Interesting alternative ethnic/cultural minorities

[pa_dutch]

By this I mean populations like the Jews, the Roma, the Assyrians, and the Cajuns, who exist in their own communities seperated from the dominant society.

In another thread, I suggested a culture descended from the Vandals retaining a distinct culture in the Maghreb...

Other possibilities:

Varangians/Scandinavians in Russia and the Ukraine dating back to Viking times

Hellenes in Central Asia dating back to the time of Alexander the Great

Chinese, Indians, or Persians along the East African Coast dating back to the Middle Ages

Huns in Central Europe dating back to the Dark Ages

Swedes in the Delaware/New Jersey area dating back to the New Sweden colony

Add your own...

[EvolvedSaurian]

Norse in North America from the Vinland colony.

Japanese in Indonesia from WW2.

Dutch around NYC.

[NapoleonXIV]

Christians in India, descended from the followers of Christ himself from his early journeys.

Jews in Egypt, who stayed behind when Moses took the rest away, but later de-assimilated themselves.

Chinese in California from the 1421 expedition

Modern followers of Odin in Normandy

The Neo-Beothuk, descendants of the recently discovered caucasian peoples who were in the Americas before the Amerinds

[NapoleonXIV]

Hellenes in Central Asia dating back to the time of Alexander the Great


Add your own...

Aren't these real? It's my understanding that most tribes in Afghanistan claim some Hellenistic forebears. and that historians actually agree with some of them

[Flocculencio]

Christians in India, descended from the followers of Christ himself from his early journeys.

We've already got the Nasrani...they're descended from Brahmins and Jews who were converted by St. Thomas.

[Gladi]

Bright day
Sumers in Iraq dating back from before anybody else got idea to get out of caves.

[MerryPrankster]

Aren't these real? It's my understanding that most tribes in Afghanistan claim some Hellenistic forebears. and that historians actually agree with some of them

Yep. I read in "National Geographic" about some people who live in the mountains of Pakistan and worship beings very much like the Greek gods.

[sunsurf]

Ancient Jomon (Japan)-Polynesians
Ancient Jomon (Japan)-Chilean Indians
Polynesian-NW Coastal Indian
Polynesian-Aleut
Polynesian Australian Aborigine
Polynesian-Navajo
Navajo-Aztec
Polynesian-Maori
Polynesian Chinese
Chinese-African (The Chinese did contact Africa, but apparently left no colonies--what if they had?)
Viking-Aztec
Viking-Maya
Viking-Inca
Viking-Any tribes along the coast of West Africa
Zulu-German (German colonies in Africa)
Bantu-German
German Lesotho (A much larger Lesotho kingdom with heavy Westernization of German colonial influence)
Dutch-Arab
Dutch-Nestorian
Dutch Buddhists
Dutch Shinto expatriates who colonize Australia and take over
Australian Aborigine-Dutch whose religion is Shinto
Hawaiian-Australian Aborigine
Hawaiian-Tahitian
Mormon-Hawaiian
Quaker-Hawaiian

Okay, I'll stop now. :D

[Superdude]

Iroquois in England.

[Veneer]

Polynesian-Maori

The Maori are a Polynesian people.

Chinese-African (The Chinese did contact Africa, but apparently left no colonies--what if they had?)

While they do not constitute a colony, per se, look into the Pate islanders.

[Keenir]

Polynesian Australian Aborigine
Polynesian-Navajo

and just how do the Polynesians get that far inland without losing Polynesian culture?


Navajo-Aztec
Polynesian-Maori

the Maori are Polynesians.


Polynesian Chinese
Chinese-African (The Chinese did contact Africa, but apparently left no colonies--what if they had?)

they had no reason to make colonies.


Dutch-Arab
Dutch-Nestorian
Dutch Buddhists
Dutch Shinto expatriates who colonize Australia and take over
Australian Aborigine-Dutch whose religion is Shinto
Hawaiian-Australian Aborigine
Hawaiian-Tahitian
Mormon-Hawaiian
Quaker-Hawaiian

Okay, I'll stop now. :D

tiny question: did you put any thought into the combinations?

I have my doubts that you did.

[sunsurf]

and just how do the Polynesians get that far inland without losing Polynesian culture?


Inland?? Weren't there any Aborigines along the coasts??

How far inland did the Vikings raid into France, Britain, the Netherlands, etc.?

the Maori are Polynesians.


Their culture seems rather distinct from the Hawaiians, Tahitians, etc. I should have said "other" Polynesians.


they had no reason to make colonies.


That's OTL.

tiny question: did you put any thought into the combinations?


Just a smidgen of thought. :D

If you want me to expand/expound on any of these, just say so. :D

I've mentioned a few times before, archaeologists have found pottery in Chile which resembles the pottery of the Jomon period of prehistoric Japan. This doesn't prove anything, but the coincidence is enough for AH fans to jump right in and start brainstorming. :D

As for some of the others, there might be religious ex-patriates, exiles, missionaries, traveling to Hawaii, Japan, etc.

Vikings might be blown off course in a storm and land in Africa or wherever.

All it takes is *one* influential Dutch person with a following to buy some land in the Mideast and alter the course of local history and leave a populous legacy...

[EvolvedSaurian]

I seem to remember something about Vikings attacking Paris. That's pretty far inland, right.

[Wendell]

The Neo-Beothuk, descendants of the recently discovered caucasian peoples who were in the Americas before the Amerinds
As in the Kennewick Man?

[Burton K Wheeler]

I seem to remember something about Vikings attacking Paris. That's pretty far inland, right.

They sailed right up the Seine River, not over the most forbidding desert in North America and two major mountain ranges. Also, Paris is nowhere near as far from the coast as Arizona.

[EvolvedSaurian]

They sailed right up the Seine River, not over the most forbidding desert in North America and two major mountain ranges. Also, Paris is nowhere near as far from the coast as Arizona.

Huh? Who said anything about Arizona?

[pa_dutch]

Yep. I read in "National Geographic" about some people who live in the mountains of Pakistan and worship beings very much like the Greek gods.

That's interesting, I'll have to look into it. I remember reading somewhere that some village in Western China claims to have descent from a lost Roman delegation, but that's about it.

[Wendell]

How about larger Korean Communities on the American West Coast due to longer and more brutal Japanese control over Korea?

[Leo Caesius]

Yep. I read in "National Geographic" about some people who live in the mountains of Pakistan and worship beings very much like the Greek gods.Those are the Kalasha (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalasha), I believe.

[Nekromans]

I remember reading somewhere that some village in Western China claims to have descent from a lost Roman delegation, but that's about it.

I remember reading a thread about that legion! Caligula marched them all the way to China. Because he was bored.

[MerryPrankster]

As in the Kennewick Man?

The very one.

It's a pity the Army Corps of Engineers buried the site under enormous amounts of dirt.

[MerryPrankster]

I remember reading a thread about that legion! Caligula marched them all the way to China. Because he was bored.

I read in the novel The Walking Drum that a legion was captured by the Parthians and marched to China to be sold as slaves.

Another version of the story involves the Parthians deploying said legion to guard their eastern borders and they escaped en masse to China at first opportunity (although wouldn't they have to cross India first?).

[MerryPrankster]

tiny question: did you put any thought into the combinations?

I have my doubts that you did.

Dutch Nestorian isn't too hard.

In OTL, the Nestorians were wiped out within the Roman Empire but survived in Persia, where they spread all the way to Japan.

Some of Nestorious's followers might have tried to flee into the Germanic lands to escape persecution by the Roman government. They might make a few converts among the Germanic tribes--some chieftains or warriors who want to be distinct from the Romans (Catholo-Orthodox) but don't like Arianism might be inclined to listen to the new arrivals.

However, Nestorian is a religion, not an ethnic group.

Dutch Arab is a bit trickier. An Islamic conquest of Western Europe might do it, but it's more likely the proto-Dutch (Frisians?) might convert to Islam but retain their own culture/language rather than simply Arabize.

[NapoleonXIV]

I read in the novel The Walking Drum that a legion was captured by the Parthians and marched to China to be sold as slaves.

Another version of the story involves the Parthians deploying said legion to guard their eastern borders and they escaped en masse to China at first opportunity (although wouldn't they have to cross India first?).

Either the later or earlier Han incorporated a long corridor across Central asia as part of their Empire. This came right up to the Northern end of the Caspian sea and would have thus almost bordered with the furthest extent of the Romans in the area. There is some record of clashes between Chinese troops and what appear to be Roman legionairres here

[Veneer]

The very one.

It's a pity the Army Corps of Engineers buried the site under enormous amounts of dirt.

Further research has suggested the possibility of non-Caucasoid affiliation; some researchers have postulated Ainu, Southeast Asian, or Oceanian affinity.

[MerryPrankster]

Further research has suggested the possibility of non-Caucasoid affiliation; some researchers have postulated Ainu, Southeast Asian, or Oceanian affinity.

True. The possibility I heard was that the Kennewick Man was kin to the Ainu. The reconstructions of his face seem to dent the theory that he was Southeast Asian, though.

However, the way the Indian tribes tried to get the body being buried before it could be studied (and succeeded in getting the Corps to ruin the site) is quite suspicious.

Some Spanish in Mexico heard about "long-faced people" who lived in Baja California, but when missionaries arrived, they found them all dead of smallpox. If there's a connection between the Kennewick Man and the "l-f p," then it's possible there was an earlier migration into North America, before the ancestors of the present-day Native Americans arrived.

[Wendell]

The very one.

It's a pity the Army Corps of Engineers buried the site under enormous amounts of dirt.
Am I correct that the oprder to bury it came from the White House?:confused:

[Count Dearborn]

How about Tocharians still existing into the 21st Century?