Saturday, January 14, 2006
DNA Study Traces Ashkenazi Heritage to Four Women
Those women apparently lived somewhere in Europe within the last 2,000 years, but not necessarily in the same place or even the same century, said lead author Dr. Doron Behar of the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Israel.
He did the work with Karl Skorecki of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and others.
Each woman left a genetic signature that shows up in their descendants today, he and colleagues say in a report published online by the American Journal of Human Genetics. Together, their four signatures appear in about 40% of Ashkenazi Jews, while being virtually absent in non-Jews and found only rarely in Jews of non-Ashkenazi origin, the researchers said.
They said the total Ashkenazi population is estimated at around 8 million people. The estimated world Jewish population is about 13 million.
Ashkenazi Jews are a group with mainly central and eastern European ancestry. Ultimately, though, they can be traced back to Jews who migrated from Israel to Italy in the first and second centuries, Mr. Behar said. Eventually this group moved to Eastern Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries and expanded greatly, reaching about 10 million just before World War II, he said.
The study involved mitochondrial DNA, called mtDNA, which is passed only through the mother. A woman can pass her mtDNA to grandchildren only by having daughters. So mtDNA is "the perfect tool to trace maternal lineages," Mr. Behar said Thursday in a telephone interview...
Impression: This is an interesting article on a subject that never fails to fascinate (the business of tracking down human ancestry -- wouldn't it be fun to have a picture book...'Here's your mother, your grandmother, your great-grandmother, your great, great-grandmother, etc...'), but I caution against taking these results too far. As I have mentioned on this blog before, I am less than enamored with genetic proofs for current political claims. "Peoplehood" and the connection to a historical legacy are far more complex concepts than any mitochondrial test can settle. I will admit, though, that I enjoy this little wrench thrown into the anti-Semitic race-theory du jour -- that Ashkenazi Jews aren't real Jews and have no connection with the levant because they actually all decended from a tribe called the Kazars who converted en masse and never lived in the Middle East. I won't belabor the issue by pointing out all the logical problems with this theory, but it boils down to a big "So What?" and amounts to a racist argument that appeals mostly to (and is really designed for the consumption of) racists.
Not only that, but it is nice to have the mitochondria speaking and proving out the traditional historical narrative.
But now they are saying this proves that the Ashkenazi are a bunch of inbred morons. Anything to express hatred.
I think that it's great that they have found a genetic link among Jews, and not just among women. I read in the New York Times recently that all Jews (Ashkenazi and Sephardic) were found to have common ancestry. They were found to share the same dna with each other, but not with their host populations. Even host populations among which they'd lived for centuries. Also, Jews were found to be very closely related to Levantine Arabs.
I know that nationhood is more than just dna, but in my opinion this does boost Jewish claims to nationhood or peoplehood. Now we know that Jewishness isn't "just a religion."
Think of the boost to anti-Zionism if the results had been different, if the Jews were found to have no common origins. Those findings would have been announced from the rooftops. Instead, the only other article I saw was a snide piece whose only conclusion was that the Jews should treat the Arabs better since they were related to them. That was it.
It just goes to show you that, on the left as well as on the right, people tend to ignore even well-documented information if it does not fit in with their ideological mindsets.
Yes, I'm glad you mentioned it. It certainly would have been an issue that could not be ignored had the results been different. If this received and accepted history (that a significant proportion of those who today call themselves "Jews" are decended from people who used to live in the Middle East during biblical times) had wound up false, then what other accepted history would have to defend itself anew? (The location of the ancient Temple, for instance.)
I don't mean to imply there's no significance, merely to advise against putting too too much reliance on (racial) arguments.
I don't see how descending from 4 women in Europe boosts ties to Israel? You'd have to explain that one to me.
Joanne -
Prior genetic studies were done on the Y Chromosome of men, only passed on from the father. Those studies found that Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews were most closely related to the Kurds - and then Armenians and Anatolian Turks. All peoples present in Kurdistan of ancient times. They were more closely related than to any other group, and Arabs around the Levant - Lebanon Syria and 50% of Palestinians were very closely related as well.
Sephards were found to have a little more resemblance on average but not much more. Like 80-85% compared to 90% Middle Eastern or Judean origins.
Mike, it's in a couple places in the article. It's unclear what the proof is, but the scientists make statements to that effect:
"Ashkenazi Jews are a group with mainly central and eastern European ancestry. Ultimately, though, they can be traced back to Jews who migrated from Israel to Italy in the first and second centuries, Mr. Behar said."
and
"But he said it's not clear the women lived in Europe.
"They may have existed in the Near East," Mr. Hammer said. "We don't know exactly where the four women were, but their descendants left a legacy in the population today, whereas .. other women's descendants did not."
Mr. Behar said the four women he referred to did inherit their genetic signatures from female ancestors who lived in the Near East. But he said he preferred to focus on these later European descendants because they were at the root of the Ashkenazi population explosion."
Mike,
Maybe more than one study has been done. But what you said above totally flies in the face of what was reported in the Times article, which I think was published last spring, but I'm not totally sure. Kurds were never mentioned. Nor were Armenians or Turks. The Times article also focused on the y chromosome. It said that Jews were related to each other rather than to their host populations, wherever they were, and that all Jews were very closely related to Levantine Arabs (by which I assume they meant Palestinian, Jordanian, Syrian and Lebanese). That's it. But, as I said, maybe it's another study that you're citing.
Here are some of the articles. I read about this a few years ago and can't find all the good links right now.
http://www.khazaria.com/genetics/abstracts-jews.html
Also Palestine Remembered posted this article btw.
http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Articles/Story1387.html
Kevin Brook: The Genetic Bonds Between Kurds and JewsKevin Brook: The Genetic Bonds Between Kurds and Jews
http://www.barzan.com/kevin_brook.htm
Palestine Remembered? Hmmmmm. I imagine that they'd tout studies linking the Jews to the Martians if it would help to discredit any Jewish claim to the Holy Land.
"Ultimately, though, they can be traced back to Jews who migrated from Israel to Italy in the first and second centuries, Mr. Behar said."
Ah but what he did not bother to say is that that "migration" was depicted in the Arch of Titus...