Re: Pakistani DNA - How Much Central Asian and How much are We South Asian?
Pakistani ethnicity does not exist…the ethnic breakdowns/splits in all admixture calculators are categorized as South Asian, Central Asian, Asia Minor, North European, Middle east ( Arab and so on …) Pakistani/indians are a mixture of these. Some more south Asian than others. Anyways, i had my DNA tested with multiple companies offering this service and my results strongly conclude/indicate that most pakistanies including races like Punjabies, Balochies, Sindies , Pathans have components other than south asian and at a considerable percentage. Indian immigrants excluded.
Re: Pakistani DNA - How Much Central Asian and How much are We South Asian?
See, I understand that. I know that Pakistan and the Pakistani identity is something that was created in 1947 and that ethnic groups like Punjabi and Pashtun existed way before that. But with some of these people there is this desperation to get away from that. Trying to get away from just being a Pakistani Punjabi to being some amazing mixture of Persian, Arab, Greek, Finnish, and Moldovan or some **** because 2,000 years ago so and so group took over modern day Punjab and settled there. There is no shame in exploring your origins, seeing what your lineage is really made up of but some of these people take it to some extreme level and want to seem superior because they have little or no SA admixture.
I think what really contributed to my comment was usually specific videos and forums I’ve lurked on where Pakistani people were discussing the genetics of Pakistani people and trying their hardest to prove their ancestry was made up of x and y group in a way that tried to distance themselves from their current ethnic groups. I could take one of these tests and my C Asian percentage could be above 50% and it would be interesting to study and look at, but my ethnic identity will always be Pakistani Punjabi.
Again, no shame in looking at your roots (and Punjabi seems to be a pretty heterogeneous group anyways) but people need to stay grounded.
Re: Pakistani DNA - How Much Central Asian and How much are We South Asian?
Genetics is an interest of mine. I have read a lot about Y haplogroups, mtDNA and autosomal and participated in research projects. Had several of DNA kits tested for family n friends and uploaded them on Gedmatch ( a data base of genetic diversity/groups). The results conducted by various genetic testing companies confirm the following :
Pakthuns have eastern Iranian SNPs at a ratio that supercedes their South Asian percentage
Balochs more or less the same composition with very little affinity to the South Asians
same goes for Sindies and Punjabies. I am an ethnic punjabi and you can compare my results with a North India, Central Indian and west indian, east indian and see where we stand in the spectrum. The south asian component is there but at lower percentage than any current indian population.
Re: Pakistani DNA - How Much Central Asian and How much are We South Asian?
Punjabis, sindhi and then you add muhajirs make up the majority of Pakistan and aside from individual differences, they are very strongly related to the south asian identity.
Re: Pakistani DNA - How Much Central Asian and How much are We South Asian?
Basically. Even if some people in those groups may not be ~genetically~~ overwhelmingly S Asian, the culture is very much S Asian and there is no point in trying to distance oneself from that.
Re: Pakistani DNA - How Much Central Asian and How much are We South Asian?
Culture and genetics are completely different things. Since I live in the US but family is from Pak, I am mix of both cultures. That doesn’t mean I am also half white and half Pakistani. Pakistan is a melting pot so of course there are genetic differences in some populations, I will never understand when some folks put down others who clearly have diverse set of ancestors. So what if some ancestor long ago was not south asian? I don’t think that makes them any less Pakistani but it also does not change their genetics. People confuse the two!
Re: Pakistani DNA - How Much Central Asian and How much are We South Asian?
You are preaching to the choir. I do not know if you are aware or not, but there are so many genetics forums that I have lurked on where Pakistanis wanted to proudly distance themselves from their South Asianness because they might have descended from so and so group and it is so embarrassing! God, I should have screenshotted the most cringy posts.
Re: Pakistani DNA - How Much Central Asian and How much are We South Asian?
It really is just a blanket term for the Indian Subcontinent and being a part of it culturally and geographically. It is a Americentric/Westerncentric term and I do not expect Pakistanis in Pakistan to identify as “South Asian” but the point is a significant portion of Pakistan’s cultures are South Asian (I am not going to include Pashtuns and Baloch people in this because I know their relationship with Pakistan and the Pakistani identity is complicated so I do not really know if they would put their cultures as a part of the Indian subcontinent). But to see Pakistani Punjabis (or Sindhis but I mostly have noticed Pak Punjabis doing this) try their hardest to distance themselves from their actual Pakistani Punjabi identity and yak on about how they are descended from x and y group (which mostly likely isn’t the case) is cringeworthy. Whatever their lineage is really made up of does not matter in the grand scheme of things because they grew up speaking whatever their mother tongue is and participating in whatever culture they grew up with, so they are pretty much whatever ethnic group they actually belong to instead of 54% Central Asian 36% South Asian and 10% Luxembourger.
Re: Pakistani DNA - How Much Central Asian and How much are We South Asian?
Hmm I haven’t come across it yet at least. See I thought people were looking down on others who just want to learn about their genetic make up but if they show case one and down play another when the latter is part of their identity then that is sad.
Re: Pakistani DNA - How Much Central Asian and How much are We South Asian?
I totally agree with Aqua that culture and genetics are two different things. My thread was about genetics not culture. A friend of mine who claimed to be syed, and i used to make fun of claim convinced him to go for autosomal and Y DNA testing and to my surprise his Haplogroup came out to be a terminal SNP of Haplogroup J which is a trade mark of Arabs. Y DNA remains the same for generation over generations and decides your parentage.
Heritage is not genetics. If i and my relatives come out to be more than 49 percent central asian genewise, whats the point in saying that i am more south asian than central asian. Should we be denying our ancestry?
Re: Pakistani DNA - How Much Central Asian and How much are We South Asian?
If you are raised as a Pakistani Punjabi with no real connection to this Central Asian ancestry (what kind of C Asian? Afghan? Tajik? Kyrgyz?) you got going on, you look like dumbass trying to identify as one. You may not genetically be more S Asian than C Asian, but you were (presumably) raised with a Punjabi upbringing. Punjab, no matter what the genetic make up of its inhabitants, is culturally considered to be South Asian and it is the culture you grew up with and are immersed in that is actually important in regards to identification. This is like white Americans who are pretty far removed from their British roots going around identifying as “British” and saying they are more British than American because of their ancestry despite the fact them and their families have been generic white Americans for generations. You do not have to denounce your ancestry, but let’s stop pretending that this C Asian ancestry many Punjabis have, according to you, has any tangible effect on the fact that Punjabis are culturally S Asian and are far removed from whatever C Asian groups we are supposed to be descended from.
Re: Pakistani DNA - How Much Central Asian and How much are We South Asian?
I know what the difference is. And guess what? Your majority C Asian ancestry is not relevant in your day to day life. You cannot even pin point what specific C Asian groups you descended from and have grown up with a Punjabi upbringing. You are not a mixed race individual in the sense that one of your parent is C Asian and one of your parent is S Asian and that has majorly influenced your upbringing and culture. You (presumably) grew up with a Punjabi upbringing and were a child of (presumably) two Punjabi parents so this posturing about “hurr durr but I am more C Asian genetically” means nothing. Nobody here is trying to “deny” ancestry. But you making a case that you aren’t nearly as South Asian because of your little ancestry results is pathetic because it takes more than just ancestry to identify as a certain group. *
*