When I was in college, someone told me to check the back of my lateral incisors for a bump. I checked and I did have this bump. This person claimed that the bump on the back of this tooth was a genetic marker that showed that I have Mongol blood.
Since then, I have asked a few people to check their teeth for this bump, and it has seemed that people of eastern European descent were more likely to have it than those of northern European descent. However, I have never been able to substantiate this claim in a scientific way. Can anyone let me know if this is true, or if I’ve been had?
What I meant by that exactly is that the Mongols invaded eastern Europe and presumably mixed with the local population before they receded back to Asia. The bump on the back of the lateral incisor is supposedly a feature that the Mongols had that would have been introduced to the European population via this invasion. If it’s bullshit, that’s fine with me. I was just curious if there was any basis in fact for this factoid, but you just saying “it’s bullshit” doesn’t convince me that there isn’t.
I have that bump on my right lateral incisor, and so far as I know, there’s no Mongol blood in my family tree. German, English, Irish, Welsh, Scots-Irish, and Scottish, but not Mongol.
Think of it like blood type: There may be prevalences in certain populations, but all types appear in all groups of people the world over, whether they are closely related or not.
How would anyone know that this tooth feature only appeared in the “Mongol” population (whatever that is, since the Golden Horde incorporated people from many different ethnic origins).
The people who lived in the mongolian steppes never were very isolated for long, (they were nomads remember) and there is an archeological record of caucasians in the region from very ancient times.
I’m just saying it’s impossible for anyone to know the answer to your question. You could just as well ask if your straight hair was inherited from a “Mongol” ancestor, it’s the same kind of question.
I read in a book once that it was a groove on the back of the incisor that meant you have Asian roots in your ancestory. Apparently, it doesn’t matter many generations back it was. This marker tends to keep showing up. Since some of my ancestors likely spent time or came from what is now Turkey, I can go along with Mogol supposition.
I don’t remember the name of the book, unfortunately. It was a mystery and this bit of information led to the identity of the dead person.
Might you be referring to the so-called “shovel-shaped incisors”? They’re incisors that have a scooped-out shape on the tongue side. They’re a common feature of Native Americans and are believed to have originated in east Asia before humans crossed the Bering Strait.
As Enema says, they are generally called “shovel teeth” and are very common through Asia and the Americas (American Indian migrated from Asia, after all.) Without having seen Enima’s last link, I would venture to guess that if they are also common in Sweden, it is because the migratory people known as the Lapps (or Sami, as they wish to be known now) followed the reindeer herds clear down to what is now Hungary, where they likely co-mingled with the Mongols and other os asian descent.
Here are a few site I cam up with that have to do with shovel teeth and their origins. You were right, by the way, about the bump. Apparently though, grooves can happen too.
it clearly states that shovel-shaped incisors indicate Mongloid ancestry. 90% of people with shovel-shaped incisors are of Asian or native American descent, which would indicate that I most likely have Asiatic ancestry (and so do you, phouka!).
Another thing I found interesting is that pre-historic Americans supposedly had shovel-shaped incisors AND single-rooted upper pre-molars I happen to know for a fact that my pre-molars are single-rooted because I had them pulled for orthodontic reasons. Oddly, I am supposed to be of Italian and eastern European Jewish descent, but I suppose there’s been quite a lot of mixing.
It’s pretty interesting to read about these dental traits because they enable you to determine some of your very distant past ancestry.
Not to hijack this but while we are on the topic, I had very deep trenches running down the center of my molars, which gave the dentist a good excuse to fill all my molars. Do they mean anything or does everyone have such trenches?
As a side note, it seems to me that at least a couple of dentists daw me coming and said I had cavities pretty much every time I saw the dentist. Now that I have a mouth full of fillings, finally stopped going. (The Lithuanian tradition is to only go when something hurts.) And everything is fine. Has anyone else had the same problem, am I just imagining the problem, or did they really see me coming?
I possess the shovel teeth, which I attribute to my Melungeon ancestry (I also have the famous Anatolian bump and headridge).
For the record, what non-Melungeon genes I have come from much the same areas that phouka’s ancestors hailed from – Britain, German, and Dutch. My coloring is fair and my eyes are blue. Yet I possess several physical reminders of my Turkish and Amerindian blood. Odd how that works out.
I know this is an old tread but, its so silly for people to think that know what their complete linage via word of mouth. As if their grand mother is going to mention “and oh yeah my great great great grand mother was raped be the Mongols!!!”
Do you know how many black people with blue or hazel eyes that I’ve met that swear up and down that they are 100% black? I’m black and I know that is absurd.
Chances are if you are American and has American ancestry dating back at least 150 years you have at least some mixture of Native American, African, and Irish ancestry.
Those were the biggest ethnicities of that era, and regardless of appearance many people today are a mixture of those groups.
85-90% Of African Americans have European ancestry (55% Irish ancestry)
1-4 % Of African Americans have Native American ancestry.
-1% Of African Americans have Asian ancestry.
30-33% Of White Americans have African ancestry (99% African-American/Mulatto)
1-2% Of White Americans have Native American Ancestry.
-1% Of White Americans have Asian ancestry.
How is that possible some of you may ask???
Google Gabrielle Reece (Volleyball player).
She is half white and half black (little known fact) And she has blond hair and Grey eyes (looks 100% WHITE).