Interesting DNA Results...

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Most of my Genome map is complete (generated by 23andme.com).

I'm relieved to see that the only alarming health results are such that I can live 

with. The important thing about the most concerning one is that I can 

somewhat control the environment part of cause of the disease (which is about 

40 % of the cause, on a low side, but still). Besides my generic curiosity about 

my genes, this is exactly what I was looking for having the mapping done: To 

be able to modify my ways, to keep the environmental factors at minimum.

But how exciting is this: I never knew (and neither does my family) that my 

maternal haplotype is Z1 - which means, as far as I can gather, my mother is 

of Sami origin (she is from Northern Finland, that I knew, but I had assumed 

he was one of the Finns living there, not one of the indigenous people in the 

area):

"Haplogroup Z1 is scattered throughout Asia, reaching levels of 9% in Tibet and 6.5% among 

Siberian Itel'men. Its levels are much lower in coastal regions of eastern Asia such as Japan, 

where it reaches levels of not much more than 1%.

While M8 is thought to have originated in Siberia, haplogroup Z1 may have arisen farther to the 

south. It probably was not common in the region before about 12,000 years ago, because it was 

not involved in the migrations from Siberia to Alaska that led to the peopling of North America. 

One sister of Z1, haplogroup C, ended up distributed widely not just in Asia but in the Americas 

as well.

Go West

But haplogroup Z1 did expand to the west. Today it reaches levels of 7% among the Finnish 

Saami, a group that is thought to have both European and Asian ancestry. Prehistoric 

migrations, as well as more recent invasions by Huns, Avars and Mongols, likely brought Z1 and 

several other haplogroups into Scandinavia and Russia's Volga river basin."

My father is of haplotype N1c1*:

"In some of the farthest reaches of northern Eurasia, haplogroup N1c is represented exclusively 

by the N1c1 branch. N1c1 appears to be relatively young - no more than 5,000 years old. It is 

most common in the isolated tribes of northern Siberia, such as the Yakut and Buryats, where 

N1c1 reaches levels of 85-95%. But N1c1 is also present at high levels farther west, where it's 

found in up to 60% of Saami and 30% of Estonians. In total, about a quarter of Siberian men 

have Y chromosomes belonging to N1c1. That prevalence, and the concentration of N1c1 among 

speakers of Altaic tongues like Mongolian, suggests that the paternal ancestry of many present-

day Siberian men may trace to northern China or the Altay Mountains of Central Asia."

This being a visual diary I thought of adding some photos of Sami people. 

Going through images on the web, I came across a Sami music and culture 

festival in Norway, which has a name, wait for it:

Riddu Riđđu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riddu_Ri%C4%91%C4%91u)

Riddu Riđđu is Sami for "small storm at the coast".

It's spooky how close it is to my blog identity Ridou Ridou, that I adopted from 

a 'thin air' - it just popped into my mind when thinking of what to call the blog.

Here's a photo from the festival:

Photo: Torill Ustad Spell / NRK
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