Genetic origins of the Kurds

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Genetic testings amongst randomly chosen Kurdish populations has began to shed light into the disparate origins of the Kurds. The results reveal a variety of connections amongst the Kurds including regional variations and different links to the past when assessing paternal and maternal lineages[1]. In the overall sense, the Kurds share some genetic ties to other speakers of Iranian languages as well as with various peoples from the Caucasus such as the Armenians which suggests that the Kurds have ancient ethnic ties that connect them to both the early inhabitants, including the Hurrians, as well as various Aryan tribes, such as the Medes, not unlike the aforementioned Armenians themselves who are also a composite group and the Georgians, another Caucasian people, which may, in part, link the Kurds genetically to the Hurrians[2].

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[edit] Connection with the Georgian People

Mitochondrial DNA sequences from Georgians and Kurds were analyzed in order to test the possible correlation between female lineages and languages in these two neighboring West Eurasian groups. Mitochondrial sequence pools in both populations are very similar despite their different linguistic and prehistoric backgrounds. Both populations present mtDNA lineages that clearly belong to the European gene pool, as shown by

  1. similar nucleotide and sequence diversities;
  2. a large number of sequences shared with the rest of European samples;
  3. nonsignificant genetic distances; and
  4. classification of the present lineages into the major European mtDNA haplogroups already described.

The outlier position of the populations from the Caucasus according to classical genetic markers is not recognized in the present Georgian mtDNA sequence pool. This result suggests that the differentiation of mtDNA sequences in West Eurasia and the outlier features of Caucasian populations should be attributed to different processes. Moreover, the putative linguistic relationship between Caucasian groups and the Basques, another outlier population within Europe for classical genetic markers, is not detected by the analysis of mtDNA sequences.[3]

It should be noted that the Caucasian family is merely a geographical expression and not a linguistic reality. Caucasian languages in fact comprise two families, Kartvelian and North Caucasian; Georgian is a member of the former, while members of the latter include Kabardian, Adyghe, Chechen, Ingush and Lezgian. The relationship of Kartvelian to Basque has been suggested but not proven; historical linguists generally reject the notion. Georgian and Kurdish are likewise unrelated; the Kurdish languages are members of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family. Their closest linguistic relatives include Persian, Ossetian, Pashto and Baluchi. Georgian is, of course, non-Indo-European. Needless to say, any correlation between biological and linguistic relationships is tangential at best. The evolution of human beings and that of human languages are for the most part independent, although they can occur in parallel wherever there happens to be both biological and linguistic continuity.

[edit] Connection with the Jewish People

There also appear to be some links to northern Semitic peoples such as the Syrians and possibly ancient Hebrews, but fewer links to southern Semites in the Arabian peninsula in-spite of the region having been conquered very early by Muslim Arabs. The recent genetic research suggests a possible ancient bond between Jews and Kurds as well. In 2001, a team of scientists discovered that three Jewish communities of Ashkenazi, Sephardic and Kurdish Jews surprisingly shared more haplotypes and chromosomes with Muslim Kurds than with either Palestinians or Bedouins.[4]

In 2001, Nebel et al compared three Jewish and three non-Jewish groups from the Middle East: Ashkenazim, Sephardim, and Kurdish Jews from Israel; Muslim Arabs from Israel and the Palestinian Authority Area; Bedouin from the Negev; and Muslim Kurds. They concluded that Sephardim and Kurdish Jews were genetically indistinguishable, but that both were slightly significantly different from Ashkenazim (who were most closely related to the Muslim Kurds). Nebel et al had earlier (2000) found a large genetic relationship between Jews and Palestinians, but in this study found an even higher relationship of Jews with Iraqi Kurds. They conclude that the common genetic background shared by Jews and other Middle Eastern groups predates the division of Middle Easterners into different ethnic groups[5].

Interestingly, Nebel et al (2001) also found that the Cohen Modal Haplotype (CMH), considered the most definitive Jewish haplotype, was found among 10.1% of Kurdish Jews, 7.6% of Ashkenazim, 6.4% of Sephardim, 2.1% of Palestianian Arabs, and 1.1% of Muslim Kurds. The CMH and the most frequent Muslim Kurdish haplotype (MKH) were the same on five markers (out of six) and very close on the other marker. The MKH was shared by 9.5% of Muslim Kurds, 2.6% of Sephardim, 2.0% of Kurdish Jews, 1.4% of Palestinian Arabs, and 1.3% of Ashkenazim. The general conclusion is that these similarities result mostly from the sharing of ancient genetic patterns, and not from more recent admixture between the groups (p. 1099). Rabbi Yaakov Kleiman has suggested that the CMH is “likely the marker of the Jews’ and Arabs’ shared Patriarch, Abraham” (2004: 20), but much more analysis is needed on the CMH in populations throughout the world. In this study, Kurdish Jews were found to be close to Muslim Kurds, but so were Ashkenazim and Sephardim, suggesting that much if not most of the genetic similarity between Jewish and Muslim Kurds is from ancient times [6].

[edit] Connection with other Middle Eastern and Mediterranean Groups

According to a recent study, Kurds' ancestors were from an old Mediterranean substratum, i.e. Hurrian and Hittite groups. Moreover the Aryan ancestry of the Kurds is not supported by genetic analyses [7].

Genetic distance comparisons have revealed that the Turkic and Turkmen speaking peoples in the Caspian area cluster with the Kurds, Greeks and Iranics (Ossetians). The Persian speakers are genetically remote from these populations, they are, however, close to the Parsis who migrated from Iran to India at the end of the 7th Century A.D.[8].

According to a recent genetic study based on genetic distances and haplotypes, Kurds are classified as part of the eastern Mediterranean stock, close to the Turks of Anatolia [9].

Lastly, recent evidence also points to European genetic links as well. Overall the Kurds are a varied population and the genetic inquiries into their background will require larger sampling before being deemed conclusive:

[edit] Muslim Kurds

The Kurds are considered an ancient autochthonous population[10] who may even be the descendants of the shepherds who first populated the highlands during the Neolithic period[11]. Although Kurdistan came under the successive dominion of various conquerors, including the Armenians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Ottoman Turks, and Iraqis[12], they may be the only western Asian group that remained relatively unmixed by the influx of invaders, because of their protected and inhospitable mountainous homeland [13]. The Y chromosome variation of Muslim Kurds falls within the spectrum observed in other populations (Turks and Armenians) living in the same region. The three populations are closer to Jews and Arabs than to Europeans. This is in good agreement with data on classical markers (Cavalli-Sforza et al. 1994). However, on the basis of mtDNA polymorphisms, Kurds were reported to be more closely related to Europeans than to Middle Easterners [14]

Recent genetic tests also do not support the hypothesis of the origin of the Zazas being in northern Iran; genetically they are more similar to other Kurdish groups [15].

[edit] Connection with European people

In another study, Kurds showed mtDNA lineages that clearly belong to the European gene pool. On the basis of mtDNA variation, the Kurdish samples appear more closly related to Europeans than to Middle Eastern samples [16].

[edit] Validity and reliability of such genetic studies

According to geneticists and anthropologists, genetic diversity appears to fall along a continuum, with no clear breaks delineating different groups. As gene expression can be affected significantly by environmental factors, genes evolve differently when exposed to different environmental conditions.

Such genetic analyses suffer from many drawbacks and any conclusion must be drawn cautiously. Moreover, they are very limited to a certain set of genes or a specific chromosome and do not take into account the whole genome sequence. Besides, several scientists believe that racial typing is ridiculous and there's no place where you can draw a line and say there's a major difference on one side of the line from what's on the other side.[17]

When the sequencing of the human genome was completed in 2000, it was heralded as evidence that race was a cultural construction with little base in science. The sequencing apparently shows that approximately 99.9% of the human genome is the same in everybody, and that there is greater genetic variation within each race than there is between races.

According to Dr. Craig Venter of Celera Genomics, one of the organizations involved in the sequencing, the level of genetic similarity shows that: "Race is a social concept, not a scientific one." There is only one race, Dr. Venter and other scientists at the National Institutes of Health have unanimously declared: the human race.[18]

American Anthropological Association made a statement on genetic studies of races, stating that there is greater variation within "racial" groups than between them. Such groupings are scientifically baseless according to most American Anthropologists, though not according to most American Geneticists.[19]

Some Human rights activists also oppose such genetic analysis.[17] (It should be noted that said activists are not practicing scientists.)

[edit] References

  1. ^ refer to: Where West Meets East: The Complex mtDNA Landscape of the Southwest and Central Asian Corridor [1] for further analysis regarding the many common genetic markers found amongst Middle Eastern populations
  2. ^ for further detail, see: Georgian and Kurd mtDNA sequence analysis shows a lack of correlation between languages and female genetic lineages [2]
  3. ^ Am J Phys Anthropol 112:5-16, 2000
  4. ^ [3]
  5. ^ p. 1106
  6. ^ [4]
  7. ^ [5]
  8. ^ [6]
  9. ^ see The correlation Between Languages and Genes: The Usko-Mediterranean Peoples, Human Immunology, 62, p.1057, 2001
  10. ^ Kinnane 1970; Pelletiere 1984
  11. ^ Comas et al. 2000
  12. ^ Kinnane 1970
  13. ^ Pelletiere 1984
  14. ^ Comas, et al. 2000 [7]
  15. ^ [8]
  16. ^ [9]
  17. ^ a b CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY:DNA Studies Challenge the Meaning of Race.
  18. ^ Do Races Differ? Not Really, DNA Shows. by Natalie Angier
  19. ^ American Anthropological Association Statement on "Race". (May 17, 1998)

[edit] See also

Subfields of genetics
v • d • e
Classical genetics | Ecological genetics | Molecular genetics | Population genetics | Quantitative genetics
Related topics: Geneticist | Genomics | Medical genetics | Reverse genetics | Molecular evolution
 v • d • e 
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