The Antiquity of Blonde Hair

Case reopened.

Humans today are a mix of several species from the Homo genus - at least 3 (Homo sapiens, Homo Neanderthalensis, Homo denisova) and probably more when all is said and known.

A graphic from this article [New DNA Evidence ...] shows that linkage between modern Melanesians (who frequently exhibit blonde hair) and archaic Denisovans occurred around 40,000 years ago.

This article [Blonde Melanesians ...] provides some additional interesting information on the antiquity of Oceanic blonde hair, asking the question, "is this trait an independent occurrence of de-pigmentation in Oceania, or was it due to introgression of European alleles?"

The author (Razib Khan) answers his own question:

First, one must note that this is not an isolated feature in Oceania. Rather, blondism crops up in the Solomon Islands, in New Guinea, as well as among some Australian desert groups. This in itself should make us skeptical of the model of [modern human - my addition] European admixture. Additionally, blue eyes, which exhibits a higher frequency in Europeans than blonde hair, is not similarly common in these populations.

Though some scientific studies have reported Melanesian blonde hair to be tied to a recent selected mutation in the TYRP1 pigmentation related locus found among Melanesians, it doesn't close the case that blondism in Melanesians is also linked to deep ancestry rather than solely to a population-specific mutation in the TYRP1 locus (a mutation which is not found in Europeans).

 Khan goes on to write:

But there’s a very good reason I never expected there to be recent selection driving this anyhow: Australian Aboriginals sometimes manifest blonde hair, and the best genetic data suggests separation from Melanesians of at least 10,000 years. Additionally, the Solomon Islands were not part of Sahul, so that’s a conservative estimate. We don’t know if the Aboriginals have the same TRYP1 mutation, but there’s the same tendency toward dark skin and light hair amongst them. It also seems rather suspicious to me that the highest frequency of blonde hair outside of West Eurasia is all amongst Oceanian populations, who are phylogenetically a distinct clade [as are European populations - my addition].

What I am suggesting then is that this pigmentation mutation is an old feature of the Oceanian populations, on the order of tens of thousands of years. 

... and what I am suggesting is that the "tens-of-thousands of years old feature" found amongst Oceanic groups (whatever specific mutation or mutations is are responsible for overt phenotypic expression of the trait) is indeed connected to their shared Denisovan ancestry (linking these populations around 40,000 years ago before the Melanesians and the Aboriginal Australians split genetically around 10,000 years ago).

Flipping Genetics!

As surprised as I was to learn that my Denisovan ancestry was greater than my Neanderthal ancestry despite my overwhelming Homo sapien European genetic ancestry, it is equally surprising to me to learn that modern East Asians typically have more Neanderthal DNA than do modern Europeans, despite that Neanderthals were largely concentrated in Europe (though their range extended into Asia).

This is flipping weird!

According to David Reich, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School and a member of the research team, the new DNA sequence also shows that Native Americans and people from East Asia have more Neanderthal DNA, on average, than Europeans. [Source]

H. Denisova not an H. Erectus Lineage?

Both modern humans and neanderthals are believed to be human lineages of Homo heidelbergensis via Homo erectus. There is hot debate within the scientific community as to the origin of the Homo denisova species - and there is evidence that the Denisovan species is too old to be of the H. heidelbergensis lineage and that the Denisovan species of human may be a lineage of human not within the H. erectus evolutionary line (as modern humans and neanderthals are thought to be).

Southeast Asian Genetic Admixture of Denisovans with Modern Humans

In follow-up to an earlier post, this scientific lecture reports that Denisovan genetic admixture with modern humans took place in Southeast Asia.

The Mysterious Guti

The ancient Indo-European homeland has been postulated to be connected to an ancient Near Eastern people called the Guti. Interesting to me, my own deep genetic ancestry (as discovered in my ancestral DNA results from DNA Tribes) is in Sweden, where Guti is an old Swedish-Nordic name on the surface meaning "Gotlander".

The Mystery of Archaic Denisovan DNA in Me

Why am I Denisovan?

I've been a bit puzzled by my Geno 2.0 archaic hominin genetic ancestry result which reported that I have 2.3% Denisovan genetic ancestry - greater than my Neanderthal genetic ancestry which weighs in at a mere 1.9%. This particularly perplexes me in light of the fact that my autosomal genetic ancestry results indicated that I am significantly and overwhelmingly of European stock (97% - 100% in most studies). Given the overwhelming European-ness of my genetic profiles, coupled with the fact that in the scientific literature archaic Denisovan genes have been found to exist (so far) only in modern populations of Aboriginal Australians and the Melanesians of Papua New Guinea, I didn't expect to have any Denisovan ancestry.

Then comes Teutonic me, with 2.3% Denisovan genetic ancestry. As a daughter of Europe (mostly Northern and Northwestern Europe even more specifically), I expected to have much more European Neanderthal in me and no Asian-Australian Denisovan. But surprise! - I have more Denisovan than Neanderthal! So, what gives with this?

Comparable with others of primarily Celtic-Germanic ancestry (matching the modern German and British reference populations), Geno 2.0 did report that I do have some genetic ancestry admixture from Southeast Asia. Papua New Guinea, home to the Pacific Islanders known as the Melanesians, is in East Asia - so this gets me closer to an answer as to why I have Denisovan DNA.

Like some of Nordic descent, I was born with white blonde hair, though it darkened to a dark blonde as I became an adult. Though I don't have blue eyes, my father does. So, it's clear that some of my ancestors had blonde hair and blue eyes stereotypical of Nordic types.

Interestingly, like me and like some others of Nordic ancestry, blonde hair is also found in high frequency among Melanesian children - those very same children with Denisovan genes. Like me.

So, while it may be that my Homo sapiens sapiens homeland may be Europe by way of Africa and the Near East, it may also be that my Denisovan ancestry homeland is in Australia - maybe that's why so many modern Brits live and love in Australia - our ancestral folksoul (Britain is one my ancestral homelands) is tied to that land as well.

Protective Encounters with Wights of the Land

Over the course of my life, I've had several experiences with land wights, most very good - like the time when I was a little girl alone in the woods behind my house and fell asleep in a cove-like place by the stream in the bright warm arms of the spirits of the place. I'll never forget this one, ever.

One oddly interesting and powerfully dangerous one though I actually experienced in parallel with another person - my ex-husband during the early days of our marriage, probably about 30 years ago. We were out fishing together at night at the local state park like we did sometimes. We had set up our fishing gear, lawn chairs, started a campfire and had just settled down to do some fishing. We had our lines cast and were waiting. But I began to feel very very uncomfortable, as if something very dangerous and deadly was watching us from somewhere in the woods. There were no unusual noises, just the normal noises one hears in the woods by a river. Those normal animal noises were undisturbed, so I figured there wasn't a person or predator lurking about. I tried to disregard the anxiety, but it soon built up into a panic, I jumped up out of my lawn chair and said, "I think we should call it a night." My ex-husband readily agreed, jumping up out of his chair almost at the same time I did to help me pack up. We rushed, both of us, getting our stuff back into the back of the red and white VW van we had. We threw the stuff in (not normal for either of us) and just as quickly jumped into our seats and locked our vehicle doors (also not normal to us). We did all this in a hurried rush, without saying one word to one another, both of us in an unspoken frightful panic. As soon as our doors on the van were locked, we faced each other - "did you feel that?" I asked my ex-husband. He simply said "Yes." And we sped down the long dirt road out of there, every once in awhile I turned and looked out the rear window fully expecting to see a werewolf or something chasing us. Neither or us ever saw anything or heard anything unusual. We simply had some kind of encounter with something very dangerous.

I've been to this park many times over the decades and only once after that did I ever feel anything similar - I was driving through the park alone in my car about 2 years ago and it was there again and didn't want me there. It (though I never saw "it", I only perceived its presence) followed me as I drove until I was out of the park.

I also felt the presence of this entity once not in the park but near a house I lived in (which was also near the woods) as a young mother, sometime around the same time of the park experience with my ex-husband. I was at home alone with my 3 young children while my ex-husband was working at an evening job. I felt the same dangerous presence (or perhaps, warning of danger) outside - clearly I needed to get my children and myself out of the house NOW. I packed us up in my car in a rush and left and didn't go back until my husband had gotten home. When I went back, the danger had passed and all was well again. The feeling of a presence of dreadful danger was gone.

These are only a few examples of my experiences with the wights of the land.

Dragon Unicorn

Kirin / Qilin

In follow-up to a dream I had and posted this past May (Beyond the Boundaries of the Universe - The Master Game - Able), a friend from a forum I participate in just answered my query as to whether or not Sleipnir is ever portrayed as a dragon in folk myth with this awesome tidbit:

What you've described actually IS an existing creature of Chinese/Japanese mythology called a Kirin (Japanese) or Qilin (Chinese). It is considered one of the three most powerful creatures in Chinese/Japanese mythology, along with dragons, and phoenixes. While the dragon is usually associated with water, and the phoenix with fire, the kirin is associated with thunder and lightning. It is usually depicted as a bearded deer, or horse like animal, with a (usually) curved horn (the Chinese version usually has two horns) and dragon scales instead of horse hair. It has been affectionately referred to as "The Japanese Unicorn", and has been said to be a guardian, and omen of extreme good luck for virtuous people.

I am really excited to discover this. Since so much of our own Northern European lore has been lost through the ages, perhaps this evidence from Oriental lore, coupled with my own dream, makes it conceivable then that there is some similar archetype in our own native mythology - and importantly, that it is recoverable!

Runedance Through Fire and Ice

In follow-up to my previous entry (Oskapt - Fire and Ice), after posting that entry, my nightly rune drawing before retiring to bed was Hagalaz (my birth rune). The previous night's rune drawing had been Thurisaz. Both were drawn using my apple wood Elder Futhark runes.

This is an interesting synchronicity with the question I pondered in last night's post (a question contemplated between Thurisaz and Hagalaz rune drawings).

Kveldulf Gundarsson writes in Teutonic Magic:

Hagalaz represents the unchanging structure or set pattern of the Nine Worlds in the tree Yggdrasill through which all living wights move and through which energies the runic energies flow - the unity of "organic" and "inorganic" ...

Hagalaz is the great controller and focuser of energies, as written forth in Havamal, where it is spoken of as a rune with which to control the wild might of fire - raw active power ...

The main effect of Hagalaz on the individual life is to bring you into unity with the universal pattern , which often appears as a mighty and seemingly woe-working breakage of everyday life ...

Above all, Hagalaz is the rune of completion and bringing into being. It may be seen as the passive form of Thurisaz, and in another sense its antithesis. Thurisaz melds fire and ice to create force which breaks down form; Hagalaz use ice and fire to create that form which holds and guides force ...

Thurisaz is more active, more in the way of fire; Hagalaz is unmoving, more in the way of ice.

Amazing synchronicity with my life, both within the past two nights, and in this old poem I wrote (about 15 years ago describing one of my preincarnate memories) and have posted before on my blog and websites (lastly here):

first rhythms ever plunge, eternal hosts driven into life
drawing through a field of topographic brilliance
where judgment lovingly flows, churning out whole stones
resting against asymmetries trying, like diamonds in chaos
proto-perception foams, over annihilating operations
and from it, dark bursts of lucidity finely entwine
coarse grains of almost something, almost yet sufficient
the silent rush of yet nothing slides, wildly as percolating pivots
diligently thread through it, casting clarity
upon myriads, hard pauses startle into vision
projecting arrays without mass, strings of confluency
impressing discovery, a shadowy tail-end lingers
between depths of opposite observation
iterating embraces of many meanings like quasi-quanta
gathering functions about the head and, and
spinning spectra, pushing forward, yearning toward home
not knowing, yet only knowing
as some featureless reach edging edges stretches out
the magnetic sweet dance
where divisions collapse like crystal caves
softly sprinkling the belly of the night divine
with bytes of thoughtbare kisses
extending the glorious field of apprehension

Oskapt - Fire and Ice

On a forum I frequent, it was asked:

In The Saga of the Volsungs translated by Jesse L. Byock there is an interaction where Sigurd said: "What is the name of that island where Surt and the Aesir will mix together their blood?" Fafner answered: "It is called Oskapt, the uncreated." Does anyone have any insight into Oskapt?

This is an interesting idea - I like to speculate about interesting ideas.

Google translates oskapt as "terrible." I've also seen the word translated as "unshapen" and seeming derivatives of the word are associated with the idea of something which may not be of the normatively experienced natural worlds (that is, "unnatural") - so, oskapt may refer to a deeper or alternative level of nature which precedes mental, psychological or material constructions. In other mystical systems (from my learning as a kabbalist primarily), "terrible" often is a term applied to a level of Being "above" (in terms of extension into manifest reality) the created worlds, a correspondence which is in agreement with the Germanic ideas of some place which is both "uncreated" and "terrible." In kabbalah, the "terrible" universe is called atzilut, or universe of divine emanation from which creation is forthspoken via utterance, then shaped and then made manifest. Taking the correspondence further, it may be that the "place" of oskapt corresponds to some high unmanifest place from which that which is to become manifest first comes forth, if that makes sense. It's interesting to me the the word oskapt could be divided into "os" ("mouth") and "kapt" (or West Germanic Dutch "kopt", a form of koppen - like German "kopf") which can pertain to both the head in general (and to the crown of the head more specifically), making "oskapt" pertain to the "mouth of the head" - this is congruent with the idea of forthspeaking.

So, it seems to me that this island "Oskapt" may refer to a "place" within the Folksoul within which we all mix with one another as a unified community before extending out as individuals (or tribal families of individuals like soul families) into created reality.

Another interesting correspondence is that in kabbalah, the "terrible" place is also called the place of "terrible ice" (despite that it exists in the fiery Universe of Atzilut), so Oskapt may also be an "island" of "Niflheim within Muspelheim" in Germanic cosmology.