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Cordova
Joined: 14 Apr 2009
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Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 6:04 pm Post subject: King Tut's DNA is Western European |
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Dis be wayciss. I thought there was a "consensus" that ancient eqypt was built by da bruthas.
http://www.eutimes.net/2010/06/king-tuts-dna-is-western-european/
Despite the refusal of the Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, to release any DNA results which might indicate the racial ancestry of Pharaoh Tutankhamen, the leaked results reveal that King Tut�s DNA is a 99.6 percent match with Western European Y chromosomes.
The DNA test results were inadvertently revealed on a Discovery Channel TV documentary filmed with Hawass�s permission � but it seems as if the Egyptian failed to spot the giveaway part of the documentary which revealed the test results.
Hawass previously announced that he would not release the racial DNA results of Egyptian mummies � obviously because he feared the consequences of such a revelation.
On the Discovery Channel broadcast, which can be seen on the Discovery Channel website here, or if they pull it, on YouTube here, at approximately 1:53 into the video, the camera pans over a printout of DNA test results from King Tut.
Firstly, here is a brief explanation of the results visible in the video. It is a list of what is called Short Tandem Repeats (STRs).
STRs are repeated DNA sequences which are �short repeat units� whose characteristics make them especially suitable for human identification.
These STR values for 17 markers visible in the video are as follows:
DYS 19 � 14 (? not clear)
DYS 385a � 11
DYS 385b � 14
DYS 389i � 13
DYS 389ii � 30
DYS 390 � 24
DYS 391 � 11
DYS 392 � 13
DYS 393 � 13
DYS 437 � 14 (? not clear)
DYS 438 � 12
DYS 439 � 10
DYS 448 � 19
DYS 456 � 15
DYS 458 � 16
DYS 635 � 23
YGATAH4 � 11
What does this mean? Fortunately, a genius by the name of Whit Athey provides the key to this list. Mr Athey is a retired physicist whose working career was primarily at the Food and Drug Administration where he was chief of one of the medical device labs.
Mr Athey received his doctorate in physics and biochemistry at Tufts University, and undergraduate (engineering) and masters (math) degrees at Auburn University. For several years during the 1980s, he also taught one course each semester in the electrical engineering department of the University of Maryland. Besides his interest in genetic genealogy, he is an amateur astronomer and has his own small observatory near his home in Brookeville, MD.
He also runs a very valuable website called the �Haplogroup Predictor� which allows users to input STR data and generate the haplogroup which marks those STR data.
For those who want to know what a haplogroup is, here is a �simple� definition: a haplogroup is a group of similar haplotypes that share a common ancestor with a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) mutation.
Still none the wiser? Damn these scientists.
Ok, let�s try it this way: a haplotype is a combination of multiple specific locations of a gene or DNA sequence on a chromosome.
Haplogroups are assigned letters of the alphabet, and refinements consist of additional number and letter combinations, for example R1b or R1b1. Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA haplogroups have different haplogroup designations. In essence, haplogroups give an inisight into ancestral origins dating back thousands of years.
By entering all the STR data inadvertently shown on the Discovery video, a 99.6 percent fit with the R1b haplogroup is revealed.
The significance is, of course, that R1b is the most common Y-chromosome haplogroup in Europe reaching its highest concentrations in Ireland, Scotland, western England and the European Atlantic seaboard � in other words, European through and through. |
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Fox

Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 6:15 pm Post subject: Re: King Tut's DNA is Western European |
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Cordova wrote: |
Despite the refusal of the Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, to release any DNA results which might indicate the racial ancestry of Pharaoh Tutankhamen, the leaked results reveal that King Tut�s DNA is a 99.6 percent match with Western European Y chromosomes.
The DNA test results were inadvertently revealed on a Discovery Channel TV documentary filmed with Hawass�s permission � but it seems as if the Egyptian failed to spot the giveaway part of the documentary which revealed the test results.
Hawass previously announced that he would not release the racial DNA results of Egyptian mummies � obviously because he feared the consequences of such a revelation. |
Why would that be his reason? Dr. Hawass is on record opposing the idea of Ancient Egypt as a black civilization. The idea of a scholar being afraid of his own theories being proven correct is a strange one. |
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Louis VI
Joined: 05 Jul 2010 Location: In my Kingdom
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Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 6:20 pm Post subject: |
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A Celtic King in Egypt! |
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Big_Bird

Joined: 31 Jan 2003 Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 8:00 pm Post subject: |
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It wouldn't surprise me at all. Egypt is on the Mediteranean and only a hop skip and a jump from Europe. If you go to North Africa, you will see people of every hue. |
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Big_Bird

Joined: 31 Jan 2003 Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 8:00 pm Post subject: |
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Louis VI wrote: |
A Celtic King in Egypt! |
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Konglishman

Joined: 14 Sep 2007 Location: Nanjing
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Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2010 2:01 am Post subject: |
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Egypt was a Mediterranean civilization. To characterize it either as European or as African would be oversimplifying the picture into a false dichotomy. |
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El Macho
Joined: 07 Nov 2008
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Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2010 2:36 am Post subject: Re: King Tut's DNA is Western European |
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Also from eutimes.net:
* "More and more Americans preparing for Civil War 2"
* "The demographic decline of Switzerland", a video about how non-white immigration to Switzerland is ruining the country.
* A "European Pride" section
Cordova wrote: |
Dis be wayciss. |
Edit: Here's the National Geographic article about the "Black Pharaohs". As it notes, they came well after the pyramids were built.
Last edited by El Macho on Tue Jul 13, 2010 8:43 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Adventurer

Joined: 28 Jan 2006
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Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2010 3:08 am Post subject: |
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Big_Bird wrote: |
It wouldn't surprise me at all. Egypt is on the Mediteranean and only a hop skip and a jump from Europe. If you go to North Africa, you will see people of every hue. |
It's one thing to say that about the Maghreb and another about Egypt.
The people form Algeria and Morocco tend to be much lighter than Egyptians. The ancient pharaohs were said, by DNA, to be mostly Caucasian mediterranean types with some negroid ancestry. The key words are mostly and some when it comes to the ancestry. Of course, there were Nubian pharaohs at one point. I think so many people try to keep saying that Egypt was simply black, because some African Americans want to claim Egypt. Egyptians generally don't consider themselves black unless they are Nubian. Some who come to the US may consider themselves that.
In North Africa, it's a different picture, you have had many blond Berbers in Morocco and Algeria from a long, long time ago. That's much rarer in Egypt, and Egypt long after Tutankamen had some
influx of a large amount of Greek, Turkish, Albanian, and Circassian ancestry mixed in as well as Arab. The Greeks inhabited Alexandria and other areas and mixed in with the population. Queen Cleopatra was Greco-Macedonian. That has affected the Egyptian modern gene pool. I really don't know about Celts in ancient Egypt.
The Celts did reach Turkey. There were Celtic speakers in Galatia until the 400s, I believe. They are mentioned in the New Testament in the chapter called Galatians. |
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djsmnc

Joined: 20 Jan 2003 Location: Dave's ESL Cafe
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Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2010 4:19 pm Post subject: |
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Only superior white blooded men could build pyramids and the sphinx |
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Junior

Joined: 18 Nov 2005 Location: the eye
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Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 7:56 am Post subject: |
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Adventurer wrote: |
you have had many blond Berbers in Morocco and Algeria from a long, long time ago. |
Are they descended from European slaves captured by barbary pirates?
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From the 16th to 19th century, pirates captured an estimated 800,000 to 1.25 million Europeans as slaves,[2] mainly from seaside villages in Italy, Spain, and Portugal, but also from France, Britain, the Netherlands, Ireland and as far away as Iceland.
...to sell at slave markets in places such as Algeria and Morocco. |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_corsairs |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007 Location: retired
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Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 8:14 am Post subject: |
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Here's the context for this thread:
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/2010/06/19/2010-06-19_angelina_jolie_draws_criticism_for_being_too_white_to_play_cleopatra_in_upcoming.html
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Angelina Jolie draws criticism for being 'too white' to play Cleopatra in upcoming Scott Rudin film
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But some members of the African American community beg to differ -- they are outraged by the casting decision and say Jolie is "too white" to play the Egyptian Queen.
"I don't care how full Angelina Jolie's lips are, how many African children she adopts, or how bronzed her skin will become for the film," Shirea Carroll wrote in an editorial for Essence.com.
"I firmly believe this role should have gone to a Black woman...What's next? A biopic on Sojourner Truth played by Betty White?" |
I assume this is why Cordova created this thread. |
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NovaKart
Joined: 18 Nov 2009 Location: Iraq
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Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 10:09 am Post subject: |
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Cleopatra may have been of mixed race, her father's mother might have been a concubine of unknown race. In the surviving portraits of her she certainly looks European and none of the surviving descriptions of her mention dark skin. Analysis of the bones of her sister show that she was likely mixed race however.
To sum it up, we're talking about a possibly mixed race Egyptian/Greek person who most likely didn't have especially African features. Seems like Angelina Jolie would work well. |
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Fox

Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 4:10 pm Post subject: |
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Quote: |
"I don't care how full Angelina Jolie's lips are, how many African children she adopts, or how bronzed her skin will become for the film," Shirea Carroll wrote in an editorial for Essence.com.
"I firmly believe this role should have gone to a Black woman...What's next? A biopic on Sojourner Truth played by Betty White?" |
I feel a hint of disgust when I read things like this. I think it's the sense of entitlement. Beginning her editoral with, "Just when we thought there weren't enough leading roles for Black women in Hollywood..." inspires the same feeling. If she feels young black girls could use more role models, she could start by showing a bit more dignity and being one herself. As it stands, the lesson she's teaching is, "Whine pathetically, over everything, in hopes of getting your way out of pity." |
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Leon
Joined: 31 May 2010
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Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 4:19 pm Post subject: |
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Fox wrote: |
Quote: |
"I don't care how full Angelina Jolie's lips are, how many African children she adopts, or how bronzed her skin will become for the film," Shirea Carroll wrote in an editorial for Essence.com.
"I firmly believe this role should have gone to a Black woman...What's next? A biopic on Sojourner Truth played by Betty White?" |
I feel a hint of disgust when I read things like this. I think it's the sense of entitlement. Beginning her editoral with, "Just when we thought there weren't enough leading roles for Black women in Hollywood..." inspires the same feeling. If she feels young black girls could use more role models, she could start by showing a bit more dignity and being one herself. As it stands, the lesson she's teaching is, "Whine pathetically, over everything, in hopes of getting your way out of pity." |
Is it more dignified to ignore the way that blacks are portrayed in the popular culture? To stay quiet about lack of role models? If thats dignity than I have no use for it. |
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Fox

Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 4:25 pm Post subject: |
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Leon wrote: |
Is it more dignified to ignore the way that blacks are portrayed in the popular culture? |
That's unrelated to this discussion; who to cast as the role of Cleopatra has nothing to do with how blacks are portrayed in popular culture.
Leon wrote: |
To stay quiet about lack of role models? |
If she feels there is a genuine lack of role models, the dignified answer is to become one herself. Real role models aren't people cast in Hollywood Movies. They are people who interact with the world around them and leave it better than they found it. This woman is reinforcing the problem of lack of good role models, not working to address it.
Leon wrote: |
If thats dignity than I have no use for it. |
Others no doubt feel the same way, which is why we'll keep hearing these people whine about castings in trivial movies instead of becoming good role models themselves, contributing something of genuine value to the world to give younger generations something to look up to.
I think one other thing is worth mentioning. The author of the article in question insisted that an African American woman should play Cleopatra because she was an "African Queen". In doing this, she does exactly what many white people do with regards to Africa: treats it like a monolithic entity, when in reality it's a huge, quite diverse place. Africans aren't some single group of people; just as with Europeans, or Asians, or so forth, they fall into a wide range (and Southern Europe and Northern Africa have historically had a fair amount of overlap in that regard). If she could get her head around this fact, perhaps she'd recognize that Ancient Egyptians -- particularly their nobility from certain periods -- almost assuredly had very little in common with the peoples African Americans descend from, and understand why both Egyptologists and people who make media casting decisions are completely comfortable casting someone of European descent as Cleopatra. Incidentally being from the same continent is meaningless. She should have more respect for African diversity than that, but like many biased individuals, she is emotionally compelled to think of Egypt as an "African Empire", which of course in her mind necessitates it being populated by people she imagines as "African". |
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