Altered maps

[RedRalph]

Not altered but interesting none the less:

Population map of China with countries instead: (like the american states one)

My God that is just incredible...

 

[The Last Conformist]

* The isolation of Finnish genetics can be explained by the fact that they were at one time a very small population, preserving its genetic idiosyncrasies as it expanded.

Doesn't explain how the emigrations of Finns to Sweden across the centuries, and in particular the large influx during and after WWII, failed to draw the Swedish genepool finnishward.

 

[Huayna Capac357]

Genetic map of Europe:

Spoiler explanation :

Genetically speaking, Finns and Italians are the most atypical Europeans. There is a large degree of overlap between other European ethnicities, but not up to the point where they would be indistinguishable from each other. Which means that forensic scientists now can use DNA to predict the region of origin of otherwise unknown persons (provided they are of European heritage).

These are among the conclusions to be drawn from a genetic map of Europe, produced by the Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam (the Netherlands), published in Current Biology’s August 7 issue. In its Science section, the New York Times devotes an article to the study, and reproduces the genetic map.

The discovery that autosomal (i.e. non-gender-related) aspects of DNA may be used to predict regional European provenance of unkown individuals was made by prof. dr. Manfred Kayser’s team of forensic molecular biologists. In a press release, the Erasmus UMC stated that this might potentially be helpful in resolving so-called ‘cold cases’.

The genetic map of Europe was compiled by comparing DNA samples from 23 populations in Europe (pictured on the right-hand side map). Those populations were then placed on the ‘genetic’ map according to their similarity, with the vertical axis denoting differences from south to north, and the horizontal one from west to east. The larger the area assigned to a population, the larger the genetic variation within that population.

When compared to the actual map, the populations kinda sorta maintain their relative position to each other. Two observations spring to mind immediately: the fact that most populations overlap so intimately with their neighbours. And that Finland doesn’t. Some other observations:

* The extent of genetic variation is greater north to south than east to west. This may be a result of the way Europe was colonized by modern humans, i.e. from the south, in three successive waves of migration (45,000 years ago, where before there had only been Neanderthals; 17,000 years ago, after the last Ice Age; and 10,000 years ago, with the advent of farming techniques from the Middle East).
* The isolation of Finnish genetics can be explained by the fact that they were at one time a very small population, preserving its genetic idiosyncrasies as it expanded.
* The relative isolation of Italian genetics is probably due to the Alps, providing a geographic barrier to the free and unhindered flow of population to and from Italy… Although Hannibal, the Celtic and Germanic influence in Italy’s north and of course the expansion of the Roman Empire would seem to contradict this.
* Yugoslav genetic variation is quite large (hence the big pink blob), and overlaps with the Greek, Romanian, Hungarian, Czech and even the Italian ones.
* There is surprisingly little overlap between the northern and southern German populations, each of which has more in common with their other neighbours (Danish/Dutch/Swedish in the northern case, Austrian/Swiss/French in the other one).
* The Polish population is quite eccentric as well, only significantly overlapping with the Czech one (and only minimally with the northern German one).
* The Swiss population is entirely subsumed by the French one, similarly, the Irish population almost doesn’t show any characteristics that would distinguish it from the British one.
* British and Irish insularity probably explains why so much of their genetic area is not shared with their closest European cousins, i.c. the Norwegian/Danish/Dutch cluster.

That is completely fascinating! Englishmen=Irishmen and Frenchmen=Swiss! It's simply fascinating.

 

[Squonk]

Fascinating indeed, although I think it is very hard to do, esp. in countries like Poland... we've had a giant dutch settlement in Major Poland region, for example, which didn't show elsewhere. Some regions were colonised densely by Germans, others were not. Some polish population is just polonised Ukrainians, Belarusians and Lithuanians etc...
The same goes for northern Germany. One should treat former DDR as something different, because it used to be slavic territory once. The same, is Yugoslav all former Yugoslavia, or neo-Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), or just Serbia?

And I'm pretty sure Poles would overlap densely with Lithuanians, Belarusians and Ukrainians. We do not overlap that much with Germans probably, because our western territories got germanised, and Germans of polish origin fled / were evacuated / were expelled after ww2.

Finns are the freaks of Europe. I've already knew this...

 

[Mirc]

I've commented on the map before, it's very interesting.

It shows there is actually a continuity in southern Europe (probably from the Romans), as IT1, PT, IT2, RO, ES1, ES2, FR and even CH and EL form a continuous group even though they are separated by large seas and mountains all around.

 

[Steph]

And despite William the Conqueror, the hundred years war, and the many houses bought by Englisnmen in lot, France and UK do not overlap at all.

 

[gangleri2001]

A Catalan could be...

Catalan = French + Spaniard

Or

Catalan = French + Spaniard + Portuguese + Italian

But we actually are

Catalan = French + Spaniard + Portuguese + Italian + Swiss

Swiss!!! WTH!!! Are they kidding?!

French and Catalan peoples are the only latin peoples that share stuff with the Swiss!! Not even the italians do!

 

[Rossiya]

A Catalan could be...

Catalan = French + Spaniard

Or

Catalan = French + Spaniard + Portuguese + Italian

But we actually are

Catalan = French + Spaniard + Portuguese + Italian + Swiss

Swiss!!! WTH!!! Are they kidding?!

French and Catalan peoples are the only latin peoples that share stuff with the Swiss!! Not even the italians do!

What do you mean by "Italians don't share stuff with the Swiss" exactly?

 

[really]

Genetic map of Europe:

Spoiler explanation :

* The Swiss population is entirely subsumed by the French one, similarly, the Irish population almost doesn’t show any characteristics that would distinguish it from the British one.
* British and Irish insularity probably explains why so much of their genetic area is not shared with their closest European cousins, i.c. the Norwegian/Danish/Dutch cluster.

This doesn't surprise me at all. The vast bulk of the population of Ireland and the UK are pre-celtic to a greater or lesser extent.

Also [Nationalism]Do the dots on the map represent where they took their samples?
If so this surprises me even less.
Jackeens* = English (*Dubliners) [/Nationalism]
And the French and Swiss samples are very close together in Lyon and the French speaking part of Switzerland.

 

[Shekwan]

And bringing back a favorite! "The World as seen from ___" series latest map,

The world as seen from Paris:

Doesn't seem that French specific - Australia and kangaroos! Who woulda thought it? And the UK is rainy, those Parisians are quite the observant lot.

 

[TheLastOne36]

This doesn't surprise me at all. The vast bulk of the population of Ireland and the UK are pre-celtic to a greater or lesser extent.

Also [Nationalism]Do the dots on the map represent where they took their samples?
If so this surprises me even less.
Jackeens* = English (*Dubliners) [/Nationalism]
And the French and Swiss samples are very close together in Lyon and the French speaking part of Switzerland.

Perhaps, but your right it does make sense, i mean the italians are to close togather but if they were taken from the dots then it's believable. It also explains Germany, and Switzerland. Also Warsaw was almost completely "artificially settled". A better sample would be from Krakow or even Katowice.

 

[TheLastOne36]

My God that is just incredible...

Yah, i'd like to see a similar map done with other big countries such as india...

 

[gangleri2001]

What do you mean by "Italians don't share stuff with the Swiss" exactly?

Well, there you cann see that the catalan and french circles overlap with the swiss one, while the two italian circles don't.

 

[Gooblah]

There's the US version, with GDP instead of population. I could come up with a pop one if anyone so wishes...

 

[Dachs]

The above map has been posted before.

 

[Gooblah]

The above map has been posted before.

Fine, then what about this one?

 

[Mad Man]

There's the US version, with GDP instead of population. I could come up with a pop one if anyone so wishes...

I never knew how much my home land has in common with Hong Kong

 

[mythmonster2]

Fine, then what about this one?

Is this also GDP?

 

[Annex]

Is this also GDP?

No, it appears to be population.

 

[Mirc]

There's the US version, with GDP instead of population. I could come up with a pop one if anyone so wishes...

It's misleading because the states have very, very different populations to each other and the countries there have very different populations both to each other and to the states they are compared with. If you make a GDP per capita one, that would be much more informative.