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Genetic investigation of the patrilineal kinship structure of early medieval Ireland
Author(s) -
McEvoy Brian,
Simms Katharine,
Bradley Daniel G.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
american journal of physical anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1096-8644
pISSN - 0002-9483
DOI - 10.1002/ajpa.20823
Subject(s) - kinship , clan , ancestor , genealogy , irish , tribe , period (music) , geography , evolutionary biology , ethnology , history , demography , biology , anthropology , sociology , linguistics , archaeology , philosophy , aesthetics
A previous study of Irish Y‐chromosomes uncovered a likely patrilineal kinship basis to the most prominent early Irish tribal entity/kingdom, the Uí Néill , who dominated the North of the Island during the early medieval period (600–1,000 AD). However, it is unknown to what extent this was a general feature of the multitude of Irish kingdoms that existed over the same period. Irish surnames are patrilineally inherited in a similar manner to the Y‐chromosome and their origin can often be traced to pre‐existing tribal units. We genotyped 17 microsatellites in 247 Y‐chromosomes from men with surnames that are purported to be derived from two different tribes ( Eóganacht and Dál Cais ) from the Southern province of Munster, as well as a third cohort of random names from the same geographic area. Although there is some sharing of Y‐chromosomes between surnames of the same putative origin, there was no clear distinction between either grouping and the control, suggesting that the level of Uí Néill patrilineal kinship was not a universal feature of Irish tribal units. In turn this argues that an extensive extended clan or biological legacy of an eponymous founding ancestor was not necessarily a crucial factor in their establishment. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.