Genetic studies on Jews
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Genetic studies on Jews are part of the population genetics discipline and are used to better understand the chronology of migration provided by research in other fields, such as history, archaeology, linguistics, and paleontology. These studies investigate the origins of various Jewish populations today. In particular, they investigate whether there is a common genetic heritage among various Jewish populations. Studies of autosomal DNA, which look at the entire DNA mixture, show that Jewish populations have tended to form relatively closely related groups in independent communities with most in a community sharing significant ancestry. For populations of the Jewish diaspora, the genetic composition of Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Mizrahi Jewish populations show significant amounts of shared Middle Eastern ancestry According to Behar and colleagues (2010), this is "consistent with an historical formulation of the Jewish people as descending from ancient Hebrew and Israelites of the Levant" and "the dispersion of the people of ancient Israel throughout the Old World" Jews living in the North African, Italian, and Iberian regions show variable frequencies of admixture with the historical non-Jewish host population along the maternal lines. In the case of Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews (in particular Moroccan Jews), who are closely related, the source of non-Jewish admixture is mainly southern European. Behar and colleagues have remarked on an especially close relationship between Ashkenazi Jews and modern Italians, particularly Tuscans. Some studies show that the Bene Israel and Black Cochin Jews of India, and the Beta Israel of Ethiopia, while more closely resembling the local populations of their native countries, have some ancient Jewish descent.
See also
- Archaeogenetics of the Near East
- Ashkenazi Jewish intelligence
- Falasha
- Genetic history of North Africa
- Genetic studies on Arabs
- Genetic history of Europe
- Indian Jews
- Jewish ethnic divisions
- Jewish history
- Khazar theory
- Medical genetics of Jews
- Y-DNA haplogroups by ethnic groups