Note from BBT: Let’s be real, this information should come as no sort of shock to anyone who has even the slightest understanding of the history of Brazil or the Americas in general. According to the “DNA of Brazil” study: Brazil is a nation constructed on the rape of black and indigenous women by white Europeans. Even not having done any deep historical research on the topic, most of us know that European men inflicted all sorts of horrific acts of violence on indigenous and African men and women during and after the slavery era. As a child, I always wondered why it was that my mother’s skin was so much lighter than my mine. I also wondered this about the light skin and light colored eyes of her father, my grandfather.
Months before my grandfather died 15 years ago, I saw him for the last time at a nursing home. He was one of the few black men at that nursing home, but looking at how pale his skin had gotten, I wondered if caregivers and other patients at that home even knew he was black…until we, his family, showed up to see him. It’s really kind of amazing how this evidence of slave origin sexual relations can be still be seen in our families.
In the case of African-Americans, as the United States has been such a segregated nation for so long, when we see “redbones”, “high yellow” skin, loosely curly hair and light-colored eyes, most of us would have to go back several generations to find the European who spread his seed in our families, most likely through violent manners. But as much as we consider the pain and terrorism of the slavery era in the United States, what we often read is that the fate of Africans in Latin American countries such as Brazil was far worse.
Black slaves in Brazil, particularly the men, were literally worked to death, which explains why the origins of African ancestry of people in Brazil can be traced back to black women far more often than black men. One study revealed that, in Latin America, for every one black man, between four and 17 black women contributed to the genetic makeup of the descendants. What also strikes me about knowing this is that, as much is made of the openly stated 19th century goals of whitening the Brazilian population via miscegenation, when you really look at it, it seems as if this was the agenda all along.
Brazil is a nation constructed on the rape of black and indigenous women by white Europeans, says study
By Karol Gomes
The largest genome research is being carried out in Brazil in order to develop the most comprehensive genetic database available on the population. The “DNA do Brasil” project announced the initiative nine months ago and is already delivering its first results, which amazed many people due to the unequal legacy they symbolize.
With the goal of analyzing 40,000 Brazilians, the researchers have already completed the sequencing of the 1,247 genome. The volunteers are from all parts of the country, which includes from comunidades ribeirinhas (riverside communities) in the Amazon to residents of the city of São Paulo. According to the data, 75% of the Y chromosomes in the population are inherited from European men. 14.5% are African, and only 0.5% are indigenous. The other 10% are half of East and South Asia, and half from other Asian locations.
With the mitochondrial DNA it was the opposite: 36% of these genes are inherited from African women, and 34% from indigenous people. Only 14% come from European women, and 16% from Asian women.
Adding the female percentages, we have that 70% of the mothers that gave rise to the Brazilian population are African and indigenous – but 75% of the fathers are European. The reason goes back to the Portuguese colonization years in Brazil. The rape of enslaved black and indigenous women was the standard.
Violent exploitation and mass extermination also meant that indigenous men hardly left any descendants – they represent only 0.5% of the genome in the population, while native women account for 34%.
DNA of Brazil: A Nation Constructed on The Rape of black
Half of our genes are inherited from the mother, while the other half is from the father. In general, it is not possible to identify which genes came from each one. But there are exceptions. The Y chromosome is one of them. Women have XX sex chromosomes, and men XY. This means that the mother will always transfer the X chromosome to the fetus. And then the father’s sperm are responsible for “deciding” the sex of the baby, sending the X or Y chromosome.
One of the objectives of the research is medical: the genetic data allow the identification of groups more susceptible to certain diseases, which makes it possible to direct SUS (health care system) resources and efforts with intelligence.
Genetic mapping also provides data on the ancestry of the volunteers. In these 1,247 preliminary genomes alone, it has already been possible to observe genetic variants from 54 populations around the world. The results show that yes, Brazil is extremely miscegenated – but that this miscegenation did not occur in a balanced way.
In addition to opening up historical atrocities, the genome of the project’s first volunteers also revealed four million new genetic variants, which are not registered in other international genome banks. Another recent genomic mapping, done only with elderly Brazilians, showed two million more unpublished variants.
Cientista no jardim@carloshotta: “This chart absolutely shocked me”
Atila Iamarino@oatila: “Brazil: a country with a history so violent that it appears in the genome of its inhabitants. A look at the pattern of inheritance undoes all ignorance they try to plant by denying how harmful slavery was and how tainted our past and present is.”
“Translating: European men (Y chromosome) contributed disproportionately to the Brazilian population by making children with African and indigenous women (mitochondria). On the basis of much violence, since African and indigenous men were erased.”
Taís Oliveira@tais_so: “I find the whiteness curious by discovering and ~ horrified ~ with this map of the Brazilian genome that miscegenation is the result of rape. What is missing is to read black bibliography on the country’s history huh…”
Source: Hypeness
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