Ethno-anthropological and genetic study of the Yaghnobis; an isolated community in Central Asia. A preliminary study.

The Yaghnob Valley, situated in the Northern Tajikistan, represents an important, geographically isolated area that maintains a genetic, linguistic, cultural and environmental heritage, unique to the world. The Yaghnobs still speak a dialect variety of the Sogdian, the ancient Middle Iranian language of the Silk Road. The aim of the genetic analysis is to study the genetic legacy of Yaghnobis, to establish if they symbolise a genetic, other than a geographic and linguistic, isolation and also to study the relationship between the Yaghnobis and their neighbours