Hello, I am somewhat new to this subject although I have been reading for hours about the matter for the last two days and I was aware of haplogroups for many months. When I "set out" to better understand the genetic make-up of Georgians I was very often encountering a lot of discussions about the proportions of admixtures in certain ethnicities, like 20% ANE and 80% EEF in Georgians or theories like Georgians being mostly Caucasian Hunter Gatherers and EEF and an unending list of theories basically. But this question is not about Georgians specifically but about the meaning of admixtures. What are admixtures precisely? When I first got into this subject I had the impression that Y-DNA and mtDNA are the sole or at least primary defining factors when it comes to national genetics and phenotype, but as I am aware now autosomal DNA is a more important factor and it combines the genetics of all our ancestors instead of father's father's father's genes and mother's mother's mother's genes.
So are admixtures a group of certain subclades? A certain proportion of Y-DNA haplogroups+mtDNA haplogroups? I have seen some admixture maps on this website and a lot of them added up to more than 100%, so are admixtures pretty much arbitrary? You take one ancient genetic sample and compare them to other groups? Like the West Asian or Caucasian admixture for example, it said that Georgians had around 90% of it, and every other region had less than that. Does that mean that other regions' populations are discussed from the point of view of being similar to Georgians or is the Caucasian admixture a very real and objective fact? Because on the eurogenes website I have read through so many discussions and opinions that I feel mind****ed at this stage and the topic of population DNA seems to be pointless speculation. Also the mtDNA in pretty much every ethnic group is so diverse that I struggle to understand how you could attribute a certain haplogroup to a certain ethnicity or a group of ethnicities. Do admixtures have a better correlation with phenotypes or with actual genetic make-up of a group of people?
So are admixtures a group of certain subclades? A certain proportion of Y-DNA haplogroups+mtDNA haplogroups? I have seen some admixture maps on this website and a lot of them added up to more than 100%, so are admixtures pretty much arbitrary? You take one ancient genetic sample and compare them to other groups? Like the West Asian or Caucasian admixture for example, it said that Georgians had around 90% of it, and every other region had less than that. Does that mean that other regions' populations are discussed from the point of view of being similar to Georgians or is the Caucasian admixture a very real and objective fact? Because on the eurogenes website I have read through so many discussions and opinions that I feel mind****ed at this stage and the topic of population DNA seems to be pointless speculation. Also the mtDNA in pretty much every ethnic group is so diverse that I struggle to understand how you could attribute a certain haplogroup to a certain ethnicity or a group of ethnicities. Do admixtures have a better correlation with phenotypes or with actual genetic make-up of a group of people?