Nicky Molloy wrote:
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: yair davidi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Date: Thursday, 18 May 2000 17:35
> Subject: Arab-Jew genetics
>
> Question:
> At 05:54 PM 5/17/00 -0400, Sir Moshe Barr - Nea <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> wrote:
> >( A propo, have you seen the last article in the Science Section of New
> >York Times of May 9,2000 ? " Y Chromosome Bears Witness to Story of the
> >Jewish Diaspora."
>
> Answer:
> Several people wrote in on this issue with a similar question:
> The article says:
>
> May 9, 2000
>
> Y Chromosome Bears Witness to Story of
> the Jewish Diaspora
>
> Related Articles
> Genetics: The Human Genome Project
> The New York Times on the Web: Science
>
> By NICHOLAS WADE
>
> ith a new technique based on the male or Y chromosome,
> biologists have traced the diaspora of Jewish populations
> from
> the dispersals that began in 586 B.C. to the modern communities of
> Europe and the Middle East.
>
> The analysis provides genetic witness that these communities
> have, to a
> remarkable extent, retained their biological identity separate
> from their
> host populations, evidence of relatively little intermarriage or
> conversion
> into Judaism over the centuries.
>
> Another finding, paradoxical but
> unsurprising, is that by the yardstick of
> the
> Y chromosome, the world's Jewish
> communities closely resemble not only each
> other but also Palestinians, Syrians and
> Lebanese, suggesting that all are descended
> from a common ancestral population that
> inhabited the Middle East some four
> thousand years ago.
>
> Dr. Lawrence H. Schiffman, chairman of the department of Hebrew
> and
> Judaic Studies at New York University, said the study fit with
> historical
> evidence that Jews originated in the Near East and with biblical
> evidence
> suggesting that there were a variety of families and types in the
> original
> population. He said the finding would cause "a lot of discussion
> of the
> relationship of scientific evidence to the manner in which we
> evaluate
> long-held academic and personal religious positions," like the
> question of
> who is a Jew.
>
> The study, reported in today's Proceedings of the National
> Academy of
> Sciences, was conducted by Dr. Michael F. Hammer of the
> University of
> Arizona with colleagues in the United States, Italy, Israel,
> England and
> South Africa. The results accord with Jewish history and
> tradition and
> refute theories like those holding that Jewish communities
> consist mostly
> of converts from other faiths, or that they are descended from the
> Khazars, a medieval Turkish tribe that adopted Judaism.
>
> The analysis by Dr. Hammer and colleagues is based on the Y
> chromosome, which is passed unchanged from father to son. Early in
> human evolution, all but one of the Y chromosomes were lost as
> their
> owners had no children or only daughters, so that all Y
> chromosomes
> today are descended from that of a single genetic Adam who is
> estimated
> to have lived about 140,000 years ago.
>
> In principle, all men should therefore carry the identical
> sequence of
> DNA letters on their Y chromosomes, but in fact occasional
> misspellings
> have occurred, and because each misspelling is then repeated in
> subsequent generations, the branching lineages of errors form a
> family
> tree rooted in the original Adam.
>
> These variant spellings are in DNA that is not involved in the
> genes and
> therefore has no effect on the body. But the type and abundance
> of the
> lineages in each population serve as genetic signature by which to
> compare different populations.
>
> Based on these variations, Dr. Hammer identified 19 variations in
> the Y
> chromosome family tree.
>
> The ancestral Middle East population from which both Arabs and
> Jews
> are descended was a mixture of men from eight of these lineages.
>
> Among major contributors to the ancestral Arab-Jewish population
> were
> men who carried what Dr. Hammer calls the "Med" lineage. This Y
> chromosome is found all round the Mediterranean and in Europe and
> may have been spread by the Neolithic inventors of agriculture or
> perhaps by the voyages of sea-going people like the Phoenicians.
>
> Another lineage common in the ancestral Arab-Jewish gene pool is
> found
> among today's Ethiopians and may have reached the Middle East by
> men
> who traveled down the Nile. But present-day Ethiopian Jews lack
> some
> of the other lineages found in Jewish communities, and overall
> are more
> like non-Jewish Ethiopians than other Jewish populations, at
> least in
> terms of their Y chromosome lineage pattern.
>
> The ancestral pattern of lineages is recognizable in today's Arab
> and
> Jewish populations, but is distinct from that of European
> populations and
> both groups differ widely from sub-Saharan Africans.
>
> Each Arab and Jewish community has its own flavor of the ancestral
> pattern, reflecting their different genetic histories. Roman Jews
> have a
> pattern quite similar to that of Ashkenazis, the Jewish community
> of
> Eastern Europe. Dr. Hammer said the finding accorded with the
> hypothesis that Roman Jews were the ancestors of the Ashkenazis.
>
> Despite the Ashkenazi Jews' long residence in Europe, their Y
> signature
> has remained distinct from that of non-Jewish Europeans.
>
> On the assumption that there have been 80 generations since the
> founding
> of the Ashkenazi population, Dr. Hammer and colleagues calculate
> that
> the rate of genetic admixture with Europeans has been less than
> half a
> percent per generation.
>
> Jewish law tracing back almost 2,000 years states that Jewish
> affiliation is
> determined by maternal ancestry, so the Y chromosome study
> addresses
> the question of how much non-Jewish men may have contributed to
> Jewish genetic diversity.
>
> Dr. Hammer was surprised to find how little that contribution was.
>
> "It could be that wherever Jews were, they were very much
> isolated," he
> said. The close genetic affinity between Jews and Arabs, at least
> by the
> Y chromosome yardstick, is reflected in the Genesis account of how
> Abraham fathered Ishmael by his wife's maid Hagar and, when Sarah
> was then able to conceive, Isaac. Although Muslims have a
> different
> version of the story, they regard Abraham and Ishmael, or Ismail,
> as
> patriarchs just as Jews do Abraham and Isaac.
>
> Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company
>
> Comment:
> 1. The article in itself is almost useless from anacademic point of view.
> The original paper must be obtained and the results examined and even then
> it must be cross-checked
> and reconsidered on several levels.
>
> 2. The timing of the article is suspicious and may have been politically
> motivated.
>
> 2. They took 8 variations of the Y chromosome out of 19
> that they recognized for the whole human race and played around with them.
> This is suspicious.
>
> 3. How many people did they examine? Where did they take their subjects
> from?
> What type of Arabs? What type of Syrians? Alawis?
> Where did the Jewish subjects come from?
> Universities?
>
> 4. The point made about the Jews in Rome is also highly suspicious and
> contradicts other information.
>
> 5. A connection with Mediterranean and European populations is recognized
> and in the
> opinion of John Hulley (with whom I consult on these matters) once we see
> the original
> paper the facts may actually strengthen the BRIT-AM position.
>
You all understand of course that this guy's theories are shot to hell by this
new research and he is now fighting a rear guard battle to maintain some
credibility which he doesn't deserve.
Brit-Am was always bullshit. As long as there was no way to prove lineage
either way, anyone could invent any story they wanted as long as there was no
evidence.
Those days are over.
Joshua2
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