Brit-Am Anthropology and DNA Update (17 November, 2013, Kislev 14, 5774)
Contents:
1. Yair Davidiy: Demographics in Israel and the World: Some Interesting Points on the Male-Female Imbalance
2. Yair Davidiy: Famous Rabbinical Commentator Found Correct on Demographic Point
3. Yair Davidiy: Answer to Query About Finding DNA Link to Ashkenazic Jews
4. DNA fingerprinting techniques 'can sometimes give the wrong results' by Fiona Macrae
5. Ancient Scandinavians from southern Europe
6. Correlations in the population structure of music, genes and language
7. Did Minoan-Mycenaeans (Philistines) Bring European Pigs to Ancient Israel?
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1. Demographics in Israel and the World: Some Interesting Points on the Male-Female Imbalance
In the Hebrew-Language weekly circular, Olam Katan, (no. 423, VaYishlach, 12 Kislev, 5774, p.14) there is an article by Sami Atadgi ("Pitron Achar...").
The article discusses the imbalance of females to males in the State of Israel. There are not enough young male bachelors available.
A few points of interest are noted:
In the past, all over the world, the female to male ration of birth was 102:100. In the last 30 years it has changed to ca. 106:100.
The average end of female fertility years (menopause) used to be ca. 45. Now it has gone down to ca.36.
The absolute world population has decreased since 1971. For some reason scientists (says the article) tend to hide this fact.
In Israel today there are 7.2 million, 3.8 million females and 3.4 million males.
In the Negev there are 150,000 Bedouin Arabs.
Amongst the Bedouin for every male born there are three females.
 The Beduin practise polygamy. [Here we see the relative ratio of females to males adjusting itself to demand!]
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2. Famous Rabbinical Commentator Found Correct on Demographic Point
The Biblical Commentator Malbim says that in societies that practise polygamy more females are born than males.
An example of this is found today in the State of Israel amongst the Bedouin Arabs in the Negev where for every male born there are three females.
 (See item no. 1 above. Olam Katan, no. 423, VaYishlach, 12 Kislev, 5774, p.14) there is an article by Sami Atadgi ("Pitron Achar...").
The Beduin practise polygamy.Â
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3. Answer to Query About Finding DNA Link to Ashkenazic Jews
Hello, my name is C.... Let me first say that I understand this is not a genealogical site. I would like to ask you gentleman a question regarding my last
name. The oral tradition in my family is that we are levites. The original name is said to have been matityahu then on to the Greek Mathias then ultimately to T... ( Germanic rendition). The earliest mention I can find of T... ... I have tested my DNA with ftdna and matched a few Ashkenazi at 12 markers and one Ashkenazi levite at a genetic distance of one. Most of my 12 marker matches are in Germany, Scotland, ireland, Denmark etc. I am just curious as to your opinion on this.
Thanks and g-d bless you either way
Cheers
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Brit-Am Reply:
If you have such a tradition and your DNA corresponds with that of Ashkenazi Jews and a Levite then your family were very likely of Levite origin.
I do not know where you can go with this but it is worth knowing.
There are however some problems with DNA. The definitions may have to be modified.
Ashkenazic Levite DNA especially is problematic. This may yet be shown to be due to a weakness in DNA assumptions in general.
God bless you
Yair
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4. DNA fingerprinting techniques 'can sometimes give the wrong results'
by Fiona Macrae
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1302156/DNA-fingerprinting-wrong-results.html#ixzz2fjYjFHoX
Extract:
The chances of two people having the same DNA fingerprint are between 800,000 and one billion to one. But there are concerns that increasing reliance on tiny samples of blood and saliva, often from more than one person, leaves interpretation open to the scientist's judgment.
New Scientist added: 'Profiling is generally seen as infallible and always able to get its man. But DNA profiling is far from perfect.'
British experts said techniques used here are more advanced and highly regulated.
Kay Francis, of the government funded Forensic Science Service, which handles the bulk of the police's forensics work, said: 'The UK has led the world in terms of breakthroughs in forensic science. North America is quite a bit behind in that aspect.
'A case is never hung solely on DNA evidence. The Crown Prosecution Service is very clear that nothing will go to court on just DNA evidence.'
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5. Ancient Scandinavians from southern Europe
http://fennoscandia.blogspot.no/2013/08/ste7-and-modern-european-variation.html
Conclusion: It appears like Ste7 are mainly of southern European ancestry but may also have "local" or ancient ancestry .. as there appears to be affiliation with part of the Saami [Lapplander] samples as well.
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6. Correlations in the population structure of music, genes and language
Brown et al.
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/281/1774/20132072.short?rss=1
Abstract:
We present, to our knowledge, the first quantitative evidence that music and genes may have coevolved by demonstrating significant correlations between traditional group-level folk songs and mitochondrial DNA variation among nine indigenous populations of Taiwan. These correlations were of comparable magnitude to those between language and genes for the same populations, although music and language were not significantly correlated with one another. An examination of population structure for genetics showed stronger parallels to music than to language. Overall, the results suggest that music might have a sufficient time-depth to retrace ancient population movements and, additionally, that it might be capturing different aspects of population history than language. Music may therefore have the potential to serve as a novel marker of human migrations to complement genes, language and other markers.
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7. Did Minoan-Mycenaeans (Philistines) Bring European Pigs to Ancient Israel?
Sea Peoples Migration?
Meirav Meiri et al.
http://dienekes.blogspot.co.il/2013/11/european-pigs-replacing-near-eastern.html
Near Eastern wild boars possess a characteristic DNA signature. Unexpectedly, wild boars from Israel have the DNA sequences of European wild boars and domestic pigs. To understand how this anomaly evolved, we sequenced DNA from ancient and modern pigs from Israel. Pigs from Late Bronze Age (until ca. 1150 BCE) in Israel shared haplotypes of modern and ancient Near Eastern pigs. European haplotypes became dominant only during the Iron Age (ca. 900 BCE). This raises the possibility that European pigs were brought to the region by the Sea Peoples who migrated to the Levant at that time. Then, a complete genetic turnover took place, most likely because of repeated admixture between local and introduced European domestic pigs that went feral. Severe population bottlenecks likely accelerated this process. Introductions by humans have strongly affected the phylogeography of wild animals, and interpretations of phylogeography based on modern DNA alone should be taken with caution.Â
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