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=== Population genetics ===
=== Population genetics ===
The most frequent [[Human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup|Y-Dna haplogroups]] in Galicia is [[Haplogroup R1b (Y-DNA)|R1b]] (particularly R1b3) covering about 57% of the Y chromosomal lineages. The high frequency of this haplogroup is typical in all West European populations, reflecting a cline and likely continuity of the Paleolithic gene pool in Europe. Haplogroups [[Haplogroup I (Y-DNA)|I]] and [[Haplogroup G (Y-DNA)|G]], also characteristic markers for many different West European populations, were found in Galicia at frequencies above 5% (respectively 10% and 6%). Together with R1b, [[Haplogroup E1b1b (Y-DNA)|E1b1b]] (17%) and haplogroups [[Haplogroup J (Y-DNA)|J]] (8%) comprise about 80% of the Y-chromosomal gene pool of Galicia individuals. Haplogroups J and E1b1b consist of lineages with differential distribution within [[Middle East]], [[North Africa]] and [[Europe]]. Galicia has also the the highest proportions of North African ancestry (20.8%) in Iberia (with Northwest Castile)<ref>"Indeed, the highest mainland proportions of North African ancestry (>20%) are found in Galicia and Northwest Castile, with much lower proportions in Andalusia", [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19061982The Genetic Legacy of Religious Diversity and Intolerance: Paternal Lineages of Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula], Adams et al.2008</ref>.
The most frequent [[Human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup|Y-Dna haplogroups]] in Galicia is [[Haplogroup R1b (Y-DNA)|R1b]] (particularly R1b3) covering about 57% of the Y chromosomal lineages. The high frequency of this haplogroup is typical in all West European populations, reflecting a cline and likely continuity of the Paleolithic gene pool in Europe. Haplogroups [[Haplogroup I (Y-DNA)|I]] and [[Haplogroup G (Y-DNA)|G]], also characteristic markers for many different West European populations, were found in Galicia at frequencies of respectively 10% and 6%. Together with R1b, [[Haplogroup E1b1b (Y-DNA)|E1b1b]] (17%) and haplogroups [[Haplogroup J (Y-DNA)|J]] (8%) comprise about 80% of the Y-chromosomal gene pool of Galician individuals. Haplogroups J and E1b1b consist of lineages with differential distribution within [[Middle East]], [[North Africa]] and [[Europe]] and Galicia has the highest proportions of North African ancestry (20.8%) in Iberia (with Northwest Castile)<ref>"Indeed, the highest mainland proportions of North African ancestry (>20%) are found in Galicia and Northwest Castile, with much lower proportions in Andalusia", [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19061982 The Genetic Legacy of Religious Diversity and Intolerance: Paternal Lineages of Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula], Adams et al.2008</ref>.


The most frequent [[Human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup|mtDNA haplogroup]] in Galicia is [[Haplogroup H (mtDNA)|H]] (about 40%), followed by [[Haplogroup U (mtDNA)|U]]. These two haplogroups, H and U alone account for more than 50% of the individuals. Significant frequency of sub-Saharan [[Haplogroup L1 (mtDNA)|L haplogroups]] (3.26%) in Galicia is also consistent with the historical records on slave's introduction in western Iberia<ref>[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16201138 African female heritage in Iberia: a reassessment of mtDNA lineage distribution in present times], Pereira et al. 2005</ref><ref>[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12627534?dopt=Abstract Mitochondrial DNA affinities at the Atlantic fringe of Europe], Gonzalez et al. 2003 </ref>.
The most frequent [[Human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup|mtDNA haplogroup]] in Galicia is [[Haplogroup H (mtDNA)|H]] (about 40%), followed by [[Haplogroup U (mtDNA)|U]]. These two haplogroups, H and U alone account for more than 50% of the individuals. Significant frequency of sub-Saharan [[Haplogroup L1 (mtDNA)|L haplogroups]] (3.26%) in Galicia is also consistent with the historical records on slave's introduction in western Iberia<ref>[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16201138 African female heritage in Iberia: a reassessment of mtDNA lineage distribution in present times], Pereira et al. 2005</ref><ref>[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12627534?dopt=Abstract Mitochondrial DNA affinities at the Atlantic fringe of Europe], Gonzalez et al. 2003 </ref>.

Revision as of 20:24, 12 March 2009

Galicians
(Galegos)
The civil flag of Galicia
FeijooEduardo PondalRosalía de CastroEmilia Pardo Bazán

CanalejasValle-InclánLa Bella OteroFile:Juana de ibarbourou.jpg Francisco FrancoFile:Portrait Cela.jpgManuel Fraga IribarneFidel Castro

1st row: Inés de Castro • Jerónimo Feijoo • Concepción Arenal • Eduardo Pondal • Rosalía de Castro • Emilia Pardo Bazán
2nd row: Pablo Iglesias • Curros Enríquez • José Canalejas • Valle-Inclán • La Belle Otero • Castelao • Juana de Ibarbourou

3nd row: Francisco Franco • Luís Seoane • Camilo José Cela • Manuel Fraga • Fidel Castro • Frank Caldeiro
Total population
approx. 10 million of descendents worldwide
Regions with significant populations
          A Coruña Province1,126,707
          Lugo Province357.625
          Ourense Province339.555
          Pontevedra Province938.311
          Total2,737,370
 Spain (rest of the country)374,307[1]
 Argentina118,085.[1]
 Venezuela33,443.[1]
 Brazil29,601.[1]
  Switzerland29,075.[1]
 Uruguay28,470.[1]
 France16,026.[1]
 Germany13,254.[1]
 Cuba11,114.[1]
 United Kingdom10,051.[1]
 United States9.482.[1]
 Mexico7.741.[1]
Other countries158,203.[1]
Languages
Galician language, Spanish
Religion
Roman Catholic
Related ethnic groups
other Spaniards, Portuguese, French, Italians

The Galicians (Galician: Galegos) are an ethnic group or nationality whose homeland is Galicia, which is a historical region in Southwestern Europe, embracing a territory situated in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. The languages of Galicia are Galician and Spanish.

Geography and Demographics

Political and administrative divisions

The autonomous community (a concept established in the Spanish constitution of 1978) that is known as (a) Comunidade Autónoma Galega in Galician , and as (la) Comunidad Autónoma Gallega in Spanish (in English: Galician Autonomous Community), is composed of the four Spanish provinces of A Coruña, Lugo, Ourense, and Pontevedra.

Other Galician-speaking areas are situated in the Spanish provinces of León and Zamora in the Autonomous Community of Castile and Leon and in the Autonomous Community of Asturias.

Population, main cities and languages

The official Statistical body of Galicia is the Instituto Galego de Estatística (IGE). According to the IGE, Galicia's total population in 2008 was 2,783,100 (1,138,474 in A Coruña,[2] 355.406 in Lugo,[3] 336.002 in Ourense,[4] and 953.218 in Pontevedra[5]). The most important cities in this region, which serve as the provinces' administrative centres, are Vigo, Pontevedra (in Pontevedra), Santiago de Compostela , A Coruña , Ferrol (in A Coruña), Lugo (in Lugo), and Ourense (in Ourense). The official languages are Galician and Spanish. Knowledge of Spanish is compulsory according to the Spanish constitution and virtually universal. Knowledge of Galician, after declining for many years owing to the pressure of Spanish and official persecution, is again on the rise due to favorable official language policies and popular support. Currently about 82% of Galicia's population can speak Galician[6] and about 61% has it as a mother tongue.[7]

Population genetics

The most frequent Y-Dna haplogroups in Galicia is R1b (particularly R1b3) covering about 57% of the Y chromosomal lineages. The high frequency of this haplogroup is typical in all West European populations, reflecting a cline and likely continuity of the Paleolithic gene pool in Europe. Haplogroups I and G, also characteristic markers for many different West European populations, were found in Galicia at frequencies of respectively 10% and 6%. Together with R1b, E1b1b (17%) and haplogroups J (8%) comprise about 80% of the Y-chromosomal gene pool of Galician individuals. Haplogroups J and E1b1b consist of lineages with differential distribution within Middle East, North Africa and Europe and Galicia has the highest proportions of North African ancestry (20.8%) in Iberia (with Northwest Castile)[8].

The most frequent mtDNA haplogroup in Galicia is H (about 40%), followed by U. These two haplogroups, H and U alone account for more than 50% of the individuals. Significant frequency of sub-Saharan L haplogroups (3.26%) in Galicia is also consistent with the historical records on slave's introduction in western Iberia[9][10].

Galician language

Speakers of Galician as first language according to Population and Housing Census of the Galician Statistics Institute (2001)
Main article: Galician language

Galician is an Iberian Romance language belonging to the Western Ibero-Romance branch of the Indo-European languages. It is spoken in Galicia, an autonomous community with the constitutional status of an "historic nationality" in northwestern Spain. Galician is also spoken in the neighboring autonomous communities of Asturias and Castile and León, near their borders with Galicia.

Galician and Portuguese were, during medieval times, a single language spoken in the Kingdom of Galicia and in Portugal. The language is variously called Galician-Portuguese, Medieval Galician, or Archaic Portuguese. The two modern languages continue to be linked by a dialect continuum in the north of Portugal.

Despite the positive effects of official recognition of the Galician language, Galicia's socio-linguistic development has suffered from the growing influence of Castilian Spanish, a world language. The drift toward Spanish is ascribed to the growth of urban centers, the emergence of a Galician middle class, and the worldly influences of education and the media.

Galicians, increasingly, have also had contacts with other European nations along the Atlantic seaboard, particularly with the so-called Celtic countries, with which Galicia shares a cultural and musical tradition. As well Galician language shares typical structures of the celtic languages like Welsh or Irish, principally. For instance, questions can be asked with the same verb used in that question. Cultural influences from across the Atlantic have also manifested themselves in Galicia from the second half of the 20th century onwards; Galician émigrés have maintained their ties to their motherland, and they have shared aspects of the cultures of their adoptive homelands with friends and family who remained behind.

The fact that Galicia is home to Santiago de Compostela, the terminus of the most famous Christian pilgrimage route, has enabled Galicians to absorb European thought and art forms from medieval times until the present.

Galicia also boasts a rich oral tradition, in the form of songs, tales, and sayings, which has made a vital contribution to the spread and development of the Galician language. Still flourishing today, this tradition constitutes a priceless cultural heritage, much of which is shared with its neighbor Portugal.

Today Galician culture is vibrant, firmly rooted in tradition, yet open to contemporary contributions.

Culture and society

Galician gaiteiros

Culture and landscape

Galicia's cultural heritage is characterized by its extensive, abundant and varied geography. Indeed, the entire region could be considered as a sort of museum that never closes its doors to the public.

It boasts a wealth of Roman remains, highlights of which include the Walls of Lugo, declared a World Heritage Site, as well as the Tower of Hercules in A Coruña. The Way of St James has also been acknowledged by UNESCO, as has Galicia's capital, Santiago de Compostela, declared a World Heritage City in 1985.

More than 30,000 centers of population make up a decidedly humanised land and landscape. These settlements are home to magnificent examples of the Galician people's architectural and ethnographic heritage. Stone crosses, raised granaries and shrines… are all fine examples of the traditional constructions to be found in this land.

Imigration

Like other Iberian regions, Galicia's history has been defined by mass emigration. There was significant Galician emigration in the 19th and early 20th centuries to other parts of Spain, Portugal, and to the Americas.

Unlike the Basque and the Catalan regions which were rich, urbanized, and industrialized, Galicia remained relatively poor, agricultural and dominated by rural and village society, as industry had yet to make its appearance there on a large scale. Moreover, its agricultural sector continued to be among the most backward in Spain, and farm productivity was severely hampered by the tiny size of the individual farmsteads known as minifundios. The minifundio was the product of an attempt to distribute land plots in a closed rural system to a growing population by requiring that equal shares be bequeathed to each heir. After just a few generations, the land had been subdivided so much that most of the plots were too small to support a family or to be economically viable.

For these reasons, Galicia was a net exporter of population to the rest of Spain. Between 1900 and 1981, the net outflow of people from Galicia was more than 825,000. In fact, the city with the second greatest number of Galician people is Buenos Aires, Argentina, where immigration from Galicia was so massive that all Spaniards are now known as gallegos (Galicians). During the Franco years, there was a new wave of emigration out of Galicia to other European countries, most notably to France, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

Galician cuisine

Polbo á feira

Galician cuisine refers to the typical dishes and ingredients found in the cuisine of the Galicia region of Spain. These include shellfish and fish, many pork-related dishes (chourizos, zorza, botelo, androlla), empanadas, torta de Santiago (cake of Santiago), polbo á feira (a dish made of octopus), the cheese queixo de tetilla, the ribeiro and albariño wines, and orujo liquor.

Compared to the wide variety of foods in the cuisines of France and India, for example, Galician cuisine could be considered to be fairly simple. Galician recipes are in general less elaborate than in other cuisines. In Galician cuisine, the freshness and quality of the produce are paramount.

Potatoes are nowadays a staple of Galician cooking; however potato crops only started to be widespread in Galicia as late as the 18th century. Potatoes supplanted the ancient use of chestnuts in many Galician dishes such as the popular caldo galego (Galician vegetable soup). Another innovation was the widespread use of olive oil from the 19th century on which replaced the older use of pork tallow.

Empanada
Queimada

Some taboos of Galician cooking, which are only disappearing in the globalization age, are the wide disregard for most mushrooms (with some exceptions) and some mollusks such as snails.

In Galicia, a wide variety of sea produce can be found in traditional dishes due to the province's long shoreline and traditional fishing economy. Agriculture products such as potatoes, maize, and wheat are also a staple in the Galician diet, along with dairy and meat products from animals such as cows, sheep, and pigs; Galicia's grasses and shrubs are green year-round and are excellent for grazing. Historically, rye was the most traditional cereal crop in Galicia.

Religion

The majority of Galicians are Roman Catholics with a non-religious minority.

Nationalism and history

Galician nationalism - which appeared as early as the 1840s in the form of Galicianism - recalled the "Golden Age" of the Kingdom of Galicia, when that kingdom played a major role in the politics of medieval Iberia. That was the time when the northern half of Galicia was hemmed in and isolated while the southern portion expanded southward in the wake of the Moor's withdrawal. This southern part of the realm eventually became Portugal; the northern part fell into disorder.

A Revival and a sense of national willpower

Following the dynastic union of the kingdoms of Aragon and Castile, namely after 1486, Galicia's political and cultural influence was severely diminished, a process that was later to continue with the establishment of the Bourbon dynasty in Spain in the 18th century and the establishment of a liberal state in the 19th century. This would lead to the gradual centralization of the monarchic institutions and the total loss of Galicia's political rights and institutions.

With the spread of Romanticism throughout Europe and its call for the acknowledgement of the cultures of stateless nations, Galicia began to experience a Revival, characterised by a resurgence of national awareness. Nineteenth century political movements such as provincialism and regionalism, and the consolidation of the concept of Galicianism, spur on the creation of alternatives designed to endorse the region with its own self-governing institutions and to embark upon a process aimed at promoting and standardizing both the Galician language and culture.

Galicia during the time of exile and resistance

The process of setting up Galicia’s first government following the passing of the Statute of Autonomy in 1936 suffered a sharp setback following the military coup that took place that same year and marked the start of the Spanish Civil War.

During the forty years of dictatorship, the Galician nationalist movement was forced into exile, leading to its restructuring in order to be able to carry out the political and cultural projects that would have been practically infeasible in Galicia until the consolidation of democratic resistance groups that challenged the dictatorship.

Democratic self-government for the future

The final years of Franco's regime saw the revival of the sense of national identity amongst the people of Galicia, starting off in the field of culture, and then gradually generating an extending towards political movement in favor of self-government and cultural standardization within the framework of the Spanish State, seen as a multinational and multilingual political entity.

Fraga's Galicia

In 1990, conservative politician Manuel Fraga took over as President of Galicia. He believed that Galicia should try to modernise itself without losing its valuable traditions. Fraga's past as a Franco minister was put aside during this stage of his life, in which he assumed some of the claims of Galician nationalists such as the use of the Galician language. Fraga's rule over Galicia came to an end in April 2005.

Galicia today

Today Galician culture is slowly but gradually recovering. Firmly rooted in tradition, it has also incorporated more contemporary aspects. The fact that Galicia was home to the end of a pilgrimage route that acted as the cultural backbone of Europe enabled it to soak up European thought and art forms from the Middle Ages until today.


Galician Cultural Future

A strong cultural fabric

The Galician City of Culture Modern Galician culture has been built on solid historical foundations, with a cultural industry currently under consolidation supported by a dynamic cultural framework. The principal cultural spaces include, within the field of art, the Centre for Galician Contemporary Art (CGAC) in Santiago de Compostela and Vigo’s Contemporary Art Museum (MARCO), without forgetting, in the area of dramatic art, the network of theatres and auditoriums. In addition, the Galician City of Culture, although currently undergoing the redefinition and reorganization of its contents and spaces, also constitutes a global cultural project. A description of Galicia’s cultural scene would not be complete without a mention of the many socio-cultural centers, networks of libraries, alternative exhibition centres and the multiple associations that organize, promote and support root cultural projects.

Cultural Institutions

The principal official institutions in terms of cultural affairs include the Galician Royal Academy, founded in Cuba in 1906, and the Galician Council for Culture, whose aim is to advise the Galician autonomous governments in all matters concerning culture. The region’s universities also play a major role in Galicia’s cultural development. This is particularly true of the University of Santiago de Compostela, which first took on this task back in the 15th century. The Museum of the Galician people (Museo do Pobo Galego) also serves as an important cultural institution.

The major driving forces for culture in Galicia today are the publishing industry, which is producing a growing number of publications, and the audiovisual and art industries, in which private initiative is currently thriving.

Famous people of Galician origin

Sportspeople

File:FEEyAPB-ISAF.jpg
Fernando Echavarri and Antón Paz, gold medalist in the 2008 Olympic Games

Writers

File:Valle-Inclan.jpg
Valle Inclan

Others

Fidel Castro
Martin Sheen
Susana Seivane
Carlos Nuñez
Manu Chao

And the four children of Martin Sheen:

See also

External links

Online references

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Censo electoral de galegos residentes no estranxeiro a 1 de abril de 2008, segundo país de residencia e provincia de inscrición
  2. ^ [1:0;9912:15&S= A Coruña province 2008 census]
  3. ^ [1:0;9912:27&S= Lugo province census 2008]
  4. ^ [1:0;9912:32&S= Ourense province census 2008]
  5. ^ [1:0;9912:36&S= Pontevedra province census 2008]
  6. ^ Knowledge of Galician language 2003
  7. ^ Use of Galician langue 2003
  8. ^ "Indeed, the highest mainland proportions of North African ancestry (>20%) are found in Galicia and Northwest Castile, with much lower proportions in Andalusia", The Genetic Legacy of Religious Diversity and Intolerance: Paternal Lineages of Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula, Adams et al.2008
  9. ^ African female heritage in Iberia: a reassessment of mtDNA lineage distribution in present times, Pereira et al. 2005
  10. ^ Mitochondrial DNA affinities at the Atlantic fringe of Europe, Gonzalez et al. 2003
  11. ^ Niki Lauda poderá ser galego de Loña do Monte se así o quere
  12. ^ O neno que creceu na praia de Cee
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