Origin of the Romani People Pinned Down

[Render]

Europe's largest minority group, the Romani, migrated from northwest India 1,500 years ago, new genetic study finds.

The Romani, also known as the Roma, were originally dubbed "gypsies" in the 16th century, because this widely dispersed group of people were first thought to have come from Egypt. Today, many consider "gypsy" to be a derogatory term.

Since the advent of better and better genetic technology, researchers have analyzed the genetic history of much of Europe, finding, for example, the history of the Jewish Diaspora written in DNA. But though there are 11 million Romani in Europe, their history has been neglected, said study researcher David Comas of the Institut de Biologia Evolutiva at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Spain

http://www.livescience.com/25294-origin-romani-people.html

[Ealdwita]

It's nice to find out where they came from - It's painfully obvious where many of them have ended up!

[me-wonders]

Okay, but we have not agreed on the genetic make up of those who came from India. This effort to understand, the attempt to genetically categorize people, is giving me a headache. I started a thread about Aryans that I regret, because the arguing about who Aryans are and where they came from, and if they migrated into India and dominated or not. Now we have another group migrating out of India called Romani? This is an ethnic group? what does that mean? These people have their own language and it is different from indo-euro languages how? They are genetically different from Aryans how? I kind of feel like a kid playing pin the tail on the donkey who has been spun around so many times, I lost my sense of direction.

What is important? It fascinates me to know about different groups of people and how they spread around the world, but I wonder, how healthy is it to think of ourselves as divided and separate from each other? Portugal dumped many Romani in Brazil. Like how do these groups of people avoid assimilation into the populations they are living with and then get discriminated against? There has been almost much discrimination against Romani as against Jews, including forced sterilization to prevent their population from growing, to mass murder committed by NAZI Germany. Living in the US where knowledge of the teachings of Jesus can not be avoided, this kind of behavior seems to be morally wrong, but then I question, do these people resist assimilation? Do they choose to be different, or does this start with rejection that prevents assimilation? I keep hoping genetic research will get us past this discrimination.

[Keel M.]

How is this pushing us to think of ourselves as divided and separate from each other? If we find that we come from a common place, wouldn't it serve to draw us together based on that commonality? Why do people do genealogy? Not only to discover where they came from, but to find what we have in common with others.

[Helen of Annoy]

Go back far enough and you’ll discuss single cell organisms, or Adam and Eve, depends on personal belief.

But meanwhile, between amoebae and today, a lot happened and that lot doesn’t exactly fit into idyllic group portrait of undivided mankind. Obviously. If we were blissfully the same, isolated populations wouldn’t hold their isolations for thousand or more years. Obviously.

To continue in obvious tone, genetics is becoming helpful in reconstructing parts of history previously thought to be forever lost. Which is, obviously, great.

So it became genetically obvious significant portion (up to 50% in some areas) of European population is native, descending from European Ice Age population, traced down to 10,000 years ago. Or more, depending on source. Not Aryan in classic sense of that word. Then came Indo-European tribes, Aryans, who got their Indo-European name in the most unscientific way, combining characteristics of their languages (Indo, since some root words can be linked with some Sanskrit words) and settlement (European, since they settled in Europe)... apples and oranges... anyway... genetics will say in the end all about Aryans, or Indo-Europeans, or change their name into “IceAge desecendant + offshoot gone around Asia, impressed Indians, left their mummies in China, went back home under German and Slavic names = Europeans”.

Completely screws up the modern concept of nations, because it slowly turns out it’s the language that bonded tribes into nations, more than genome.

So it was with Gypsy (there are genetically proven Palestinian Arabs, brought by Ottoman Turks to Bosnia, living today in Croatia, who are still counted as Gypsy), though they obviously share portion of original Indian genome, their culture and languages (diverse, still recognizable) bond them through history up to today and is not likely to give up yet.

Edited December 10, 2012 by Helen of Annoy

[cormac mac airt]

How is this pushing us to think of ourselves as divided and separate from each other? If we find that we come from a common place, wouldn't it serve to draw us together based on that commonality? Why do people do genealogy? Not only to discover where they came from, but to find what we have in common with others.

Well put, Lady Kasey.

cormac

[Big Bad Voodoo]

Europe's largest minority group, the Romani, migrated from northwest India 1,500 years ago, new genetic study finds.

The Romani, also known as the Roma, were originally dubbed "gypsies" in the 16th century, because this widely dispersed group of people were first thought to have come from Egypt. Today, many consider "gypsy" to be a derogatory term.

http://www.livescience.com/25294-origin-romani-people.html