The Study of Racialism

Dear Gina:

It is not unusual for an Italian or Greek to show sub-Saharan African or Native American markers. I am pure Italian in descent (all my ancestors were from Sicily and Naples) and I have 6% sub-Saharan African (range up to 12%) AND, believe it or not, 10% Native American (range up to 19%). Some of the following information would apply:

The 6% sub-Saharan African ancestry I found was not a surprise to me as the Romans went all over the place including North Africa. The conquering Roman armies there had certainly interchanged genetics with the sub-Saharan African slaves and servants of the Egyptians, for example. Some of these genetics were then further distributed onto the European continent. Thus, many people of Italian and Greek heritage, not surprisingly, do show sub-Saharan genetics.

Additionally, FYI as well, Southeastern Europeans - especially Italians, Greeks and Turks - almost all have some meaningful percentage of Native American ancestry in them! Where does this come from?? There is an ovelap of genetics between Native Americans and Central Asians (E.g. Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Southwest Siberia, etc.). Because of the high Ural Mountains separating Asia from Europe, the main route from Central Asia into Europe (if the migrations also went South and West and not just Northeast across the Bering land bridge to the Western hemisphere), was through Turkey, Greece and Italy and even further south into the Middle East. Thus, there is a common understanding among geneticists that Southeastern Europeans such as Italians, Greeks and Turks and some Middle Easterners, show Native American ancestry and sub-Saharan African ancestry. Therefore, your theory is correct with regard to your inherited African ancestral markers. The answer is clearly "all of the above"......!

We tell people to please remember that anyone who ever migrated, raided, invaded or traded eventually mated and this is what has contributed to the many admixtures we see in today's populations. Most of us are "a touch of gray"...

Emanuela I. Charlton, Ph.D.
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