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Whole-genome ancestry of an Old Kingdom Egyptian

(www.nature.com)
149 points A_D_E_P_T | 7 comments | 03 Jul 25 00:24 UTC | HN request time: 0.34s | source | bottom
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eddythompson80 ◴[03 Jul 25 01:51 UTC] No.44450865[source]▶
I'll have to bookmark it for later to spend more time than just skimming, but I find 2 things interesting. The lack of any Egyptian archeologists on most interesting and significant findings about Ancient Egypt is one. The other is the seemingly strong conclusion that Ancient Egyptians did in fact move to Egypt from Mesopotamian which is pretty cool.

Egyptians don't like the notion that "they moved there from somewhere". They claim their own unique, uninterrupted, history and connection to the land as well as their civilizational independence from Mesopotamian, Asia Minor, Europe, and Africa.

It's also the same you rarely find Egyptian archeologists/scholars on scientific papers. While this might be a matter of ancient history and science to everyone, it's a matter of current day politics for Egyptians and especially the Egyptian government. The "findings" of the paper has to agree with the narrative built and proposed by the ministry of antiquities or they will literally charge whoever publishes it with a national crime.

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dilawar ◴[03 Jul 25 03:27 UTC] No.44451366[source]▶
> Egyptians don't like the notion that "they moved there from somewhere". They claim their own unique, uninterrupted, history and connection to the land as well as their civilizational independence from Mesopotamian, Asia Minor, Europe, and Africa.

Same here in India.

These ideas about civilization and racial purity/superiority are a scientific nonsense but very useful for getting people to hate each other.

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1. beloch ◴[03 Jul 25 05:39 UTC] No.44451959[source]▶
Human populations almost never sat still in one place and avoided mixing with others. Go back far enough, and Europeans and Indians are related. Go back further, and they're both related to Native North Americans. Go back far enough and we're all related. Anyone making claims that their ethnic group is somehow "pure" is ignoring linguistics, genetics, archaeology, and basic human nature.

We move around. We meet people. We make new people.

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2. like_any_other ◴[03 Jul 25 05:58 UTC] No.44452068[source]▶
Go back further still, and we're related to cyanobacteria.
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3. genghisjahn ◴[03 Jul 25 14:29 UTC] No.44455434[source]▶
“LET’S SET THE EXISTENCE-OF-GOD ISSUE ASIDE FOR A later volume, and just stipulate that in some way, self-replicating organisms came into existence on this planet and immediately began trying to get rid of each other, either by spamming their environments with rough copies of themselves, or by more direct means which hardly need to be belabored.” Cryptonomicon. Page 24.
4. simonh ◴[03 Jul 25 14:48 UTC] No.44455631[source]▶
https://xkcd.com/2608/
5. czl ◴[03 Jul 25 17:12 UTC] No.44457177[source]▶
“Pure” usually means having genes from a narrow, selected group, so the offspring show predictable traits—like size, intelligence, or appearance. That’s why dogs and farm animals are called “purebred.” But making pure breeds often requires inbreeding, which, unless done carefully, can cause serious problems.
6. alephnerd ◴[03 Jul 25 19:25 UTC] No.44458371[source]▶
Reminds me of that scene from Community (#sixseasonsandamovie) with Pierce's dad:

"Swedish dogs! Your blood is tainted by generations of race mixing with Laplanders. You're basically Finns!"

7. ljsprague ◴[04 Jul 25 00:28 UTC] No.44460222[source]▶
Populations can be homogenous though. If a hundred random humans were placed on an island to breed for 100 generations, they might homogenize into a distinct "type" and maybe that's something worth preserving or being proud of.