Rhone Valley residents show Basque-like frequencies of Rh Negatives

Share Button

When speaking about the rh negative blood factor and which groups are high for it, there is always one particular group that is being ignored:
The people of the Rhone Valley in Switzerland or the Walsers as they are called in German.
The Walser are the speakers of the Walser German dialects, a variety of Highest Alemannic. They inhabit the Alps of Switzerland and Liechtenstein, as well as on the fringes of Italy and Austria. The Walser people are named after the Wallis (Valais), the uppermost Rhône valley, where they settled from roughly the 10th century in the late phase of the migration of the Alamanni, crossing from the Bernese Oberland; because of linguistic differences among the Walser dialects, it is supposed that there were two independent immigration routes.
As this chart indicates, the frequency of the rh negative gene is equally high as within the Basque region amongst these parts of the Rhone Valley:
68884_525964387422788_44491535_n
And the other thing is that blood type O is present in around 60 percent of the individuals there.
walser-60-percent-rh-negative
(Source)
This of course is a quite similar situation to the Basque people as well where B and AB is hardly present and blood type O dominates.
So where do the Walsers come from?
Migrations in prehistoric and protohistoric man are responsible for the genetic similarity observable in recent populations. As a consequence of these early migrations, small groups were founded and the resultant genetic drift and isolation were often involved in the differentiation of some populations. The Walsers of the Grisons (Switzerland) present a good example of these inter-related population-genetic phenomena: migration was the major determinant of the relatedness of the gene pool in all Walser populations. This can be proven by allele frequencies, and most convincingly by electrophoretic variants which are only shared by closely related Walser groups. This statement demonstrates clearly the congruence of the genetics and well-documented population history of the Walsers. Incidentally, blood genetic and demographic data support the hypothesis that a genetical cline exists in the valley of Safien from south to north. This is in accordance with the historical data describing the peopling of the valley by Rheinwald Walsers in the 14th to the 16th century.
(Source: Migration of the Walser population)
So who are the people of the Rhone Valley genetically?
mtdna-v-map
One thing that is unique is a high frequency of the mtDNA haplogroups HVO and V.
These haplotypes are especially high also amongst the Sami people of Lapland.
The Walsers also have high frequencies of red hair.

Studies include:

Predominance of blood group O and negative Rhesus factor in the Walser of Switzerland
Blood groups and Rh factor relations in the western Walser settlements of Graubünden in Switzerland

Here is a quick documentary about the people and the region. Unfortunately it is only in German:

Share Button

Add a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.