Sikeliot
04-01-2017, 09:15 PM
Some people on here are very resistant to the idea, but I think that they are.
A lot of the groups who came to Sicily who had northern affinities, like Normans and Lombards, would have been upper crust, and been in positions of power and privilege. Normans were the royals. Why would they ever have married into the lower classes? Most likely, they did not. Spanish, too, were landowners, and likely remained endogamous until the end. My guess is from the Crusades onward, there was very little intermarriage between the upper and lower classes, and that genetics, and physical features today, bear this divide out.
The poor masses in Sicily, Calabria, etc. would have not absorbed any of these peoples, for the most part. The poor masses, also, would have been more likely to emigrate to the US, which may be why the Italian Americans tend to be darker with more exotic features. I sincerely doubt there is much Norman, Lombard, Swabian influence among the average street vender, fisherman, or farmer in Sicily.
So when I see Italian Americans who descend from the poorest of the poor in southern Italy claiming affinity to these conquerors, it seems very unlikely to me that it's based on reality. People never crossed class lines from wealthy to poor.
I figured this out because I know that in Palermo province, Sicily, there is a higher amount of Norman y-dna. However, I also notice in autosomal DNA, two "types" of results. Some people show evidence of higher autosomal input from Western Europe, while others have inflated Near Eastern and North African input and very little evidence of Norman ancestry.
Therefore my guess is if you tested the wealthy, you'd find higher Northern affinities, and the people would likely have lighter features; if you tested a poor street vender or fisherman, they will likely have DNA much less altered by foreign conquests.
A lot of the groups who came to Sicily who had northern affinities, like Normans and Lombards, would have been upper crust, and been in positions of power and privilege. Normans were the royals. Why would they ever have married into the lower classes? Most likely, they did not. Spanish, too, were landowners, and likely remained endogamous until the end. My guess is from the Crusades onward, there was very little intermarriage between the upper and lower classes, and that genetics, and physical features today, bear this divide out.
The poor masses in Sicily, Calabria, etc. would have not absorbed any of these peoples, for the most part. The poor masses, also, would have been more likely to emigrate to the US, which may be why the Italian Americans tend to be darker with more exotic features. I sincerely doubt there is much Norman, Lombard, Swabian influence among the average street vender, fisherman, or farmer in Sicily.
So when I see Italian Americans who descend from the poorest of the poor in southern Italy claiming affinity to these conquerors, it seems very unlikely to me that it's based on reality. People never crossed class lines from wealthy to poor.
I figured this out because I know that in Palermo province, Sicily, there is a higher amount of Norman y-dna. However, I also notice in autosomal DNA, two "types" of results. Some people show evidence of higher autosomal input from Western Europe, while others have inflated Near Eastern and North African input and very little evidence of Norman ancestry.
Therefore my guess is if you tested the wealthy, you'd find higher Northern affinities, and the people would likely have lighter features; if you tested a poor street vender or fisherman, they will likely have DNA much less altered by foreign conquests.