Faroaldo
00lunedì 1 marzo 2010 19:39
A great genetic heterogeneity among Italian regions is apparent from this display. In fact the
positive values of the first principal component (abscissa) cluster the regions of the Northern
side of Italy with all Central and North European countries, while their negative values (on
the left) cluster the regions of Southern Italy and Greece.
The romanization of Italy and Europe, which was obviously of the greatest importance for
many other aspects of our history, is not likely to have changed the genetic individuality of the
conquered populations in a substantial way. Colonization produced changes in the political,
administrative, urban, commercial systems rather than a massive substitution of people as
occurred in the European colonization of the Americas or in the other genocides of our times.
The adoption of a unique language, the Latin, was also imposed by the Roman conquerors, but
it was not thorough since still today each region in Italy speaks a different dialect which reveals
possible traces of the ancient language spoken by the ancestors of its inhabitants. A parallel
analysis of the geographical distribution of gene frequencies in France seems to
reach similar conclusions, as if the genetic roots of France were to be found before the
settlements of the Franks.