review with the debate triggered by Morton et al.'s (1982)
>> target paper. Morton et al.'s results indicated a considerable amount of
>> admixture in Jewish populations. Their most effective critic was
>> Cavalli-Sforza, who pointed out their fundamental methodological error of
>> relying on alleles subject to selection pressure. Here is the relevant
part
>> of the review:
>>
>> In his commentary on Morton et al., Cavalli-Sforza (1982) criticized
their
>> methods, arguing that they had not distinguished between genetic markers
>> that are selectively neutral and those that come under selection
pressure.
>> In the latter case, gene frequencies of quite diverse populations living
>> under the same climatic or disease conditions will rapidly converge in
the
>> absence of admixture. For example, in testing the possibility of
admixture
>> for Ashkenazim Jews, Cavalli-Sforza and Carmelli (1979; supplementing
>> Carmelli and Cavalli-Sforza 1979) found that one marker (the HLA loci)
>> indicated no admixture with Europeans, while another (the ABO loci)
>> indicated almost 100 per cent admixture. This indicates rapid selection
for
>> ABO and its unsuitability for tests of admixture. Yet Morton et al.
>> included the ABO data in their analysis. Cavalli-Sforza's (1982) summary
of
>> his research with Carmelli thus appears to be the most authoritative: (a)
>> Genetic analysis discriminates "reasonably well" between Gentile Central
>> Europeans, Southern Europeans, North Africans, and Middle Eastern
>> populations; (b) With regard to Jews historically inhabiting any of these
>> regions "their genetic markers are more similar to those of the
population
>> whose origins they shared more than 2,000 years ago than to those with
>> which they have been in contact since"; (c) that some Jewish populations,
>> in particular the Ashkenazim of Central Europe, show important
similarities
>> with their Gentile neighbours, due to admixture, natural selection, or
>> both; and (d) Despite Middle Eastern origins being "at least in part
>> recognizable", most Jewish groups have undergone significant random
genetic
>> drift, mainly in the smallest populations.
>>
>> In their commentary on Morton et al. (1982), Kobyliansky and Micle (1982)
>> make essentially the same point as Cavalli-Sforza regarding the need to
>> exclude from analysis genetic markers subject to natural selection, and
>> note that the key evidence for low admixture is the frequencies of
certain
>> distinctive genes. Applying Cavalli-Sforza's method applied for
determining
>> genetic distance, applied to 22 alleles from 10 loci, Kobyliansky and
Micle
>> found that Jews from Eastern, Central, and Southern Europe, the Middle
>> East, and North Africa, but not from Yemen, "are closer to each other
than
>> to any of the non-Jewish populations among which they live." There
results
>> confirm Jewish folk history of common descent more strongly than Morton
et
>> al.'s study. However, as with the Chakraborty and Weiss analyses, all
>> Jewish groups except those from Yemen cluster alongside the European
group,
>> consistent with them belonging to the European geographic race.
>>
>> Despite the early date of the discussion concerning Morton et al.'s
(1982)
>> paper, the position defined by Cavalli-Sforza still appears to be
>> authoritative, with a confirmatory trend of genetic findings supporting
the
>> view that diaspora Jews, with exceptions such as the Yemen, Cochin, and
>> Ethiopian populations, are closer to one another than they are to their
>> neighbouring non-Jewish populations, despite some possible admixture
(e.g.
>> Livshits et al. 1991). For example, Benerecetti et al. (1992) found a
high
>> degree of genetic similarity between Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews, much
more
>> so than between neighbouring populations in the Mediterranean basin.
"This
>> is in line with the general finding that Ashkenazim and Sephardim diverge
>> much more on morphologic (presumably selective) traits than on
>> monofactorial (presumably neutral) markers." They conclude that genetic
>> admixture has played a "relatively minor" role in the divergence between
>> the two groups. Also, Jewish mitochondrial DNA, passed on through the
>> female line, is less variable than among Caucasians, Asians, Australians,
>> or Africans, indicating closer relatedness (Ritte et al. 1992). Further
>> genetic evidence that Jews are closely related to one another comes from
>> studies of genetic diseases. Several rare mutations have been found to be
>> widespread among Jews of European descent, probably caused by a small
>> founding population remaining endogamous while growing greatly in numbers
>> (Risch et al. 1995). Present day descendants of the Ashkenazim, numbering
>> in the millions, derive from a population that might have been as low as
>> several thousand (Motulsky 1995; Risch et al. 1995).
>>
>> While most Jews are more closely related to one another than are other
>> peoples, there is still much genetic diversity within the overall Jewish
>> population. Skorecki et al. (1997) found a substantial genetic distance
>> between Ashkenazi and North African Jews, but much less distance among
the
>> descendants of the priestly caste, the Cohens, who number about five
>> percent of the total world population. Indeed, based on analysis of loci
on
>> the Y chromosome, Skorecki et al. found greater genetic commonality
between
>> the priestly groups of Ashkenazi and North African Jews than between them
>> and their respective lay Jewish populations. The Cohens are distinguished
>> from other Jews by the YAP+ marker on the Y chromosome. While only 1.5
>> percent of Cohens have the marker, 18.4% of other Jews have it. This
>> finding has been confirmed by a fresh genetic study of the Y chromosomes
of
>> 306 Jewish men from Israel, Canada and the United Kingdom, which traces
the
>> origin of the Cohanim to about 2,600 years before present, in accord with
>> Jewish tradition (Thomas et al. 1998). This confirms the theory that
>> genetic continuity among Jewish populations is due to cultural practices
>> that resulted in genetic segregation (MacDonald 1994). Jewish religious
>> leaders have been especially responsible for reproducing and enforcing
>> these cultural practices. Furthermore, in traditional Judaism, a man can
>> only become a priest if his father was one before him. It would be
>> interesting to discover whether Jewish identity is especially robust with
>> this endogamous group.
>>
>> Benerecetti, A. S. S., Semino, O., Passarino, G., Morpurgo, G. P.,
Fellous,
>> M. and Modiano, G. (1992). Y-chromosome DNA plymorphisms in Ashkenazi and
>> Sephardi Jews. In Genetic diversity among Jews: Diseases and markers at
the
>> DNA level, (ed. B. Bonné-Tamir and A. Adam), pp. 45-50. Oxford University
>> Press, New York.
>>
>> Carmelli, D. and Cavalli-Sforza, L. L. (1979). The genetic origin of the
>> Jews: a multivariate approach. Human Biology, 51(41-61.
>>
>> Cavalli-Sforza, L. L. (1982). Commentary on Morton, Kenett, and Lew.
>> Current Anthropology, 23(2), 157-67.
>>
>> Cavalli-Sforza, L. L. and Carmelli, D. (1979). The Ashkenazi gene pool:
>> interpretations. In Genetic diseases among Ashkenazi Jews, (ed. R. M.
>> Goodman and A. Motulsky), pp. 93-102. Raven Press, New York.
>>
>> Kobyliansky, E. and Micle, S. (1982). Commentary on Morton et al.,
>> "Bioassay of kinship in populations of Middle Eastern origin and
controls".
>> Current Anthropology, 23(2), 163-4.
>>
>> Livshits, G., Sokal, R. R. and Kobyliansky, E. (1991). Genetic affinities
>> of Jewish populations. American Journal of Human Genetics, 49,131-46.
>>
>> MacDonald, K. (1994). A people that shall dwell alone: Judaism as a group
>> evolutionary strategy. Praeger, Westport, Conn.
>>
>> Morton, N. E., Kenett, R., Yee, S. and Lew, R. (1982). Bioassay of
kinship
>> in populations of Middle Eastern origin and controls. Current
Anthropology,
>> 23(2), 157-67.
>>
>> Motulsky, A. G. (1980). Ashkenazi Jewish gene pools: admixture, drift,
and
>> selection. In Population structure and genetic disorders, (ed. A. W.
>> Eriksson, H. Forsius, H. R. Nevanlinna, P. L. Workan and R. K. Norio),
pp.
>> 353-65. Academic Press, London.
>>
>> Risch, N., et al. (1995). Genetic analysis of idiopathic torsion dystonia
>> in Ashkenazi Jews and their recent descent from a small founder
population.
>> Nature Genetics, 9(February), 152-9.
>>
>> Ritte, U., Neufeld, E. and Bonné-Tamir, B. (1992). Types of mitochondrial
>> DNA among Jews. In Genetic diversity among Jews: Diseases and markers at
>> the DNA level, (ed. B. Bonné-Tamir and A. Adam), pp. 51-9. Oxford
>> University Press, New York.
>>
>> Skorecki, K., et al. (1997). Y chromosomes of Jewish priests. Nature,
385,
>> p. 32.
>>
>> Thomas, M. G., Skorecki, K., Ben-Ami, H., Parfitt, T., Bradman, N. and
>> Goldstein, D. B. (1998). Origins of Old Testament priests. Nature, 394(9
>> July), 138-40.
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