Where did rh negative blood come from?

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Having been asked this question so many times, I figure I write a new answer to update what may not have been discussed yet. I personally have to tell you that it is obviously not known exactly where rh negative blood comes from. This is the exact reason for the mass amount of speculations popping up. Some credible. Others not so much.
We do know that the Basque region has one in 3 people being rh negative. And we are definitely also aware that there are other groups very high in rh negative blood. Those groups are the Scots with up to 30%, the Northern Irish with almost that high percentages, many regions of Rhone Valley have Basque-like amounts of rh negatives amongst them and then there are areas of Poland and Southern Scandinavia also with high percentages of rh negatives.
It also needs to be said that we should focus a lot less on nations when it comes to percentages of rh negatives.
Nationalities are man-made. Tribes are not. So when we talk about Spain being high in rh negative blood, it might be true, but without highlighting the Basque and the Catalonia region with around 25% being rh negative, then we are truly missing the point.
The most important thing is to look at ancient tribes and go way back in order to determine what the rh negative frequencies amongst different groups were before thousands of years of mixing created populations of different heritages making it more difficult to determine exactly where the rh negative blood factor might have come from.
What about the Berbers and the Bedouins?
We have all been looking at the claim that the Berbers of the Atlas mountain region, or at least certain parts of it, are supposedly 40% rhesus negative. This study and claim has been featured in the works of Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, author of “Genes, Peoples, and Languages”. Unfortunately when challenged, other results were shown. Some studies have shown as little as 7% rh negatives amongst Berber groups.

Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza

Which is why I will be very careful repeating this claim. And I also need to add that there need to be more studies in order to determine truth or false in this case. But until determined, ignoring the Berbers for now would be wise.
The Bedouins of the Sinai Peninsula are interesting as genetic testing has revealed that their y-DNA is very similar to that of the Cohen Jews. And if you remember an old article on this blog, there is strong indication that ancient Hebrews and Basques were closely related. The question whether or not the ancient Hebrews were predominantly rh negative is not easily answered as we have no test results at hand from ancient burial grounds.
So all that we can do is look for strong indications.

The Neanderthals
Many times has it been alleged that the Neanderthals or at least groups of Neanderthals were rh negative.
Continue here …

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2 Comments

  1. Alouise September 2, 2018 Reply
    • Walter A Oppermann September 16, 2020 Reply

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