The African population in Buenos that existed in the 19th century which by census accounts of the time put it at 30% was when Buenos Aires had a population of around 160 000 people so we're talking about 50 000 blacks, when you consider the influx of millions of European immigrants that followed, various civil wars and outbreaks of yellow fever which affected the lower strata of the country then you can understand why genetic tests show minimal African admixture, between 2-6% in Buenos Aires depending on studies.
As far as African influences on the Tango is concerned
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, the main influences were Italian and local creole dances which probably included native American influence, the origins of Tango are heavily debated and it's possible that there are African influences but there is nothing obviously African in neither the music or the dance itself to show this.
That study is of remote Indian populations in the North west of Argentina, it has nothing to do with the general population of Argentina.
This study shows admixture percentages in a La Plata, Buenos Aires.-
Characterization of admixture in an urban sample from Buenos Aires, Argentina, using uniparentally and biparentally inherited genetic markers.Obviously Argentina is 'European' in culture and race but nevertheless there are mixed people particularly 'Mestizos' many of whom are unaware of their distant Amerindian ancestry.
First of all I'm not trying to make it seem as if Argentina is a "black nation," I'm just tired of people being unwilling to acknowledge that fact that we ALL have contributed to history, as well as make it known that contray to popular believe there were other people that contributed to the culture and existance of modern day Argentina. I'd be arguing the same way if someone was trying to claim that Egypt was an all "black" or "white" nation, when in reality many peoples of various backgrounds and colors contributed to the success and history of that nation as well.
On top of that science has long since proven that race doesn't exist biologically, its a cutlural construct and varies from place to place. Now that's not to say it doesn't impact our lives- for culture is one of the stongest influnces in human history; but if you want to argue on the scientific level well then culture becomes almost irrelevent. If you were to catagorize people just on their genetic make up alone you'd probably have thousands of races and within each race there would be a variety of people with dark skin, light skin, blue eyes, brown eyes, course hair and straight hair-completely going against many of todays theories on race.
Also, let us not forget the fact that there have been numerous genetic studies showing genetic traits, and genetic markers from Sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Africa and Northern Africa (Arab and Afro-Arab), in the Southern European populations, so the hundreds of thousands of Spaniards and Italians coming into Argentina weren't "pure" themselves.
Remember Roman Slavery was not based on race, they could care less if their slaves came from Nubia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Persia or Brition a slave was a slave; and if they had a surplus of slaves in one region and a deficit in another, they had no problems bringing a bunch of Britions from their northern colonies down to a southern coloney in Ethiopia. This cross cultral empire lead to the genetic exchange of many different peoples.
here's a link to one such study
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=103355&dopt=Abstracthere is a link to a pictue painted in Aregentina during the 1800s check out the title
* Baile de Negros *
members.tripod.com.ar/nostalgias/historia1.htmTWO GOOD BOOKS TO READ are:
Afro-Argentine Discourse: Another Dimension of the Black Diaspora BY MARVIN A LEWIS
The Afro-Argentines of Buenos Aires, 1800-1900 BY GEORGE RIED ANDREWS
and here is some info on notable African influences on Tango
A History
" Although it has come to epitomize the glamour and elegance of high society, with women in sleek glittering evening gowns and men in tux and tails, the tango originated in society's underbelly--the brothels of turn-of-the-century Argentina. As immigrants from Europe, Africa, and ports unknown streamed into the outskirts of Buenos Aires during the 1880's, many gravitated toward the port city's houses of ill repute. In these establishments, the portenos, (as they were called,) could drown their troubles in a few drinks and find some companionship. They looked desperately for a distraction to ease their sense of rootlessness and disfranchisement as "strangers in a strange land."
From this heady, intermingled cultural brew emerged a new music which became the tango. Though musical historians argue as to its exact origins, it is generally accepted that the ango borrowed from many nations--the relentless rhythms that the African slaves--the candombe--beat on their drums (known as tan-go)t; the popular music of the pampas (flatlands) known as the milonga, which combined Indian rhythms with the music of early Spanish colonists; and other influences, including Latin. Some say the word "tango" comes from the Latin word tangere (to touch.)"
www.af.lu.se/~hogh/2.htmTango music began to evolve in the late 1800’s. Strongly influenced by the African-Argentine Candombe, Milonga and then Tango evolved as similar but distinct dance styles. By the early 21st Century Tango dance steps had been adapted to several musical forms including a distinctly Argentine flavor of Waltz and Tango had become the characteristic dance of Buenos Aires.
www.sepiastudios.com/tango/music.htmThe exact origins of tango—both the dance and the word itself—are lost in myth and an unrecorded history. The generally accepted theory is that in the mid-1800s, African slaves were brought to Argentina and began to influence the local culture. The word "tango" may be straightforwardly African in origin, meaning "closed place" or "reserved ground." Or it may derive from Portuguese (and from the Latin verb tanguere, to touch) and was picked up by Africans on the slave ships. Whatever its origin, the word "tango" acquired the standard meaning of the place where African slaves and free blacks gathered to dance.
Argentina was undergoing a massive immigration during the later part of the 1800s and early 1900s. In 1869, Buenos Aires had a population of 180,000. By 1914, its population was 1.5 million. The intermixing of African, Spanish, Italian, British, Polish, Russian and native-born Argentines resulted in a melting pot of cultures, and each borrowed dance and music from one another. Traditional polkas, waltzes and mazurkas were mixed with the popular habanera from Cuba and the candombe rhythms from Africa.
Most immigrants were single men hoping to earn their fortunes in this newly expanding country. They were typically poor and desperate, hoping to make enough money to return to Europe or bring their families to Argentina. The evolution of tango reflects their profound sense of loss and longing for the people and places they left behind.
Most likely the tango was born in African-Argentine dance venues attended by compadritos, young men, mostly native born and poor, who liked to dress in slouch hats, loosely tied neckerchiefs and high-heeled boots with knives tucked casually into their belts. The compadritos took the tango back to the Corrales Viejos—the slaughterhouse district of Buenos Aires—and introduced it in various low-life establishments where dancing took place: bars, dance halls and brothels. It was here that the African rhythms met the Argentine milonga music (a fast-paced polka) and soon new steps were invented and took hold.
www.tejastango.com/tango_history.html The relationship between the compadritos and the African-Argentine population in the Buenos Aires suburbs gave birth to the tango dance, which started as a result of the compadritos’ mockery of the black people’s dances with an important difference: the blacks danced separated and the compadritos danced embraced. Diverse historians affirm that the word tango derives from the name (in the slang of the black people) of their dancing places, known as tambos and, later, tangos . It is widely accepted that the mocking new choreography was taken to the brothels by the compadritos before tango music really existed as such. Eventually, music was created to fit this dance, and it is not strange that the rural milonga and the habanera, in fashion at the time, influenced it. Trial-and-error adaptations to the new dance, bringing together the rural milonga of the gauchos, the habanera of the European immigrants, and the African-Argentine dances in the melting pot that was Buenos Aires, created a mixture called tango.
www.lafi.org/magazine/articles/tango.htmlThe Argentine tango has a mixture of African and Spanish antecedents, and also a strong influence from the Argentine milongo, which is sung by Gauchos, the Argentine "cowboys." In its beginnings, the tango was an ill-famed dance, being very fashionable in dance halls and cabarets, and also because the choreography called for the couple to hold each other very close. The tango has often been accompanied by piano, violin, guitar, and flute. Nowadays, the most typical instrument is the bandoneon, which is an accordion similar to a concertina.
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