Bolivia – A Place

Bolivia is a country in South America. Its geography includes the Andes Mountains, the Atacama Desert, and Amazon Basin rain-forest.

History

The first identified population there lived around 2000 BCE. The Tiwanakans who were located south of Lake Titicaca are believed to be the ones that started this civilization.

Some thousands of years later, the Inca empire expanded and encompassed Bolivia. The Incan empire dominated Bolivia up until the Spaniards sailed to seas to arrive at Bolivia in 1525. The Spanish ruled the country for more than 300 years.

In 1809, the people of Bolivia declared independence from Spain.

Although independent Bolivia’s government has remained unstable for a very long time this is why Bolivia remains one of the poorest countries in the world. Most of the country’s revenue is generated from the export of crude petroleum and some agricultural products like Soybeans.

The political instabilities have also caused wars with surrounding countries. The most notable of which was the War of the Pacific against Chile. Bolivia lost this war and their access to the ocean. For this reason, the country remains landlocked.

Modern Times

Most of the population of Bolivia is Urban (71.8%). The majority of people speak the official language, Spanish (60% – 70%). The local languages of Quechua and Aymara are used in the rural marketplace.

Most people in Bolivia belong to a Christian denomination. Denominations include Roman Catholic (76.8%), Evangelical or Pentecostal (8.1%), and Protestant (7.9%).

Besides native Bolivians, there are several other minority ethnic groups in Bolivia. Mestizo (70%), Indigenous Bolivian (20%), White Bolivian (5%), Black Bolivian (1%), and other minor ethnic groups in Bolivia (4%). Minor groups include Asians, Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Lebanese, Jews among others.

Genetics

This section is under development.

mtDNA

Genographic ProjectGeno 2.0 Data

Data from Geno 2.0 is derived from the The National Geographic Society’s Genographic Project — the DAR. The Hg ID is specific to this site and is used to protect the identities of those who take part in Genographic research. Birth Country, Mother's Birth Country, and Maternal Grandmother's Birth Country have been normalized from DAR database fields. The Maternal Origin is determined based on the three previous fields.

Note: Geno 2.0 results currently use Phylotree build 16. I am working on changing results over to build 17.

Hg ID	Hg Build 16	Birth Country	Mother's Birth Country	Maternal Grandmother's Birth Country
Hap10040964	A2	Bolivia	Bolivia	Bolivia
Hap10040965	A2	Bolivia	Bolivia	Bolivia
Hap10040966	A2	United States	Bolivia	Bolivia
Hap10043048	B2	Bolivia	Bolivia	Bolivia
Hap10043049	B2	United States	Bolivia	Bolivia
Hap10043143	B2	Australia	Bolivia	Unspecified
Hap10043686	B2c2	Bolivia	Bolivia	Bolivia
Hap10044796	C1b	Bolivia	Bolivia	Bolivia
Hap10044797	C1b	Bolivia	Bolivia	Bolivia
Hap10044798	C1b	Bolivia	Bolivia	Bolivia
Hap10044799	C1b	Brazil	Bolivia	Bolivia
Hap10044800	C1b	United States	Bolivia	Bolivia
Hap10044801	C1b	United States	Bolivia	Bolivia
Hap10044875	C1b	Bolivia	Bolivia	Unspecified
Hap10044876	C1b	Bolivia	Bolivia	Unspecified
Hap10044877	C1b	United States	Bolivia	Unspecified
Hap10045674	C1d1	Bolivia	Bolivia	Bolivia

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Sources and Resources

Background

Coming soon.

Journal Articles

• Taboada-Echalar, P., Álvarez-Iglesias, V., Heinz, T., Vidal-Bralo, L., Gómez-Carballa, A., Catelli, L., Pardo-Seco, J., Pastoriza, A., Carracedo, Á., Torres-Balanza, A. and Rocabado, O. (2013). The Genetic Legacy of the Pre-Colonial Period in Contemporary Bolivians. PLoS ONE, 8(3), e58980.
• Gaya-Vidal, Magdalena; Moral, Pedro; Saenz-Ruales, Nancy; Gerbault, Pascale; Tonasso, Laure; Villena, Mercedes; Vasquez, Rene; Bravi, Claudio M. & Dugoujon, Jean-Michel (2011). mtDNA and Y-chromosome diversity in Aymaras and Quechuas from Bolivia: Different stories and special genetic traits of the Andean Altiplano populations. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 145(2), 215-230.
• Gaya-vidal, Magdalena; Dugoujon, Jean-Michel; Esteban, Esther; Athanasiadis, Georgios; Rodriguez, Armando; Villena, Mercedes; Vasquez, Rene & Moral, Pedro (2010). Autosomal and X chromosome Alu insertions in Bolivian Aymaras and Quechuas: Two languages and one genetic pool. American Journal of Human Biology, 22(2), 154-162.