Fake News, do Bigoudens have Mongolian origins?
Myth or reality? The true of the false ones is dismissed on the possible Mongolian origins of the Bigoudens
What about the Breton Breton origin? Bridled eyes, Mongoloid tasks ... Enough clues to claim that the Bigoudens descend from Mongolian ancestors? In any case, this is what emerges from some testimonies found on the internet: "Since I was little, I have often been asked if I had Asian origins: I have a round face, the protruding cheekbones, brown and bridled eyes. Yet no Asian ancestor on the horizon, at first glance I would be "100%" Breton, at least French "read here. These questions can lend to smile, that is what pushed us to dig the subject, before discovering that many articles and studies had already taken hold of it. So, true or false? Well, the answer is controversial and the opinions diverge - back on these real/false affirmations.
They are convinced, it's true
It is Bertrand François Mahé de la Bourdonnais, engineer, who throws the pavement into the fed up by affirming body and soul that the Bigoudens have Mongolian origins in his work Voyage to Lower Brittany with the Bigoudens of Pont-l'Abbé Released in 1892. Lapons, Mongols-Kalkhas, Kalmouks, Tibetans or Bouriates ... All origins pass! The Bourdonnais founded her assertions on an investigation which he would have carried out in 1888 out of around twenty people living mainly in Finistère but also in the Côtes-du-Nord (ex Côtes-d'Armor) and in Morbihan. He above all found all the success of his book on plagiarism of many lines of Travel to Finistère or State of this department in 1794 and 1795 of the writer Jacques Cambry, published in 1799. The Bourdonnais said to see in the Bigouden which forms its study sample "A thoroughbred Mongol", "With traits cut with ax" what is more. Even the doctoral student in medicine René Le Feunteun adds that the Bigoudens form a "Mugoloid race [...] which has adopted Breton only the language, retaining its customs, its type and a suitable costume". Well, it's true, you can believe that in terms of dress, Bigoudens and Mongols share a pronounced taste for embroidery: between the Bigouden headdress and the ouelun or the kabic and the deel.
Others say it is a myth
We are in 1983, a team of academics led by teachers Le Menn and Youinou decided to twist the neck at this received idea. Sponsored by INSERM, their immunogenetic study led them to examine 500 people living in the Bigoudens countries, being born there before 1945 and whose four grandparents were born in the country. This were followed by blood samples and the study of 23 genetic markers to finally be able to affirm that he "Rigorously exists no genetic analogy between Bigoudens and Asian". Rather, it would be necessary to see a genetic rapprochement with populations of the island of Man or the country of Wales. The Breton Bretons would therefore have a Breton origin.
Mais comment expliquer la présence de ses signes distinctifs physiques largement décrits ? Le Menn affirme que c’est lié à l’isolement de ces populations qui aurait permis de préserver leurs traits hérités des premiers migrants du Ve siècle, dont faisaient partie les Sarmates.
Ah, tiens ! Les Sarmates, peuple de l’Oural, voisins de la Mongolie… « Coïncidence ? Je ne crois pas ».