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Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

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National Geographic and Celts
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PeterH
PeterH
1180 posts

Re: we are all 'basque'
Mar 12, 2006, 18:57
"but the peasant can still be traced back to paleolithic times."

Yes and that has been shown throughout Britain by genetic mapping. It seems so obvious when considered objectively. The more tangible indications can be understood better if more recent invasions are considered. We know that the Norman invasion happened and laws, culture and even language changed (for a while), but the population didn't. Yes it did at the upper land-owning end and Domesday Book shows who owned what land before and after.

There is real anguish in Anglo-Saxon circles when the argument is put forward that the mass AS migration was much less than supposed. Then the language, law, customs and building techniques really did change. But the population stayed put, merged with the newcomers and adopted their ways. High status clan leaders lost out and may have moved westwards, but genetic mapping again has shown that even people in the east of England are predominantly descended from a stable, original population. There was no mass exodus or ethnic cleansing.

Similarly with the the Roman occupation - very few "Italian" Romans settled here, a fair number of auxiliaries especially German probably did. But the bulk of the population just continued.

Genetic mapping and such techiques as dna sampling from teeth and the ability to establish where people lived as children, will sweep away the preconceptions and mythologies. The answer must lie between the extremes that have both been "orthodox" in their time. The old idea of successive waves of mass folk movements has been abandoned. As a reaction, the pendulum has swung too far the other way with the new orthodoxy being one of zero movement and diffusionism. Surely the answer is likely to be that a finite number of people did sometimes move for economic and social reasons. Sometimes, that movement was peaceful through trade while at other times it was only acheived by conflict. That which is most likely, seems to be that which most probably did happen. Occam's razor again!
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