Melungeon Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Melungeon is a term used for an ethnically mixed population in the southeastern United States that is of uncertain origin, perhaps a combination of various European, Middle Eastern and Native American strains. The name was not popular among the group until the 1960s.Melungeons have been the subject of much debate about their ethnic, linguistic, cultural and geographic connections. While not officially recognized as an ethnic or racial group by the U.S. government, they often have a keen sense of self identity and, in some areas, a long history of existing separate from the mainstream community.
The extent to which Melungeons constitute a specific race or ethnicity is controversial, because members of this group are considered to be ethnically mixed rather than exhibiting characteristics which can be incontrovertibly classified as being of a single racial phenotype.
Even the origin of the term "Melungeon" is highly controversial.
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2 Origin 3 Language 4 External links |
"Melungeon" is applied to group members living in:
Location
Potentially related populations include:
Among the Native Americans, connections exist within:
- Algonquian tribes of eastern and central Virginia
- Lumbees
- Monacans
- Saponi
- Catawba
- Cherokee
- Muskogee
- Creek
Melungeons claim to be of the following origin:
Origin
A 1990 gene frequency study (Guthrie, Tennessee Anthropologist, Spring 1990) utilizing 177 Melungeon blood samples showed no significant differences between eastern Tennessee and south-western Virginia Melungeons and populations in:
Physical traits such as sexdactyly, "Indian toes" and the Anatolian bump are common in the Melungeon bloodline and hark back to the ancestral populations in Turkey, the Americas, etc.The Melungeon population have been determined to suffer from the following genetic conditions (genetic ailments are often seen as a defining characteristic of racial specificity):
- Thalassemia
- Behcet's Syndrome
- Machado-Joseph (Azorean) Disease
- sarcoidosis
- Familial Mediterranean fever
Language
The number of Melungeon and Native American terms which have been preliminarily linked with Ottoman period Turkish and Arabic words with identical pronunciations and meaning (and thus 'reinforce the Melungeon construct') is at least 1000.