[gothic-l] The Scandinavian Origin (to Axeage)

[Sollers]

----- Original Message -----
From: B. Gendler <gendler at icdc.com>
To: <gothic-l at egroups.com>
Sent: 01 October 2000 02:10
Subject: Re: [gothic-l] The Scandinavian Origin (to Axeage)


>
>
> ----------
> "Axeage " <axeage at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I also believed that by the time the Visigoths arrived and settled in
> > Spain and southern France, and the Ostrogoths in Italy that they were
> > no longer the same people (racially and ethnically) who crossed the
> > Baltic from Scandinavia due to intermarriage with iranians, huns,
> > slavs, romans, etc...but so far, all anthropological evidence I have
> > seen indicates otherwise.
>
>   We do know that they mixed, however, and not always through marriage
> either. Wulfila for instance, was not of Gothic descent. His ancestors
were
> captives. Through the generations, their standings changed, so that by the
> time of Wulfila, he was considered a "Goth."
>   One thing to consider, apart from that, is that many of the peoples with
> whom the Goths mixed with were more probably other Germans with genetic
> origins similar to those of the Goths, i.e. Scandinavian, than say
Iranians,
> for example. We could probably expect more of a mixing with Germanic
peoples
> because the linguistic barrier would not be as great. This pertains mostly
> to joiners. Marriages probably took place within the tribe, or by
plundering
> the women of other tribes.
>   A large influx of non-Gothic Germans into the Gothic nation would alter
> their genetic pool very lttle. As Bertil has shown us, most of these other
> tribes that the Goths would have had contact with also had Scandinavian
> origins.
>      Gendler.

I am unconvinced at the idea of the Goths spreading _from_ Scandinavia.  The
migration maps one gets look like the weather forecast for a bad hurricane
and affect me in much the same way as the old geological "land bridge" maps
did in the days when Continental Drift was a heresy and plate tectonics had
not been thought of.  Certain cultural traits may have been in Scandinavia
all along, but others, such as cranial deformation, came in from the East.
The very cavalier attitude of the classical writers to the use of names for
ethnic groups doesn't help; they tended to use whatever name had been used
in the past for people in the area, regardless of whether there was any
connection.


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