Yes, Genetically We Are 90% Similar To the Ancient Greeks!!

EDITOR’S NOTE (Nick Stamatakis).  I consider myself very fortunate to have met in the first few years I came to Stony Brook as a graduate student (1985 and after), one of the pioneers of population genetics, Professor Emeritus Robert Sokal (link here).  Born in Vienna in a Jewish family and having escaped the rise of Nazism in Europe at the last possible minute in 1938, Robert Sokal was a fascinating researcher who easily used statistics in DNA studies.  I still remember how absorbed I was as he was explaining that with statistics and DNA samples from several geographical areas, he could trace historical trends and follow population movements in the Balkans of all places – the real melting pot of ethnicities, languages, and religions!! In the course of a few seminars, he had captivated us all at a time when DNA studies were still at a very formative stage…

At that time, we were still learning at school in Greece the famous (but completely wrong) theories of German historian and biologist Jakob Fallmereyer (link here), whose theory was that the ancient, “Hellenic”, population of the south Balkans had been replaced during the Migration  Period by Arvanitic, Aromanian, Slavic and Turkic peoples, a theory which he advocated with characteristic zeal. The arguments he used were historical rather than genetic; at the time, cultural and racial aspects were conflated, and Fallmerayer used evidence from the former to support the latter.  Said Fallmereyer:

“…The race of the Hellenes has been wiped out in Europe. Physical beauty, intellectual brilliance, innate harmony and simplicity, art, competition, city, village, the splendour of column and temple — indeed, even the name has disappeared from the surface of the Greek continent…. Not the slightest drop of undiluted Hellenic blood flows in the veins of the Christian population of present-day Greece…”

Thanks to modern DNA studies, and Professor Robert Sokal was a true pioneer, the truth came to the surface. And all those who used Fallmereyer’s theory to achieve political goals, proved wrong.  As I grow older, I realize, mostly observing my children and friends’ children, that we are predominantly what out genetic composition dictates… I will give examples at some other point…

THE VIDEO BELOW EXPLAINS IN DNA TERMS THESE IDEAS, VERY CLOSE TO WHAT I HAD HEARD FROM PROFESSOR SOKAL 35-38 YEARS AGO…

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