Middle Eastern origin of Jews (Atzmon et al. 2010)

Nature News: "Jews worldwide share genetic ties / But analysis also reveals close links to Palestinians and Italians." Abstract of the AJHG article, "Abraham's Children in the Genome Era: Major Jewish Diaspora Populations Comprise Distinct Genetic Clusters with Shared Middle Eastern Ancestry":
For more than a century, Jews and non-Jews alike have tried to define the relatedness of contemporary Jewish people. Previous genetic studies of blood group and serum markers suggested that Jewish groups had Middle Eastern origin with greater genetic similarity between paired Jewish populations. However, these and successor studies of monoallelic Y chromosomal and mitochondrial genetic markers did not resolve the issues of within and between-group Jewish genetic identity. Here, genome-wide analysis of seven Jewish groups (Iranian, Iraqi, Syrian, Italian, Turkish, Greek, and Ashkenazi) and comparison with non-Jewish groups demonstrated distinctive Jewish population clusters, each with shared Middle Eastern ancestry, proximity to contemporary Middle Eastern populations, and variable degrees of European and North African admixture. Two major groups were identified by principal component, phylogenetic, and identity by descent (IBD) analysis: Middle Eastern Jews and European/Syrian Jews. The IBD segment sharing and the proximity of European Jews to each other and to southern European populations suggested similar origins for European Jewry and refuted large-scale genetic contributions of Central and Eastern European and Slavic populations to the formation of Ashkenazi Jewry. Rapid decay of IBD in Ashkenazi Jewish genomes was consistent with a severe bottleneck followed by large expansion, such as occurred with the so-called demographic miracle of population expansion from 50,000 people at the beginning of the 15th century to 5,000,000 people at the beginning of the 19th century. Thus, this study demonstrates that European/Syrian and Middle Eastern Jews represent a series of geographical isolates or clusters woven together by shared IBD genetic threads.
Note that the Jewish masturbation fantasy version of Ashkenazi origins (in which blonde German shiksas play a significant role), pushed by razib based on miscomprehension of earlier research, again finds no support.

38 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ashkenazim, Sephardim and Syrian Jews seem to be a lot closer to European populations than various "Middle Eastern" groups though.

What about this: "There is almost no European ancestry in Iranian and Iraqi Jews, whereas Syrian, Sephardic, and Ashkenazi Jews have European admixture ranging from 30%~60%."? (from http://www.ashg.org/2009meeting/abstracts/fulltext/f10575.htm)

Anonymous said...

The link seems to be an abstract from the same article, not a different one by the way.

Anonymous said...

Oh, never mind, you were *specifically* against blonde Germans contributing to Jewish genetics. To each his own, I guess.

n/a said...

I am "*specifically*" against the propagation of misinformation.

Harold said...

If you wanted to know about the genetics of Jews you could have just asked Guy White. He can tell these things just by looking at people. Also, he can see hormone levels. He is amazing.

Anonymous said...

Jews cluster with Southern Europeans, no surprise there. Some HBD authors argue that if we reject Jews we reject Southern Europeans and thus Western civilization.

Anonymous said...

Some HBD authors argue that if we reject Jews we reject Southern Europeans and thus Western civilization.

That's called sophistry. Jews and philo-Semites engage in it all the time. They use this ideological construction called "Western civilization" and define and wield it to advance their interests. See Larry Auster or any neocon for examples and notice how they're always blabbing on about "The West" and "Western Civilization."

Anonymous said...

They definitely do use it to their advantage, however it's not just Jews it's their philo-Semitic lackeys like OneSTDV and Derbyshire.

Thomas said...

Some HBD authors argue that if we reject Jews we reject Southern Europeans and thus Western civilization.

If all the Jews in the world disappeared tonight while you were sleeping, "Western civilization" would still be there when you wake up in the morning.

TGGP said...

Off-topic, but relevant to a matter often discussed here:
http://inductivist.blogspot.com/2010/05/sensitivity-to-testosterone-and-risk-of.html

Anonymous said...

They definitely do use it to their advantage, however it's not just Jews it's their philo-Semitic lackeys like OneSTDV and Derbyshire.

Which is why I specifically wrote "Jews and philo-Semites engage in it all the time."

Anonymous said...

Philo-Semites and other race traitors are often worse than Jews and non-Whites themselves because they have something to prove.

Blacks are always quick to point out an Uncle Tom, but in reality Whites have the most servile race traitors of any group, Uncle Tims as Sailor coined or Uncle Derbyshires if you will.

Anonymous said...

*Sailer

Harold said...

It is curious that Ashkenazi Jews didn't inherit the excellence of Italians at visual art.

Anonymous said...

It is curious that Ashkenazi Jews didn't inherit the excellence of Italians at visual art.

Not that curious, considering that the much vaunted "Italian" excellence in visual art is likely to be of Nordish provenance.

Ben10 said...

It's curious to see the jewish insistance to be considered as europeans.
If they are european, what rights do they have to a land situated in Africa?
No really, this article is good news to them.

Pseudothyrum said...

Historically, the northern half of Italy and the leadership/elite of the Roman Empire were primarily Nordic and Central European. Just look at the busts of the ancient Roman rulers one example: Nero - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nero - there are dozens of others. He doesn't look much like a modern Italian now does he?

Most modern Italians, especially Southern Italians, are the semi-Semitic descendants of Near Easterners, North Africans, and Turkish-Greek slaves brought in to Italy by the ancient Roman elite and upper-middle class.

The same process occurred in ancient Rome that is now happening in the USA - the elites and middle classes bring in racial aliens to do manual labor, the racial aliens end up taking over eventually because of higher birth rates.

Anonymous said...

Here is something for you N/A - did you know that the Spaniards tried to colonize the interior of North America decades before the English did? - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_San_Juan - it was two centuries before Europeans tried to settle that far inland in NC again.

Anonymous said...

"It's curious to see the jewish insistance to be considered as europeans.

If they are european, what rights do they have to a land situated in Africa?"

Israel is in the Middle East, not Africa.

"It is curious that Ashkenazi Jews didn't inherit the excellence of Italians at visual art."

The study didn't look at enough European groups to draw conclusions on where the alleged European ancestry in the Ashkenazi comes from.

Also, the confounding effect of the Neolithic is such that no conclusions could be drawn expect based on the IBD segments.

For example, the Russians would be further away from the Ashkenazi purely due to having so little Neolithic descent compared to other Whites, even if there was a significant Russian admixture in Jews.

Ben10 said...

"Israel is in the Middle East, not Africa"

If you say so, you must know better. But anyway, do these 'Europeans' have a divine right to own the 'Middle East' ?

If yes, does it apply to me too ? I am European.

Anonymous said...

For Pseudothyrum the pseudohistorian:

Nowhere in historic times is there any valid evidence that the upper classes of one area differed in culture from those of another because of racial background, nor within any one people did the upper and lower classes have basically different cultural inheritances. Modern assertions that the masters preserved a Nordic outlook and so were more capable of culture are pure nonsense, bred of modern racial prejudice, not of the ancient evidence. ----- [Starr, C.G., 1991, Origins of Greek Civilization, W. W. Norton & Company, London, p. 132.]

Indeed, Bertil Lundman, who claimed to have studied more than 20,000 individuals anthropologically [49], remarked that “the morphology of the Northlander must be assumed to be sufficiently known; it is necessary to stress only that a high nose bridge with a so-called Greek profile always points to foreign admixture.” Thus, the Greek profile is seen as evidence of the “Northern” character of the Ancient Greeks, yet a real expert on northern physical anthropology acknowledges that it is foreign to the Northern morphological type. ----- [Ref. Lundman, B.J., 1962, The Racial History of Scandinavia: An Outline, Mankind Quarterly, 3, pp. 89-97.]

An analysis of the genetic makeup of Italy's modern population argues that the various distinctive genetic combinations currently found in different regions within the peninsula by and large track the linguistic distribution that resulted from the migrations of the Iron Age.[51] No data indicate the subsequent large-scale infusion of new genetic material into the populations of these regions..... But if a population of 3 million slaves, representing as much as 40 percent of Italy's inhabitants in the first century B.C., was successfully reproducing itself, it would surely have left its mark on the genetic makeup of contemporary Italians. That it did not argues strongly for a very low rate of natural reproduction among Italy's slaves, which in turn is difficult to reconcile with the hypothesis that the number of slaves ever grew large enough to comprise 40 percent of the Italian population. ----- [Rosenstein, Nathan. Rome at War: Farms, Families, and Death in the Middle Republic. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004.]

n/a said...

TGGP,

I am skeptical that polymorphism of the Androgen Receptor gene can explain much if any of the black-white difference in criminality, and Inductivist presents no evidence to change my mind on this.

I know of two studies that did look for a relationship between the AR gene and criminality, with conflicting results: one in India claimed to find shorter CAG repeat lengths in violent criminals, and one study in China found no relationship. Given the level of population structure in India (and the fact that the study was done by Indians), I don't put much weight on it. I await larger studies on more relevant populations.

n/a said...

Here is something for you Anonymous - did you know that the Norse tried to colonize North America centuries before the Spanish did? - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norse_colonization_of_the_Americas - it was four centuries before Columbus discovered Haiti while trying to reach the Orient.

Anonymous said...

Given the level of population structure in India (and the fact that the study was done by Indians), I don't put much weight on it.

n/a,

Just wondering, but are Indians especially bad researchers in genetics or something? Full disclosure: I'm not Indian nor an Indophile, just curious about this remark of yours.

n/a said...

"Just wondering, but are Indians especially bad researchers in genetics or something?"

I don't know if I'd say that, but in population genetics, at least, quite a few Indian researchers seem to let their politics shape their analysis of data. I'd be more comfortable seeing the result replicated by Western researchers.

Anonymous said...

All I know is that dagos and southern Italians especially have some negro in them. It isn't hard to tell.

Anonymous said...

Anon - I wouldn't trust too much written in that book by Nathan ROSENSTEIN. Those people are biased and often skew history for their own purposes, you know.

Anonymous said...

In a Nutshell: The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire...

Race Replacement.

In a Nutshell: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire...

Race Replacement.

Anonymous said...

"Combined data from two large mtDNA studies provides an estimate of non-Caucasoid maternal ancestry in Italians. The first study sampled 411 Italians from all over the country and found five South Asian M and East Asian D sequences (1.2%) and eight sub-Saharan African L sequences (1.9%). The second study sampled 465 Sicilians and detected ten M sequences (2.2%) and three L sequences (0.65%). This makes a total of 3% non-white maternal admixture (1.3% Asian and 1.7% African), which is very low and typical for European populations, since Pliss et al. 2005, e.g., observed 1.8% Asian admixture in Poles and 1.2% African admixture in Germans."
-Plaza et al. (2003)

So the Sicilians actually only have 54% as much of their mitochondrial dna of African origin as compared to the Germans (0.65% vs. 1.2%).

"Similar data from the Y-chromosome reveals Italians' even lower non-Caucasoid paternal admixture. Both studies obtained samples from all over the mainland and islands. No Asian DNA was detected anywhere, but a single sub-Saharan African E(xE3b) sequence was found in the first study's sample of 416 (0.2%), and six were observed in the second study's sample of 746 (0.8%). The total is therefore a minuscule 0.6%, which decreases to 0.4% if only Southern Italians are considered and 0% if only Sicilians are considered. Again, these are normal levels of admixture for European populations (e.g. Austrians were found to have 0.8% E(xE3b) by Brion et al. 2004)."
-Semino et al.

Once again Sicilians were found to have less African dna than other Italians, and less than the Austrians as well.

There absolutely no basis for saying Sicilians are more African than other Italians, or that they are more African than other Europeans.

Anonymous said...

"In a Nutshell: The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire..."

The British Empire fell without any genetically significant level of race replacement preceding that fall.

All it took was a loss of will on the part of pure blooded English leaders, largely precipitated by the military being worn down in a pointless and avoidable conflict with Germans.

This whole idea that something as inherently unstable as an empire requires a racial explanation for why it fell is idiotic.

Every empire there’s been has fallen, sooner or later.

The remarkable thing about the Roman Empire is how long it held on, far longer than the British Empire ever did.

Anonymous said...

If you nordicist dickweeds were to be believed, southern europeans don't really exist- anything that isn't purely northern european in phenotype is due to mud infiltration.

Clinton said...

I wonder if anyone who reads this blog happens to know him in real life.

I wouldn't say I know him, but I was in New York City recently and I'm pretty sure I took his cab a few times. Rude, unpleasant, aesthetically unappealing, and smelly, as they tend to be. Just your usual, I suppose, as far as NYC cab drivers go.

Anonymous said...

The significant non-European admixture in Southern Europeans is not Negroid or Mongoloid, although the Portuguese do have the highest Negroid ancestry among Europeans, it is North African and West Asian ancestry. These ancestries are often grouped with "European" in DNA tests.

Caucasoids have more ingroup diversity so it's really races within a race.

Anonymous said...

"These ancestries are often grouped with "European" in DNA tests."

If they weren't grouped like it is likely that nearly all Europeans would be found to have non-European ancestry.

Structure analysis shows that even Russians have significant West Asian ancestry.

"•Russians and Lithuanians lack south European (light blue) component but have some west Asian (light green)"

http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2010/06/genome-wide-structure-of-jews-behar-et.html

As can be seen here the estimated amount of west Asian found in Russians is actually greater than that found in Spaniards and roughly equal to that found in Tuscans, though unsurprisingly less than that found in Cypriots:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Ish7688voT0/TA_8VX3jGkI/AAAAAAAACcM/HVkOLdPm94g/s1600/admixture-global.jpg

Anonymous said...

"Russian" encompasses many ethnic groups many of whom are non-white or admixed.

Anonymous said...

Right, we're only concerned with White Russians, the Northwestern Russians.

Anonymous said...

West Asian admixture was found across the board in the Russians tested, with very little variation.

Actually, significant west Asian admixture was found in EVERY European group tested in the study except for the French Basques and Sardinians.

Even the highly Northern European Orcadians had significant west Asian admixture found across the board in those tested.

If west Asian admixture stops someone from being White, then it seems extremely likely that no one is White except for a tiny handful of genetically isolated populations.

Anonymous said...

11. Is fanatical about showing N. Euros aren't "pure" while simultaneously claiming S. Euros are more "pure" than N. Euros