5 Anthropology myths that need to be busted ( including sources, spoiler alert! Duh! )

 The following anthropology myths are either regurgitation nonsense that are spread via the internet on either unprofessional  blogs, ''anthropology forums, or groups'' , or personal opinions that need to busted. 

Myth 1

'Arab' Muslims are more Arab, African and less common to their surrounding areas than the Christians. 

There could be a number of reasons for this old chestnut, whether it's by Zionists ( yes, I am aware not all Jews are Zionist) people of the West who are none the wiser or just uneducated on history. Ged Match among others ( an autosomal raw data file test company  ) is a good database ( although not the best ) shows the PCA plotting of all samples tested especially in the Near /Middle East and Europe that clearly shows that anyone who identifies as being 'Muslim' overlaps completely with anyone who identifies as being Christian. This is especially apparent among the Lebanese Muslims and Christians. According to Lebanese  biologist Dr.Pierre Zalloua looking for a ''Phoenician identity'' among modern Lebanese and their continuation to the Levant Eastern Mediterranean.  To quote Dr Pierre "Whether you take a Christian village in the north of Lebanon or a Muslim village in the south, the DNA make-up of its residents is likely to be identical," says Dr Zalloua.''

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7791389.stm

Obviously these are averages, there are many non Arab ( by identity only, you know what I mean  ) Christians and Muslims  in Lebanon, Syria and Palestine especially Turks, Armenians, Circassians and Kurds but by and large the case is Muslims and Christians from the Near East and Middle East are the same. 

This is also a great website about ancient Levantine Bronze age population genetics in modern populations. 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5544389/

Myth number 2

Cypriots are not really 'Greek' .

This rumour floats around often,  frankly God knows where it stems from. What measures genetics? Who can say there is a messure ,of genetics, like anyone else in the world are only one thing? From autosomal testing,  it's pretty clear that Greek Cypriot males descend from old Bronze Age populations, especially due added Mycenaean and Anatolian farmer EEF input that may be lacking more in Greek males from the Balkans ( they still have EEF like all Europeans, but they have more Western Hunter Gatherer than Cypriots and modern Levantines who have the same Bronze Age/Middle Neolithic  genetics as the ancient Levantines ..) 

A good website on Greek Cypriot genetics. 

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0179474

Myth number 3 

Sicilians and South Spanish are also 'Arabs.'

Ok, so let's be real if you are not a Scandinavian Hunter Gatherer you are going to find some societal issues, we get that. But whether it's from British propaganda about the 'Black Irish' or if it's from Iberians being tanned because of the Gracile period, them being olive skinned because of WHG from the Steppes, or the Moorish expansion of Sicily this seems to be a common one. However, both of these ethnicities like Sardinians  and PRE Indo Europeans have increased amounts of EEF which just makes them indigenous to their areas. In fact, Iberians are one of the oldest ethnicities ( the oldest being the ancient Greeks ) in the South Western European definition. 

A study on Sicilian/South Italian genetics.

https://bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12915-020-00778-4

Myth 4

East Europeans are 'Mongolic' or mixed with them on a significant level.

One of the main ones I have seen online and even off by ignorant people. More than anything else this may be the result of a so called 'Eurasian mixture' during the Medieval times period by Tatars, Avars and Huns. Obviusly different groups who define themselves as ''Slavic'' whether it's North, East or South do have their own mixtures, including that part, but it's safe to conclude that this happened as a migration route through the Steppes and South Siberia, rather than accounts of invasions. But anyway, Mongolic/South Siberian mixture in any Slavs including Eastern rarely exceeds more than 4 percent. Which is obviously detectable in the Y chromosones more than the female : Which seem to be more of Caucasus/Steppe orgin, meaning the ANE mixture is lacking in the female line more than the male. Usually, by that percentage, mixture is undetectable anyway. That's why 4 percent or less in autosomal testing is commonly referred to as ''noise''. 

A study on Slavic migration routes and mixtures.

https://www.nature.com/articles/srep30197

Myth 5

Ashkenazi Jews are not biologically Jewish, but are still more indigenous to Palestine and the modern Levant than modern Palestinian Arabs. Apart from Christians in the Near and Middle East being  indistinguishable from their Muslim counterparts, this is also the case for the Palestinians, including the Muslims. Ironically, Palestinian Muslims due to their heightened amount of  'Egyptian mixture' overlap with the Copts of Egypt quite well, which also makes them  unique in that sense.  In a religious way. So , in the case with Ashkenazi Jews a similar occurrence happens, whereas the part that makes them ''Jewish'' in their genetics, mainly through their Y chromosomes ( as Ashkenazi female lines are almost entirely European and Southern European, especially from Italy and Greece ) is matched with other European Jewish sects, mainly from Sephardic as they come from the same tribe . Apart from this historical fact, according to Dr. Ostrer at Albert Einstein College of Medicine : The DNA that he found also tightly linked Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews, two prominent culturally and geographically distinct groups; commenters immediately began to say this showed the groups were not separate at all. "And that wasn't what I was saying either," Ostrer says. Also, the deeply rooted Middle Eastern markers could be used to support Zionist territorial claims—except, Ostrer points out, the same markers can be found in Palestinians as well."

https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-chosen-genes/

So, basically the part of Palestinians that makes them 'Arab' like the part of European Jews that makes them 'Jewish' is the same, If that makes sense? In fact out of Sephardic Jews for Ashkenazis, Palestinian males, including the Muslims, seem to be a good genetic close match. This is pretty politically ironic, if you ask me.

So there are you have it, five commonly cycle jerked myths that have been debunked.