Is it necessary to assume an apartheid-like social structure in Early Anglo-Saxon England?

Abstract

It has recently been argued that there was an apartheid-like social structure operating in Early Anglo-Saxon England. This was proposed in order to explain the relatively high degree of similarity between Germanicspeaking areas of northwest Europe and England. Opinions vary as to whether there was a substantial Germanic invasion or only a relatively small number arrived in Britain during this period. Contrary to the assumption of limited intermarriage made in the apartheid simulation, there is evidence that significant mixing of the British and Germanic peoples occurred, and that the early law codes, such as that of King Ine of Wessex, could have deliberately encouraged such mixing. More importantly, the simulation did not take into account any northwest European immigration that arrived both before and after the Early Anglo-Saxon period. In view of the uncertainty of the places of origin of the various Germanic peoples, and their numbers and dates of arrival, the present study adopts an alternative approach to estimate the percentage of indigenous Britons in the current British population. It was found unnecessary to introduce any special social structure among the diverse Anglo-Saxon people in order to account for the estimates of northwest European intrusion into the British population.

Integration Versus Apartheid in Post-Roman Britain: A Response to Thomas et al. (2008)

“…Thomas et al disagreed with me that the Belgae had any Germanic ancestry, and criticized me for citing Christopher Hawkes who they considered out-of date. Contrary to Thomas et al"s assertion, Hawkes was not the only, or the most recent, author to claim that the Belgae were a hybrid Germanic-Celtic people; a number of more recent authors are cited in Pattison (2008). There is considerable evidence to support the assertion that the Belgae were a hybrid Germani-Celtic people.…”

“…In the opinion of Laycock, the Belgae seem to have been, at least in some sense, a Germanic tribe who lived near the North Sea coast, and who presumably shared at least some genetic characteristics with the Germani. Thomas et al (2008) also ignored the work of Oppenheimer that was cited in Pattison (2008). Using the same genetic data as Thomas et al (2006) (mentioned above), Oppenheimer identified a close genetic similarity between modern Belgians and the southern English.…”

“…together with further DNA data for other continental populations], most of the immigration [of the Germani] could have occurred before the Anglo-Saxon period" (Pattison 2008). More recently, Amos et al (2008), using the same dataset as did Oppenheimer, but using a completely different mathematical approach and dating method, came to the same conclusion as Oppenheimer, that Germani have been continuously migrating from northwest Europe to Britain during the past 10,000 yrs.…”

“…Numerical estimates provided in Pattison (2008) and above, were given to indicate order-ofmagnitude numbers of people (soldiers and civilians) involved in the Roman army in Britain, and the dominant role of the Germani as Roman army soldiers. However, the exact numbers of Germani in the Roman army, which cannot be known for certain, are not overly important; what is more important is that the numbers of Germani were substantial, and that they had numerous opportunities to contribute their genes to the British population over the nearly 400 yrs of Roman occupation.…”

“…They also presented four arguments to support their conclusion: two theoretical arguments based on the migration context and the relative sizes of the two groups, and two evidential arguments based on textual and skeletal evidence. In Pattison (2008), I critiqued three of these four arguments and, by applying a feasible alternative historical population model for Britain, showed that the invention of such a geographically and temporally extensive apartheid-like system among all warring disparate AngloSaxon kingdoms was not necessary. I showed that a long-term low-level of immigration from northwest Europe to Britain during the last two or more millennia had a cumulative effect that was greater than that predicted by Thomas et al (2006).…”