engleski

In Service to the Sultan: Biological affinity analysis of Vlach Ottoman vassals from southern Croatia

Since the 10th century, the term ‘Vlach’ was used as an ethnic determinant in Southeast Europe, communities under this title living and governing separately from non-Vlach populations. The true origins and identity of Vlach communities is a debated historical question. Biologically, both Slavic and pre-Slavic heritages have been credited. Alternatively, at certain times in history written records labelled communities as ‘Vlach’ based on a nomadic, pastoral lifestyle. With both cultural and biological definitions, this ethnicity is not well understood. During the Ottoman period in particular, Vlach could be a catch- all administrative term for pastoral clans in service to the state, biological identities not considered as smaller pastoral communities were absorbed into this title. This research analyzed a Vlach community of Ottoman vassals, examining whether cultural isolation and ethnic division were matched by biological distance. Metric and non-metric cranial variation highlighted the biological affinity of a southern Croatian Vlach population. A sample of 32 Vlach crania were compared to a nearby non-Vlach sample, as well as more distant Eurasian samples. Analyzing 32 cranial measurements and 24 non-metric variables with D2 -matrices, Principal Coordinates Analysis, and Mean Measure of Divergence tests, results highlight a Vlach population with biological affinity most similar to the very proximate, nearby community. This begs consideration of the division maintained historically between these Vlach and non-Vlach populations, labelled as an ethnic divide. Analyses such as these remind us that ethnic divisions do not necessarily indicate biological divisions.

Vlach ; Croatia ; metric ; non-metric ; cranium

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