Sofia Papadopoulou

On southern Greece’s mountainous Mani Peninsula, a tightly clannish group of people known as Deep Maniots keep to themselves. Wary of outsiders, the isolated group maintains a distinctive society organized around male family lines, as well as a proud oral tradition claiming ties to medieval nobility. A new study suggests the Deep Maniots’ isolation goes way back, with most Deep Maniot men descending directly from Greek-speaking groups that lived in the area before the medieval period. Genetic analysis also reveals very limited intermixing from other populations, while showing that women of the culture often migrated to the Mani Peninsula from far-flung regions around the world. Learn more: scim.ag/4a7LZe6