I want to bring yet again the topic of Basque particularism.
This is by no means a new topic, it is well known in a good chunk of fields like historiography, linguistics...
Lets start with Basques being linguistically isolated with the rest of Europe. Speaking a language that doesn't come from the IndoEuropean family.
So, if they don't speak a IE language, that must mean that Basques are a population that didn't come very close to their neighbours and received little cultural influence. Right?
Well, it turns out that was not the case at all.
Regular members of this site are familiar that Y-DNA Haplogroup R1b is the male marker of the IEs moving West. Hp R in its 2 main variants coincide with the map of IndoEuropean languages.
And guess who are the second people in the world with the most R1b???? Unbelievably, the Basques are.
One proposed hypothesis, is that the male invaders that carried the haplogroup, even though succesful, were few. So women had to take a lot of educative chores, thereby preserving the ancestral language.
That makes sense because if are occupied fighting other native peoples beyond the mountains, women have to defend and mantain the homeland. Therefore, women had an important role in the surge of the Basque people.
But if we have to assume those women had to be natives if they have another language. Then, we have to pay attention to one detail, mt-DNA haplogroups in the Basque country are also the main ones you find all over Europe.
Different branches of H peak in all of the Atlantic shores, particularly H1 and H3.
So that strongly suggest the conclusion that Haplogroup H may have been well established by the late Neolithic, and that there is a lot of it that comes from before the IndoEuropean migrations.
But, I want to end with a little disclaimer.
In no way I'm saying Basques are like 'isolated'.
None of that, they live in Pyrenees, which may be seen as remote from the point of view of the main urban civilizations and international routes.
But They have come in contact with the Germanic tribes that crossed to the Peninsula, they send brides to the caliphs in the Xth century. They're a part in the formation of the Christian Kingdoms of Spain, and their members have always been part of governments and institutions in both Spain and France. Remember the Bourbon dinasty were Kings of Navarre, and Navarre is Basque.
Those are not the signs of someone isolated, isolated peoples in the end, are superated by way too much as several examples in recent history show.
They should be seen as guarded and protected in the mountains, but with awareness of the outer world. And fairly connected.
This is by no means a new topic, it is well known in a good chunk of fields like historiography, linguistics...
Lets start with Basques being linguistically isolated with the rest of Europe. Speaking a language that doesn't come from the IndoEuropean family.
So, if they don't speak a IE language, that must mean that Basques are a population that didn't come very close to their neighbours and received little cultural influence. Right?
Well, it turns out that was not the case at all.
Regular members of this site are familiar that Y-DNA Haplogroup R1b is the male marker of the IEs moving West. Hp R in its 2 main variants coincide with the map of IndoEuropean languages.
And guess who are the second people in the world with the most R1b???? Unbelievably, the Basques are.
One proposed hypothesis, is that the male invaders that carried the haplogroup, even though succesful, were few. So women had to take a lot of educative chores, thereby preserving the ancestral language.
That makes sense because if are occupied fighting other native peoples beyond the mountains, women have to defend and mantain the homeland. Therefore, women had an important role in the surge of the Basque people.
But if we have to assume those women had to be natives if they have another language. Then, we have to pay attention to one detail, mt-DNA haplogroups in the Basque country are also the main ones you find all over Europe.
Different branches of H peak in all of the Atlantic shores, particularly H1 and H3.
So that strongly suggest the conclusion that Haplogroup H may have been well established by the late Neolithic, and that there is a lot of it that comes from before the IndoEuropean migrations.
But, I want to end with a little disclaimer.
In no way I'm saying Basques are like 'isolated'.
None of that, they live in Pyrenees, which may be seen as remote from the point of view of the main urban civilizations and international routes.
But They have come in contact with the Germanic tribes that crossed to the Peninsula, they send brides to the caliphs in the Xth century. They're a part in the formation of the Christian Kingdoms of Spain, and their members have always been part of governments and institutions in both Spain and France. Remember the Bourbon dinasty were Kings of Navarre, and Navarre is Basque.
Those are not the signs of someone isolated, isolated peoples in the end, are superated by way too much as several examples in recent history show.
They should be seen as guarded and protected in the mountains, but with awareness of the outer world. And fairly connected.