Saturday, 3 October 2009

Preponderance of Celtic DNA in Britain

Correct me if I am mistaken but DNA tests throughout Britain have ascertained that 67% of the British population has DNA from their Celtic forebears. If this is true it points to the assumption that the Saxon incursions into Britain did not make such a physically genetic impact on the population even though the Saxon domination resulted in the eventual subjugation of the native British population. Thus, large numbers of "English" people living today have Celtic DNA and not Germanic apart from the fact of interbreeding across the centuries.
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3 comments:

  1. Unknown3 October 2009 at 05:24

    It's not as simple as that, and since every person living on this island hasn't been tested to say that 67% have "celtic" dna is incorrect and misleading.

    There are three main halogroups in Britain. And these have lots of subclades. R1B (Atlantic modal) is mostly found in Wales and Ireland. Traces in England are probably down to Welsh/Irish people moving there, in the same way R1A traces in England come from Germanic peoples.

    But DNA is a misleading dead-end anyway. Wales/England/Ireland/Cornwall/Scotland aren't genetic concepts, they are cultural ones, civic ones. War, invasion, apartheid, education, laws, famine, migration all played their part in removing the Native British culture from Endland.

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  2. John L. Murphy / "Fionnchú"3 October 2009 at 12:09

    I reviewed both Bryan Sykes' and Stephen Oppenheimer's books on this topic on my blog and Amazon US. Oddly the two Oxford geneticists do not cite each other; I assume a rivalry. You and your readers may find out much more about this topic in these works.

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  3. Anonymous26 October 2009 at 19:49

    Call Me Beli Mawr.

    The dna shows conclusively that Britain is celtic, not Saxon. As genes and culture tend to go together, so do behavior. It's a celtic country, and the title English is a misnomer.

    By the way, the red dragon did end up winning in the end.

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