Genographic Project DNA Results Reveal Details of Puerto Rican History

[thoughtone]

source: National Geographic


Genographic Project DNA Results Reveal Details of Puerto Rican History


Let’s go back 520 years ago to the year 1494 on the island of Vieques, off the southeast coast of Puerto Rico’s mainland.

Tainos, the largest indigenous Caribbean population, were living a life based on the cultivation of root crops and fishing when upon the shores arrived Columbus and his fleet, having crossed the Atlantic Ocean for the second time in as many years. At that point in time everything changed.

What’s written on paper has told us much about what happened next. What’s written in the DNA of today’s Puerto Ricans can tell us some more.
<figure id="attachment_139048" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 610px"> <figcaption id="figcaption_attachment_139048" class="wp-caption-text">(Photo by B. Anthony Stewart/National Geographic Creative)</figcaption></figure> National Geographic’s Genographic Project researches locations where different groups historically intermixed to create a modern day melting pot. Collaborating with 326 individuals from southeastern Puerto Rico and Vieques, the Genographic Project conducted the first genetic testing in the area with the goal to gain more information about their ancient past and learn how their DNA fits into the human family tree. The results, just published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, paint a picture of vast historic complexity dating back some 5,000 years, to the first Caribbean peoples.

Our Genographic team learned some key pieces of information that helped us gain more insight into the peopling of the Caribbean. Most surprisingly, we found that roughly 60% of Puerto Ricans carry maternal lineages of Native American origin. Native American ancestry, higher than nearly any other Caribbean island, originated from groups migrating to Puerto Rico from both South and Central America. Analysis of the Y Chromosome DNA found that no Puerto Rican men (0%) carried indigenous paternal lineages, while more than 80% were West Eurasian (or European).

This leads us to conclude that the Y chromosomes (inherited strictly paternally) of Tainos were completely lost in Puerto Rico, whereas the mitochondrial DNA (inherited strictly maternally) survived long and well. This stark difference has been seen in other former colonies (Brazil, Cuba, Jamaica), but the gender dichotomy appears strongest in the Spanish-speaking Americas. A look into the rest of the Puerto Rican genome using the Genographic Project’s custom genotyping tool, the GenoChip, sheds some light on what may have happened during Spanish colonial times to create this ancestral imbalance.

The average Puerto Rican individual carries 12% Native American, 65% West Eurasian (Mediterranean, Northern European and/or Middle Eastern) and 20% Sub-Saharan African DNA. To help explain these frequencies in light of the maternal and paternal differences, I used basic math and inferred that it would take at least three distinct migrations of hundreds of European men each (and practically no European women) to Puerto Rico, followed by intermixing with indigenous women. It also would necessitate the complete decimation of indigenous men (but not women), to account for those numbers. These results are surprising and also shed light into a dark colonial past that, until now, had remained somewhat unclear.
<figure id="attachment_139049" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 610px"> <figcaption id="figcaption_attachment_139049" class="wp-caption-text">(Map courtesy The Genographic Project)</figcaption></figure> These types of analyses, not just across the Caribbean or the world, but across a specific population’s DNA, can have strong historical implications and at the same time help paint a new picture of world history. Learn more about how DNA can inform you about your own personal past, and help us uncover some new secrets of world history by joining The Genographic Project.

 

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

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[BoyJupiter]

Just sent to my wife and sis in law. They are actually working on mapping all their family, good looks.

My sis in law, who looks Irish more than Puerto Rican,has embraced her African heritage. Proud of the fam

 

[thoughtone]

Just sent to my wife and sis in law. They are actually working on mapping all their family, good looks.

My sis in law, who looks Irish more than Puerto Rican,has embraced her African heritage. Proud of the fam

Looks Irish?

How does Irish look different from Scottish or British?

Although that study does offerr interesting information, it is still racist.

 

[dasmybikepunk]

Good read.

You'll still find those P.R.'s who get mad as hell if you tell them they may
have African ancestry.

 

[Mrfreddygoodbud]

they all fuckin mutts...


LOL..

jokes relax,


basically the article is saying, puerto ricans were

predominately african, untill columbus and his band of

savage rapist, raped that european influence into them...


find it surprising that taino thingy is so low on the totem pole..

 

[thoughtone]

they all fuckin mutts...


LOL..

jokes relax,


basically the article is saying, puerto ricans were

predominately african, untill columbus and his band of

savage rapist, raped that european influence into them...


find it surprising that taino thingy is so low on the totem pole..

basically the article is saying, puerto ricans were

predominately african, untill columbus and his band of

savage rapist, raped that european influence into them...

Wrong!

Puerto Rico, which translates from Spanish to English means Rich Port. The Spanish gave that island it's name that has been repeated throughout western history. Before the Spanish arrived, the so called Taíno people were doing just fine.

Just like the entire so called New World, the Europeans male invaders pillaged the those lands. When they claimed them for the Catholic church they need to populate those areas. There were little if any Euro females to impregnate so the Euro invaders raped the local females. the indigenous males were either killed in wars, made slaves or died of diseases. When Africans were kidnapped and brought to the so called New World, African women were raped also. This explains why the indigenous Taíno genetic line is more prominent through the females.

Like most people in the so called New World, European is normally the dominate genetic trait and African being second.

Culturally, African has made the so called New World destinict from Europe.

 

[Fuzzy_McNut]

So this begs the question again: how light do you have to be to be white?

And how come blacks are the only ones that can produce a black baby that isn't of the black complexion

 

[thoughtone]

So this begs the question again: how light do you have to be to be white?

And how come blacks are the only ones that can produce a black baby that isn't of the black complexion

You are still buying in to the "white" okey doke.

"White" is a political designation. White is "not so code" for privilege and superiority.

In the US, you are considered "white" if you have no, so called traceable African lineage. Of course with the advent and wide spread use of genetics, everyone has traceable African lineage.

So that racist construct is out the window.

"White" has become synonymous for European. At one point not all Europeans were considered "white". Southern Europeans (Greeks, Turkish, Sicilians, etc.) were not considered "white" until the early 20th century in the US. Ashkenazi Jews weren't not widely considered "white" until the 1950s in the US and not at all in Nazi Germany, even though they were European for over 1000 years. Sephardic Jews are still not considered "white" by some in the US. So called Arabs are called "white" sometimes and non "white" others. The race classifies still don't know where to put the Indians from India, despite their brown complexion. The Japanese were considered "honorary whites" under South African apartheid.

Once again, European is a made up designation, not rooted in anything scientific. Borders are man made.

Walter White, the famous Civil rights activist and head of the NAACP could so called "pass" for "white" in early and mid 20th century USA, chose to call himself and identify as so called "Negro".

The whole race thing is a joke.

But to be considered "white", according to Rudyard Kipling, you have to be a western European, aka privilege!