Re: Georgians, Berbers and Guanches

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "ytielts" <ytielts@...> wrote:

> Some Georgians are white-skinned, blond-haired and blue-eyed and

they

> can pass for a Norwegian or a Swede. It is the same case with some
> Riffian Berbers living in the Northwest of Africa. I can send you

some

> of their photos. However, to our surprise Georgians speak

Kartvelian, a

> language belonging to the Iberian-Caucasian language family rather

than

> the Indo-European one. And Berbers speak their own language, which
> belongs to the Afro-Asiatic language family. It seems that there

are

> some disagreements between genetic and linguistic classifications.

The point I've been trying to make is that that is normal. One should
not expect genetic and linguistic classifications to match very
closely because genes and language are transmitted in fundamentally
different ways. People can and often do switch language, but can't
switch genes. Both language and genes are moving targets, but they
move in different ways. For some reason the would-be Cavalli-Sforza's
of this world don't seem to be willing or able to grasp this
absolutely basic point.

> So
> can we draw a safe conclusion that some white-skinned, blond-haired

and

> blue-eyed groups of people such as Georgians, Berbers and Guanches

are

> the direct descendants of the Cro-Magnon type or the above-

mentioned

> physical features are not unique to the Indo-Europeans?

I've no idea about the Cro-Magnons (who has?), but unless I have
missed something terribly important there is absolutely no reason to
regard blond hair and blue eyes as something inherently Indo-
European. The assumption that it was has been abandoned long ago.

> Could you give
> me some information about genetic studies on the three peoples,

thanks?

>

You'll have to ask specialists of those groups.


W.