Posted by Dean on April 30, 2001 at 01:06:36:
In Reply to: ARE YOU ALL REALLY GREEK!!!!!???????? posted by Gunter Steiner on April 26, 2001 at 11:09:39:
: I read a book many years ago written by a German Anthropologist who claimed that there was VERY LITTLE CONNECTION IF ANY between the ancient greeks (who enlightened the world with their culture) and the countries modern day inhabitants who he claimed were a mixture of halfbred turks and slavs but mosltly turkish.He also highlighted earlier periods of history with the destruction of cities like Sparta and Athens which were destroyed,its male inhabitants killed and women sold into slavery and the cities reinhabited by Roman citizens from surrounding areas.I dont personally now how true or Factual his study really was as i have never seen or heard of anything similiar in any anthropological journal but modern day greeks look identical to their Turkish-Arabibic Cousins therefore if the proof is in the pudding he must have been right.Does anyone remember this Anthropologists name and if so what are your thoughts on his theory????? Well Gunter,yes you are partially right in what you are sugesting,although i cant remember the authors name but i have also heard of this anthropological study.As an Australian of partial Greek heritage i can verify that my mothers village in the Sparta region has a slavic name and when trying to trace her history found that it was infact linked to slavic/germanic tribes more than likely about 500CE.Most of her relatives had blue eyes with a fair complexion and infact an opthamoligist had suggested to me that we exhibited genetic traits that were exclusively linked to nordic peoples. I can trace her family tree prior to the Turkish occupation and there was never any Turkish influnce and that is also the case for all others from her village.BUT only 50km away in another village the physical traits are similiar to those of the Arabs/Turks which might prove that even though Greeks have mixed with other cultures not all parts/villages were affected in the same way, thus there still might be some who are linked to the Ancient Greeks but it would be only a tiny amount due to the 2500 year gap. You might want to pose your question to the American Journal Of Anthropology which could give you a far more academically correct response than this message board!P.S. You must also realize that this is an extremely sensitve question as there would be many Modern Greeks who would not want the Truth to come out in order to keep unity amongst the population and also preserve their Christan Faith!!