"Howard Dean today: As a Democrat, I believe that we should welcome the stranger"
Which is a statement that has less to do with politics than with culture.
I read this in Madfloridian journal at
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1119325&mesg_id=1119325Then I found, in one of the Italian biggest papers, that it was finally evidenced that
Italic Etruscan were Turkish immigrants…Immigration is nothing new in our culture. But societies that become wealthy and powerful try to hide its origins creating myths to justify divine or supernatural origins.
Or, worse, to forget.But discoveries trace back real origins of peoples disregarding their attempts to make lose the track.
Prof. Alberto Piazza and others presented the results of their researches on
DNA common features between Tuscany and Turkey at the European Human Genetics Conference 2007 in Nice, France.
Though not new, the genetic approach to the subject of the Etruscan origins seems to sustain Herodotus story, according to which the
ancient population of Tuscany and central Italy came from Anatolia, Turkey, flying from starvation and searching for a better place to live.The gene investigated in Murlo, Volterra and some other Tuscany villages shows many features in common with the same group in Turkey while being quite different from the groups observed in other neighboring Italian regions.
The Murlo gene, in particular, was found only in Turkish people. A non-autochthonous origin of one of the most important ancient italic populations and cultures is something refreshing in our dusty historical approach.
Rome was dominated by Etruscans for years. Its culture was permeated. Etruscans are at our national cultural root.
Between history and poetry, all in all it’s nothing new: immigration made big countries.
Etruscan came (historically, it seems) from Anatolians trying to save their lives and survive against famine. Rome is (poetically!) said to origin from Trojans flying from invasions and war. Famine, war, invasions...sound familiar topics...If politics was closer to science and humanistic, the discovery could contribute to new relationships between west and east. But it is not, unfortunately.
What's true, for Italians at least, is that
we’ve got the East and its humanity swimming in our blood. We’re almost brothers.Which leads me to Dean's statement, again. And the circle is closed!
Here’s the abstract link to Prof. Alberto Piazza contribution, for those who enjoy genetics:
http://www.abstractsonline.com/viewer/viewAbstractPrintFriendly.asp?CKey={7BC08BEC-3A9F-44ED-B455-710AE3BFB1AC}&SKey={82CC5754-2B89-44D0-BDE3-8AC035B384D1}&MKey={CFA3EC71-B100-4F89-928C-92A1239F5353}&AKey={384D2523-AA39-4B08-A120-38A9AB93ADA3}
Ciao!