9 March, 2007

All one - in one sense

That is interesting.  The standard historical view of changes in the population structure of the British Isles is one of various ethnic groups displacing others.  I've used that concept myself in a politicised sense: invasions and colonisation by the Germanic Angles and Saxons drove the Celtic peoples to the margins, namely Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Cornwall and Man.  Therefore, the modern English have no claim to a Celtic heritage, and the Celtic nations are distinctly different to England; it's one of the arguments for independence from Westminster (within the EU).  I'm oversimplifying, of course.

However, the New York Times reports that genetic evidence contradicts that traditional view. It seems more likely that the entire archipelago was settled by a relatively homogeneous people migrating from Spain towards the end of the last Ice Age (during which Britain hadn't been habitable). Later incursions by the Celts, Anglo-Saxons and Norse would have provided ruling elites, and hence defined their cultures, but the number of immigrants would have been small. According to the data, no single group of invaders is responsible for more than 5% of the current gene pool.

Personally, I welcome this conclusion, as it eliminates somewhat repugnant ideas of 'racial purity' from Celtic nationalist politics, though as the article concludes, "Geneticists see little prospect that their findings will reduce cultural and political differences" – as if diversity is a bad thing.

[Via Neil Gaiman.]