Black Wolf
04-05-2014, 10:48 PM
I have always found the Sami people of northern Scandinavia, Finland and Russia to be very interesting. Part of this is because they were the last hunter-gatherers of Europe and also seem to have developed reindeer herding at some point in the past as well which is also quite interesting I think. The genetics and origins of the Sami people is also an intriguing topic in my eyes. They seem to be a combination of both western (European) and eastern (Asian) genetic lineages. Their two dominant mtDNA haplogroups are very western (European) in origin being U5b and V while their Y-DNA pool is dominated by haplogroups N1c which seems to have an eastern (Asian) origin and I1 which has a western (European) origin. Of course there are other more minor haplogroups present among the Sami on both the maternal and paternal sides but the ones I mentioned above are the most common. Now when it comes to mtDNA we know that the Mesolithic hunter-gatherers or Europe were dominated by haplogroup U5 while the mtDNA haplogroup does not seem to show up until later possibly during the Neolithic. Then again haplogroup V has not been found in high numbers among any pre-historic samples yet really. When it comes to Y-DNA it seems that haplogroup N1c probably arrived at some point in the fairly remote past into Europe probably from Siberia and may be responsible for the Asian/Siberian element in Sami genes while Y-DNA haplogroup I1 was probably present among the Mesolithic hunter-gatherers of Europe like it's brother clade I2 which has been found among Mesolithic hunter-gatherers from Scandinavia. Given the fact that two haplogroups dominate both the mtDNA and Y-DNA of the Sami people makes it quite clear that they went through probably a number of genetic bottlenecks at points in the past. So I wonder when these lineages all fused together to form the Sami people we know today?