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‘Viking’ was a job, not a matter of heredity: ancient DNA study (2020)

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Re: ‘Viking’ was a job, not a matter of heredity: ancient DNA study (2020)

#62

I feel like this is common in most (at least western) empires. Vikings from Sweden would take over territory as far as Poland or even Italy and recruit new soldiers. Eventually some of them would end up in warrior style graves. What's actually more interesting in my mind is that they didn't bring people back, and so the gene pool in Sweden remained more or less unchanged

The slave trade only went south.

Re: ‘Viking’ was a job, not a matter of heredity: ancient DNA study (2020)

#63
post #8

I am not sure why they used this title for this study as that is not the important part. We already have known Viking was a job description, thats been known for hundreds of years. We also knew that viking settlement was widespread. This study used DNA sequencing to settle the debate on if vikings from certain areas went to certain areas, and if they mixed. It seems to confirm the theory that the norse did NOT mix, a…

The title is indeed odd.

The new (to me, at least) idea here is that the different regions of Scandinavia didn't mix as much, "on the job" or genetically, as I thought they would have. They each carved out their own territories and mixed with the local population, but not with each other to a significant degree. It's surprising to find that more genetic material was making it's way back to parts of Scandinavia from those far-flung regions than from neighbouring Scandinavian countries.

Re: ‘Viking’ was a job, not a matter of heredity: ancient DNA study (2020)

#64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think I've ever heard anyone IRL say they have viking ancestors. Yearning for Valhalla is more a specific type of extremely online poster / podcast bro / FBI director kind of behavior.

Would wearing a haircut from that dreadful viking TV show and a Thor hammer necklace count? I’ve seen quite a meme-worthy characters over the years

No, that's not specifying the Viking job, just old nordic culture. I don't think that anyone wearing a cross is pretending to be a crusader.

Re: ‘Viking’ was a job, not a matter of heredity: ancient DNA study (2020)

#65
post #9

[flagged]

Much like pirates and gangsters, Vikings are cool if you consider them from an aesthetic as opposed to moralistic perspective. Everyone has evil ancestors, but some of them were cool.

Ninjas, samurai, Native Americans in war paint, etc. It's like every culture (that has survived) has reverence for their own group.

Re: ‘Viking’ was a job, not a matter of heredity: ancient DNA study (2020)

#66
post #52
post #9

[flagged]

There are five million Irish in Ireland and something like 75 million “Irish” in the US. And Chicago has more Polish that Warsaw, but that’s actual expats and their kids. Not great great great grandchildren of Margaret and John who came over in 1845.

This source puts that number at 35M of people with "some" Irish descent: https://overlandirelandtours.com/blog/why-are-there-more-iri... — that means that most of them probably have some other heritage too.

People say similar stuff about Serbians in Chicago (how it's the second biggest Serbian city after Belgrade), but usually all of that is overestimated significantly. Just like people overestimate their local city population (most in Belgrade claim it has 2M people when census on a metropolitan area gets us to 1.57M).

Re: ‘Viking’ was a job, not a matter of heredity: ancient DNA study (2020)

#67
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first part of the word viking, or vik simply means "bay" in nordic languages

The even firster part "vi" means "we" though.

And vi was an outgrowth of ex, which was an improved version of ed, which in my experience, roughly translates to ‘ugh’.

Re: ‘Viking’ was a job, not a matter of heredity: ancient DNA study (2020)

#68
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Have you read the old testament? It's much the same. Why focus on this specific religion?

It's just one example, I don't think we expect commenters to hit ALL applicable examples. Why did you focus specifically on that religious text?

Re: ‘Viking’ was a job, not a matter of heredity: ancient DNA study (2020)

#70
post #9

[flagged]

You are getting struck hard by the comments, so I'll provide some source about the concept of Viking in American self identity.

>In the United States, mainstream Americans incorporated Vikings into emerging Anglo-Saxon racial identities

https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3kq8c3g3

>As the man skims through these figures, his eyes are suddenly opened wide. According to the test results, he is “0.012% Viking.” With tears in his eyes, he falls on his knees and yells with excitement.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14636778.2020.1...

Just the first papers I grabbed, there is a good chuck of research literature on viking identity of Americans. There is also several monographies on the subject like Krueger, D. M. (2015). Myths of the Rune Stone: Viking Martyrs and the Birthplace of America. Besides that there are organizations like the American Viking:

>We are loyal to our country, United States of America, bound by our Viking Heritage, and fueled by modern Longships, the Rune-Carvers, and the Skalds.

https://www.americanviking.org/about

I think its a bit harsh dismissing the idea of Viking ancestry as a thing in USA. It might be linked to white supremacy, and mainly experienced in certain circles online, but its still a real phenomenon that has been going on for a long time.

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