Bedouins – Of Arabia – their Origins

[djoser-xyyman]

There is controversy about who, when and where the Bedoiuns of Arabia came from. To some Afro-Centric the Bedoiuns migrated from Arabia to North Africa. Others believe they migrated from further South – Yemen. Apparently neither is correct. Here the great tool (Population Genetic)s have answered the question.


To those who don’t know. Bedouins are threated like native Americans in The Levant. There is a thread on ESR on how thay are threated.
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QUOTES from ---

Human Diversity In Jordan: Polymorphic Alu Insertions In General Jordanian And Bedouin Groups - Daniela Zanetti


Abstract. Jordan, located in the Levant region, is a crucial area to investigate human migration between Africa and Eurasia. Even thought, the genetic history of Jordanians is far to be clarified including the origin of the Bedouins today resident in Jordan. Here, we provide new genetic data on autosomal independent markers in TWO Jordanian population samples (Bedouins and general population) in order to approach the genetic diversity inside this country and to give new information about the genetic position of these populations in the frame of the Mediterranean and Middle East area. The analyzed markers are 18 Alu polymorphic insertions characterized by their identity by descent, known ancestral state (lack of insertion) and their apparent selective neutrality.
The results indicate significant genetic differences between Bedouins and General Jordanians (p= 0.038) from the 18 markers. Whereas Bedouins show a close genetic proximity to North African, General Jordanians appear genetically as more similar to other Middle East populations. In general, the data of this study are consistent with the hypothesis that Bedouins have had an important role in the peopling of Jordan and constitute the ORIGINAL SUBSTRATE of the current population. However, migration into Jordan in RECENT YEARS likely has contributed to the diversity among current Jordanian population groups.

[djoser-xyyman]

INTRODUCTION:

Current inhabitants of Jordan are mostly Arab descendants of Trans-Jordan or Palestine, and Bedouins, a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arabian ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes. Historically, the inhabitants of this desert that spreads northwards into Syria, eastwards into Iraq, and southwards into Saudi Arabia, were Bedouin pastoralists (Salibi, 1998). Today around 98% of the 7.9 million Jordanians are of Arab origin, along with other small minorities such as Circassian (1%) and Armenians (1%). Culturally, the official language is Arabic and in terms of


Historically, the term “Bedouin” has denoted both a nomadic way of life and a group identity. Bedouins were the original settlers in the Middle East. From the Arabian Peninsula, their original home, they spread out and now they live in desert regions of all the countries between the Arabian Gulf and the Atlantic.


(Flores et al., 2005; González et al., 2008) and a survey of a reduced number of Alu insertions, fewer than those analyzed in this study, in a sample of general population (Bahri et al., 2011). The variation in the UNIPARENTAL MARKERS (Y-chromosome and mtDNA) underlines the genetic outlier position of Bedouins whereas general Jordanians are relatively close to the Middle East neighboring groups.


The main objective is to test if autosomal markers confirm the previous population differentiation within Jordan revealed by uniparental markers. This was approached by genotyping 18 autosomal Alu insertions in these two Jordanian groups. The partial objectives of the survey are to determine the degree of genetic heterogeneity in Jordan, the genetic position of Bedouins and general Jordanians in the general context of the Mediterranean and the Middle East areas, and to get new data about the potential influence of Bedouins, as representatives of Arab ORIGINS, in North Africa

[djoser-xyyman]

The Bedouin samples were collected from the Badia desert in collaboration with the “Jordan Badia Research and Development Center”.



Comparisons with published datasets.
In order to evaluate the genetic position of Bedouins and General Jordanians in the Mediterranean and the Middle East areas, two comparative analyses were carried out, based on the population data available in the literature. The main analysis focused on the whole Mediterranean area using 18 polymorphic Alu insertions in 16 populations as indicated in Figure 1. These populations included three Spanish regions (Southern Spain: Andalusia; Northern Spain: Asturias; Central Spain: Sierra de Gredos), Southern France (Toulouse), Turkey (Anatolia Peninsula), Greece (Attica region), five Mediterranean islands (Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, Crete and Menorca) and five Berber groups from Morocco, Algeria, and Egypt. The Moroccan samples came from High Atlas (Amizmiz Berbers), Middle Atlas (Berbers from the Khenifra region), and North East Moroccan Berbers (Bouhria area). Other Berber samples were Mzab from Algeria and Siwi from the Siwa Oasis in Egypt (Gonzalez-Perez et al., 2007; González-Pérez et al., 2010).


Population relationships within Jordan indicate that the Bedouins, CLOSER to North Africans, show an intermediate position between these populations and Eastern Mediterraneans, while General Jordanians cluster with Eastern Mediterranean populations


Concerning differentiation within Jordan, this study indicates a SIGNIFICANT difference between Bedouins and urban inhabitants of Jordan (p=0.038). Out of the 18 autosomal insertion markers, three of them are statistically different (DM: p= 0.015, Hs2.43: p=0.01, and ACE: p=0.005). Considering the relatively small sample size, the genetic differences found point to a clear separation between these two groups.

Bedouins appear to be the most diverse group in contrast to general Jordanians who cluster with other Middle Eastern groups


In a Mediterranean context, Bedouins seem to be closer to North African groups while general Jordanians tend to group with North Mediterraneans, especially with the easternmost populations. Greater genetic proximity of Bedouins and North Africans could be explained by the impact of Arabic expansion into North Africa in the VIIth


To SUM UP, this Alu population analysis reinforces the genetic distinctiveness of Bedouins suggesting that they have had an important role in the peopling of Jordan AND PROBABLY CONSTITUTE THE ORIGINAL SUBSTRATE OF THIS POPULATION.



So there you have it….Who are the Bedouins, where they came from and when.

[djoser-xyyman]

And the (uni-parentalmarkers) y-DNA……

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Quotes from….
Isolates in a corridor of migrations: a high-resolution analysis of Y-chromosome variation in Jordan - Carlos Flores Ana M. Gonzalez


Abstract
A high-resolution, Y-chromosome analysis using 46 binary markers has been carried out in two Jordan populations, one from the metropolitan area of Amman and the other from the Dead Sea, an area geographically isolated. Comparisons with neighboring populations showed that whereas the sample from Amman did not significantly differ from their Levantine neighbors,[b the Dead Sea sample clearly behaved as a genetic outlier in the region. Its high R1*-M173 frequency (40%) has until now only been found in northern Cameroonian samples. [/b]This contrasts with the comparatively low presence of J representatives (9%), which is the modal clade in Middle Eastern populations, including Amman. The Dead Sea sample also showed a high presence of E3b3a-M34 lineages (31%), which is only comparable to that found in Ethiopians. Although ancient and recent ties with sub-Saharan and eastern Africans cannot be discarded, it seems that isolation, strong drift, and/or founder effects are responsible for the anomalous Y-chromosome pool of this population. These results demonstrate that, at a fine scale, the smooth, continental clines detected for several Y-chromosome markers are often disrupted by genetically divergent populations

[djoser-xyyman]

The most striking characteristic of the Dead Sea sample is the high prevalence of R1*-M173 lineages (40%), contrasting with the lack of them and of its derivates R1b3-M269 in Bedouin from Nebel et al. (2001) and its low frequencies in Amman. It is worth mentioning that until now, similar frequencies for R1*-M173 have only been found in northern Cameroon (Cruciani et al. 2002). The possibility that the Dead Sea and Cameroon are isolated remnants of a past broad human expansion deserves future studies.

[djoser-xyyman]

Wow!!!!! This is fascinating -
They are essentially saying pockets of “Africans” genetic material still exist in isolated pockets throughout the “middle east’. Anatolia being one of them. Beyoku of ESR once questioned me on this. He can follow the link/reference. This was recently confirmed by studies on the Armenians – showing “EARLY” south –Saharan presence at the Neolithic. Maybe they were Neolithic Slaves(insert sarcasm). Lol!

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Quote:

Interestingly, when the molecular heterogeneity of the G6PD locus was compared between the Amman and the Dead Sea samples, a lower number of different variants and a higher incidence of the African G6PD-A allele was detected in the LATTER (Karadsheh, personal communication). Another singularity of the Dead Sea is its high frequency (31%) of E3b3a-M34, a derivate clade of E3b3-M123 that is only found in 7% in Bedouins (Cruciani et al. 2004). Until now, the highest frequencies for this marker (23.5%) had been found in Ethiopians from Amhara (Cruciani et al. 2004). On the contrary, most Bedouin chromosomes (63%) belong to haplogroup J1-M267 (Semino et al. 2004) compared with 9% in the Dead Sea. All these evidences point to the Dead Sea as an isolated region perhaps with past ties to sub-Saharan and eastern Africa. Strong drift and/or founder effects might be responsible for its present anomalous haplogroup frequencies. This strong microgeographic differentiation has been previously detected in several Middle Eastern areas, as in the Caucasus (Weale et al. 2001; Nasidze et al. 2004), Pakistan (Qamar et al. 2002), Anatolia (Cinnioglu et al. 2004), or among Kurdish populations (Nasidze et al. 2005). However, it seems that when several close rural isolates are melted into larger samples or when samples are obtained from large urban centers, those sharp micro differences disappear, giving rise to smooth, clinal gradients usually detected in past global Y-chromosome analysis (Rosser et al. 2000; Semino et al. 2000;

[djoser-xyyman]

And now the female lineage -
To those who are not connecting the dots. Science/Population tells a lot more than what is “written” in history books.


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Mitochondrial DNA variation in Jordanians and their genetic relationship to other Middle East populations -ANA M. GONZALEZ1, accepted 28 January 2008)

Abstract
Background: The Levant is a crucial region in understanding human migrations between Africa and Eurasia. Although some mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) studies have been carried out in this region, they have not included the Jordan area. This paper deals with the mtDNA composition of two Jordan populations. Aim: The main objectives of this article are: first, to report mtDNA sequences of an urban and an isolate sample from Jordan and, second, to compare them with each other and with other nearby populations. Subjects and methods: The analyses are based on HVSI and HVSII mtDNA sequences and diagnostic RFLPs to UNEQUIVOCALLY classify into haplogroups 101 Amman and 44 Dead Sea unrelated individuals from Jordan. Results: Statistical analysis revealed that, whereas the sample from Amman did not significantly differ from their Levantine neighbours, the Dead Sea sample clearly behaved as a genetic outlier in the region. Its outstanding Eurasian haplogroup U3 frequency (39%) and its south-Saharan Africa lineages (19%) are the highest in the Middle East. On the contrary, the lack ((preHV)1) or comparatively low frequency (J and T) of Neolithic lineages is also striking.

[XYYMAN COMMENT: To those who don’t know. Recent analysis confirms that J and T are NOT the Neolithic package. It is in fact hg-H and it clades.!!! Surprise!!!]

(continuing)
Although strong drift by geographic isolation could explain the anomalous mtDNA pool of the Dead Sea sample, the fact that its mtDNA lineage composition MIRRORS, in geographic origin and haplogroup frequencies, its Y-CHROMOSOME POOL, points to founder effect as the main cause. Ancestral M1 lineages detected in Jordan that have affinities with those recently found in Northwest but not East Africa question the African origin of the M1 haplogroup. Conclusion: Results are in agreement with an old human settlement in the Jordan region. However, in spite of the attested migratory spreads, genetically divergent populations, such as that of the Dead Sea, still exist in the area.

[XYYMAN COMMENT: So the M1 found in the Levant relates more to North West Africa than East Africa – confirming the Bedoiuns are North Africans. Both the mtDNA and Y-DNA corroborate each other. Ancient African presence in the Levant. The Anthropology also confirms that. Coon and Sergi ]

[anansi]

And here is where your genetic finding interlocked with what was being said about earlier Bedu origins.
They maybe connected to the Madju/Beja/Bedouin these folks are known for their wonder lust since ancient times.