Dorianfinder
Regular Member
- Messages
- 472
- Reaction score
- 49
- Points
- 28
- Location
- Western Cape
- Ethnic group
- European
- Y-DNA haplogroup
- R-FGC13617
- mtDNA haplogroup
- T2b1
Aromanian or Romanian, they call themselves Vlach.
The Vlach people are primarily pastoralists involved in the raising of livestock, they have inhabited the mountains of Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova and the former Yugoslavia and profess the Eastern Orthodox Christian faith. Traditionally they spoke a proto-Romanian language and those Vlach who reside in Greece, Albania and the former Yugoslavia have taken the side of the Greek in wars and scuffles with other ethnic groups.
This figure illustrates two of the three origin theories as proposed by Bosch et al. (2005), namely that the Vlachs originated from either the Dacians or the Thracians along the Danube.
In a landmark study Bosch et al. (2005) concluded, 'The homogeneity of the Balkan populations prevented testing for the origin of the Aromuns, although a significant Roman contribution can be ruled out.'
'All the Balkan populations analysed here were genetically homogeneous with the exception of some Aromun samples. This was particularly evident with the Y chromosome, as both haplogroup and 19 STR haplotype based data showed significant differences among the Aromun groups. Therefore, it seems that the Aromun populations do not constitute a homogeneous group separated from the rest of the Balkan populations, but that they present relative heterogeneity, especially for paternal lineage composition, between themselves.'
Bosch et al. (2005) posit the following theories regarding the possible origins of the Vlach:
1. Latinized Greeks
2. Descendants of Dacians who lived north of the Danube
3. Descendants of Thracians who lived south of the Danube
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