Maldivian People - Genetics and Research Studies

Genetics and Research Studies

In 1899, Professor John Stanley Gardiner visited Maldives, during which time; he collected anthropometrical data of a number of Maldivians from many islands. Analysis of this data by Dr. Wynfrid Duckworth, suggested that there were three major sources of immigration into the country. These are:

• The peninsula of Hindustan with Ceylon,
• The coast of Arabia and possibly of Africa,
• The western shores of the Malay Peninsula, and the islands of the Malaya Archipelago.

(Duckworth 1912: 8-30).

In 1997, a Maldivian NGO, Society for Health Education, conducted a study on the mutations of thalassaemia found in Maldives. The results of this study showed one mutation that probably originated in the Middle East, another which could have been derived from Portuguese or Algerians, and another which probably originated from Asian Indians and Malays. The observations are consistent with the historical records of Maldives, showing that early travellers from India, Indonesia, North Africa, the Red Sea and Persian Gulf areas, settled in the Maldives. (Firdous et al. 1998:148,149). Thalassaemia is the commonest genetically transmitted blood disease found in Maldives, and the results of this study suggest that many of the people now living in Maldives had ancestors who came from the above mentioned countries.

Anthropological studies as well as ethnographic and linguistic researches suggest that in terms of ancestry Maldivians share similar genes principally with the Sinhalas of Sri Lanka as well as northern Indian populations, such as Marathis, Konkanis and Gujaratis with traces of Arab, Malay, South Indian and North African genes in the population.