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Entwined African and Asian genetic roots of medieval people of the Swahili coast
- Rebelgecko 4y agoThis article is a good summary of why this is interesting: https://theconversation.com/ancient-dna-is-restoring-the-origin-story-of-the-swahili-people-of-the-east-african-coast-201154 https://theconversation.com/ancient-dna-is-restoring-the-ori... 1. The DNA is consistent with the Kilwa Chronicle, a text probably recorded from an earlier oral tradition that was written off as being not based on history 2. There's a strong sexual bias in the admixture. Often that happens as an unpleasant side effect of colonization by patriarchal societies (eg Spaniards go to Latin America, impregnate a lot of local ladies, and as a result the Spanish DNA tends to be passed down from the male side and the indigenous DNA from the female side). There's a similar effect here, but it might be caused by traders trying to ingratiate themselves with the local matriarchy.
- yieldcrv 4y agounpleasant to whom, in this context?
- gumby 4y agoIn any context the colonized, of course. But in this case rebel gecko is drawing a contrast and even hypothesizing that it more likely have been consensual, but either way the admixture not being by a colonizer.
- yieldcrv 4y agoah that's empathic, presumptuous, reads more like a disclaimer but maybe it affects them personally. could just as easily be "aspirational". or happenstance. unnecessary feeling toward this observation.
- wahern 4y ago> Our best guess is that Persian men allied with and married into elite families and adopted local customs to enable them to be more successful traders. It's well known Persians had been trading along the Horn of African for millennia. What makes the perfunctory woke preamble in TFA even more insufferable than usual is that a significant aspect of this trade was in slaves. Peoples along the Horn of Africa trafficked slaves from Central Africa, constituting what's known as the Indian Ocean Slave Trade, which IIRC even preexisted the Arab Slave Trade. Moreover, the Persians had been sailing between the Horn of Africa and India for perhaps nearly as long as they had been sailing to East Africa, so there are traces of Persian trade and cultural links all along the coastline from Africa to as far away as Indonesia and perhaps even the Philippines, and long before the NW Europeans took to sail. And if you go back far enough, it's also well known that the Bantu peoples were colonizers in their own right, and there still exist tensions between ethnic Bantus and indigenous peoples--e.g. pygmies.
- maxamillion2020 4y ago>Peoples along the Horn of Africa trafficked slaves from Central Africa >It's well known Persians had been trading along the Horn of African for millennia. Swahilis don't live in the Horn (outside of a few cities) .You are thinking about Eastern Africa.
- tum92 4y ago>What makes the perfunctory woke preamble in TFA even more insufferable than usual is that a significant aspect of this trade was in slaves. I’m curious which portion of the article you’re referring to? I’m not sure what point from the article your comment is meant to address.
- dmix 4y agoPlus it was always males taking the ships to these countries and being the risk taking adventurous traders. Colonizers aren’t bringing their daughters and unmarried sisters along for the ride.
- alephnerd 4y agoNot surprising. Zanzibar was part of the Sultanate of Oman until the late 19th century and there was always a large amount of cross-ocean trade between Swahili Coast, the Safavid Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Omani Sultanate, and the Gujarat Sultanate and the Mughals.
- gumby 4y agoThat trade goes back thousands of years. For example the early writing on the subcontinent appears to have spread from the Middle East.
- alephnerd 4y agoYep! There are a lot of historic regional trade routes that have long existed that are only starting to get visibility in Western English speaking academia. For example that between Malacca and Northern Australia or betwee Paleo-Siberian and North Asian ethnic groups together with the Inuit. There was an interesting book I found once at a used book store that specifically translated Gujarati language Ismaili papers and sermons brought by traders that spread Islam into SEA. Sadly I didn't get around to buying that book, but could probably find it.
- selimthegrim 4y agoWhere was this used bookstore?
- alephnerd 4y agoSan Francisco. It was published by University of California Press I think but I can't remembers. Odds are it's still there tbh.
- selimthegrim 4y agoAm going soon and will happily scope it out lol
- nsajko 4y agoFrom the theconversation.com article linked in a sibling comment: > Our team generated data from more than 80 people, mostly elite individuals buried in the rich centers of the stone towns. We will need to wait for future work to understand whether their genetic inheritance differed from people without their high status. Considering that the ruling class in a society often genetically differs from the population in general, it seems that these findings may not have as surprising implications as it seems initially.
- cat_plus_plus 4y agoWhat is "Asian DNA"? I grew up in Siberia, and have some ancestry from local ethnic groups that lived in the region for more than a thousand years, is that what the authors have in mind? Or should we consider actual DNA differences prevalent in different regions, as seems appropriate when studying genetics? I would think India, China and Siberia would be all a little different from each other genetically?
- ZeroGravitas 4y ago> The Asian ancestry includes components associated with Persia and India, with 80–90% of the Asian DNA originating from Persian men.
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