Ygorcs
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I've just read this study (Male Lineages in Brazil: Intercontinental Admixture and Stratification of the European Background) on the distribution of male lineages of Brazilians and there is something that struck me as very intriguing and, I think, difficult to explain. They have a somewhat respectable sample of Brazilian males (1,217), though it would certainly be recommended not to expect a perfect demonstration of the actual Y-DNA makeup of the country, given how large and diverse Brazil is and of course the very nature of these studies at least in developing countries, i.e. most of the individuals who volunteered to have their DNA collected live in large urban centers with good universities, not exactly a good representation of the rest of the country.
With all that said, what do you think can explain this:
There is a surprisingly high percentage of haplogroup I, 8.9% as a whole and reaching a (for me) astounding 11.5% in the Northeast of Brazil, the region that least received the post-1830 non-Iberian immigration, and until the 1880s the most populous region (now the 2nd one).
I thought I1 and I2 lineages would correlate a more Eastern/Northeastern European influx, but that definitely is NOT the origin of most Northeastern colonial immigrants from Europe as far as I know. Could the Dutch have left such a noticeable impact on Y-DNA when their Dutch Brazil in the northeast lasted less than 30 years, and also - according to their Portuguese defeaters, at least - they were expelled en masse from Brazil? There was also some short settlement and longer trading voyages by Frenchmen in the Northeastern coast.These hypotheses, though, wouldn't solve the issue that I is also strong in the North (10%), never occupied by the Dutch or French.
I thought of a clear mistake in the analysis or a very skewed and misleading sample, but looking at the other Y-DNA percentage they look totally reasonable and explainable: highest E1b1a (8.2%) in the Northeast, the largest center for slaves in roughly ~1530-1780; highest R1(xR1b), i.e. mostly R1a, in the South (5.5%), by far the main destination of the Germans and Slavs; highest Q1a2 (8.1%) in the North, the last region to be effectively colonized outside the coastal region and still today with the largest Amerindian population. So, everything fits just right, except for that high I1+I2 percentage in the Northeast/North!
As an aside, I found it interesting that, even with the relatively minor contribution of non-Western European Y-DNA (Amerindians, Africans, other Europeans), the haplogroups E1b1b (10.9%), J (10.1%) and G (5.1%) are very present, adding to a full 26.1%, more than 1/4 of the male lineages. That really indicates how strongly the (traditionally/originally) non-IE lineages resisted in Portugal.
Another interesting finding, though maybe coincidental due to patterns of the demographic formation, is that the Y-DNA distribution of the Brazilian Northeast appears as the most Central European-shifted among the 4 regions (i.e. a bit closer to France and, lesso, Italy), while the Southeast has the Y-DNA makeup closest to Portugal's, even though it's received the largest and most diversified number of immigrants from 1860 to our days. I really don't know what to make of those results, how to explain them fitting into Brazilian history. What would you suggest/hypothesize?
With all that said, what do you think can explain this:
There is a surprisingly high percentage of haplogroup I, 8.9% as a whole and reaching a (for me) astounding 11.5% in the Northeast of Brazil, the region that least received the post-1830 non-Iberian immigration, and until the 1880s the most populous region (now the 2nd one).
I thought I1 and I2 lineages would correlate a more Eastern/Northeastern European influx, but that definitely is NOT the origin of most Northeastern colonial immigrants from Europe as far as I know. Could the Dutch have left such a noticeable impact on Y-DNA when their Dutch Brazil in the northeast lasted less than 30 years, and also - according to their Portuguese defeaters, at least - they were expelled en masse from Brazil? There was also some short settlement and longer trading voyages by Frenchmen in the Northeastern coast.These hypotheses, though, wouldn't solve the issue that I is also strong in the North (10%), never occupied by the Dutch or French.
I thought of a clear mistake in the analysis or a very skewed and misleading sample, but looking at the other Y-DNA percentage they look totally reasonable and explainable: highest E1b1a (8.2%) in the Northeast, the largest center for slaves in roughly ~1530-1780; highest R1(xR1b), i.e. mostly R1a, in the South (5.5%), by far the main destination of the Germans and Slavs; highest Q1a2 (8.1%) in the North, the last region to be effectively colonized outside the coastal region and still today with the largest Amerindian population. So, everything fits just right, except for that high I1+I2 percentage in the Northeast/North!
As an aside, I found it interesting that, even with the relatively minor contribution of non-Western European Y-DNA (Amerindians, Africans, other Europeans), the haplogroups E1b1b (10.9%), J (10.1%) and G (5.1%) are very present, adding to a full 26.1%, more than 1/4 of the male lineages. That really indicates how strongly the (traditionally/originally) non-IE lineages resisted in Portugal.
Another interesting finding, though maybe coincidental due to patterns of the demographic formation, is that the Y-DNA distribution of the Brazilian Northeast appears as the most Central European-shifted among the 4 regions (i.e. a bit closer to France and, lesso, Italy), while the Southeast has the Y-DNA makeup closest to Portugal's, even though it's received the largest and most diversified number of immigrants from 1860 to our days. I really don't know what to make of those results, how to explain them fitting into Brazilian history. What would you suggest/hypothesize?