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Finnish Disease Heritage II: population prehistory and genetic roots of Finns

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Abstract

In the second part of my review of the Finnish Disease Heritage (FDH), I discuss the settling of Finland; factors influencing the genes of a population, such as agriculture versus hunting/fishing/gathering, trading and cultural relations, wars and other kinds of violence, and bottlenecks; relatives of the Finns in the light of classical European studies, classical Finnish studies, mtDNA and Y-chromosomal studies; the genes of the Finns today, characterizing FDH, the east-west difference among Finns, and minorities in Finland, viz. the Lapps or Saami and Swedish-speaking Finns.

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Acknowledgements

My cordial thanks to Unto Salo and Marja-Liisa Savontaus for their expert advice, Jonna Mervelä, Liisa Savolainen, and Leena Toivanen for their zealous assistance, the publishing company Otava for figure material, and the Finnish Cultural Foundation for grants.

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Norio, R. Finnish Disease Heritage II: population prehistory and genetic roots of Finns. Hum Genet 112, 457–469 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00439-002-0876-2

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