tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57676469689113472082026-06-17T11:34:47.378-04:00Anthropology of Italy and ItaliansItalianthrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09861218992434816390noreply@blogger.comBlogger99125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5767646968911347208.post-34999584227467331252022-02-08T09:05:00.000-05:002022-02-08T09:05:42.227-05:00

The Anthrogenica member who made the genetic distance maps showing that Ancient Greeks and Romans were identical to Modern Italians did the same thing with Iron Age (pre-Slavic) Balkan samples, confirming that they were also genetically similar, with "Croatians" in the north being more Northern Italian-like and "Bulgarians" in the south being more Southern Italian (and Greek)-like. This is

Italianthrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09861218992434816390noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5767646968911347208.post-2703654986428194572022-01-28T09:20:00.000-05:002022-01-28T09:20:12.393-05:00

Indo-European languages originated somewhere in the Russian Steppe/Caucasus Mountains area, and studies like Sarno et al. (2017) have suggested that some of them were spread to Europe (especially the Balkans and Italy) through a southern route by a population that was different than the Yamnaya who went north. A recent study found that in the Steppe/Caucasus zone during the Bronze Age there were

Italianthrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09861218992434816390noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5767646968911347208.post-52015813609593569612021-10-14T09:31:00.001-04:002021-10-27T09:14:13.325-04:00

There's a new study on Etruscans that makes a ridiculous claim about Modern Italians. Because the Etruscans were West Mediterranean (Iberian-like) and Imperial Romans were shifted toward the East Mediterranean, the authors stupidly assume that Modern Italians must be a ~50/50 mix of Etruscans and slaves/barbarians from the Roman Empire, with a North-to-South cline going from Western Europe to the

Italianthrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09861218992434816390noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5767646968911347208.post-85544767730637591452020-10-08T08:47:00.001-04:002022-02-08T09:17:47.198-05:00

Someone at Anthrogenica made these genetic distance maps that visualize how Modern West Eurasians are related to samples of Ancient Greeks and Ancient Romans, with redder coloring indicating more genetic affinity. The Ancients are all closest to Modern Southern Europeans — mostly Italians from all over, but often also Greeks, Iberians, South French and Balkan peoples. (Note: The "Imperial Romans"

Italianthrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09861218992434816390noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5767646968911347208.post-9887712244261103392020-09-08T09:25:00.001-04:002021-10-14T09:10:40.044-04:00

Rosanne Cash is the daughter of Johnny Cash and his first wife Vivian Liberto, whose parents were Thomas Liberto, a Sicilian American, and Irene Robinson from Texas. In some photos Vivian could almost be an exotic European type, like Sophia Loren, Victoria Beckham or Sarah Hyland, but most of the time she looks more ambiguous and mixed-race, like Rosie Perez or Eartha Kitt. Ken Burns' recent

Italianthrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09861218992434816390noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5767646968911347208.post-54393516255459020992020-08-26T09:15:00.000-04:002020-08-26T09:15:47.447-04:00

Recently I posted about how fairly light-skinned Italian criminals were often falsely stereotyped as "dark" or "swarthy" in the media. Because Al Capone is so famous, a lot of his rap sheets and wanted posters are uploaded online, and I was surprised to find that they don't all describe him the same way. His hair is always Dark Brown or Black, and on his wanted poster it was assumed that his

Italianthrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09861218992434816390noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5767646968911347208.post-4181966176107965502020-08-11T09:11:00.000-04:002020-08-11T09:11:50.172-04:00

The movie Green Book is "inspired by a true story" about an Italian American bouncer who takes a job driving a black pianist (Don Shirley) on a tour through the Deep South in 1962. But as always it doesn't stick closely to the facts. In one scene, Tony "Lip" Vallelonga punches a cop who accuses Italians of being part black: PATROLMAN #1 What's this last name say? LIP Vallelonga. PATROLMAN #1 '

Italianthrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09861218992434816390noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5767646968911347208.post-15699968908927351982020-07-22T09:21:00.000-04:002020-07-22T09:21:41.276-04:00

Raveane et al. (2019) show that genes mirror geography, but then they make a misleading claim implying that genetic distances (Fst) within Italy are as great as those "across the whole of Europe". To Nordicists who wrongly believe that only their corner of Europe is "fully European" and the others are "mixed", that kind of distance perpetuates the myth of racial differences between Northern and

Italianthrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09861218992434816390noreply@blogger.com75tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5767646968911347208.post-71964845924547842672020-07-03T09:25:00.000-04:002020-08-26T09:19:38.294-04:00

We've seen how olive skin is misunderstood by people to mean "tan" or "non-white", now let's look at the same thing with words like "dark" and "swarthy" used to describe the complexions of Europeans. Applied mostly (but not exclusively) to Southern Europeans, people treat them as evidence against "whiteness", but they're really just exaggerations of reality, like in this passage from White on

Italianthrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09861218992434816390noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5767646968911347208.post-82986258867118694522020-04-08T08:05:00.000-04:002020-04-08T08:05:42.928-04:00

People with an agenda to divide Italy who say that it's "not a real country" because it "didn't even exist until 1861" don't know their history. Italy was first unified by the Ancient Romans, and then it was divided by foreign powers after Rome fell. The movement for national unity was actually a reunification movement that went back to the Renaissance and was supported by many prominent Italians

Italianthrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09861218992434816390noreply@blogger.com143tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5767646968911347208.post-62537490737351393072020-01-16T08:54:00.000-05:002020-07-23T06:46:10.800-04:00

All else being equal, genes mirror geography in Europe. We've already seen this by comparing Italians to Germans, and now we can do another similar comparison. A new study that has even better geographical coverage than Sazzini et al. (2016) shows the samples clustering to form an almost perfect map of Italy, while another new study shows the same thing in the British Isles. [NOTE: For the

Italianthrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09861218992434816390noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5767646968911347208.post-36374560921273725032019-12-31T08:32:00.000-05:002019-12-31T08:32:06.198-05:00

People often mention the fact that Southern Italians are darker than Northern Italians like it proves something about "racial differences" in Italy, but clinal north-south or east-west differences in pigmentation (and other traits) are normal and can be seen in other European countries too, like Germany, France and the British Isles: ItalyGermany FranceBritish Isles Looking at Europe as a

Italianthrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09861218992434816390noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5767646968911347208.post-90191618514825673042019-12-18T09:10:00.003-05:002019-12-18T09:10:28.006-05:00

Many people today think that Northern and Southern Italians are racially different, but that isn't based on reality or any kind of evidence, which all shows that they're genetically and phenotypically similar. It's a myth that was shaped within Italy itself by some very ignorant people with inferiority complexes, who brought it wherever they immigrated, where it was copied by even dumber

Italianthrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09861218992434816390noreply@blogger.com29tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5767646968911347208.post-12402389088066536462019-12-06T09:03:00.001-05:002019-12-06T09:03:24.460-05:00

The recent study on Ancient Roman DNA gives frequencies over time for some alleles of functional importance (eye and skin color). We know that Mesolithic hunters had blue eyes and dark skin while Neolithic farmers had brown eyes and light skin, which combined and adapted to make the European phenotypes of today. But contrary to what Nordicists claim about Romans going from "Northern European" to

Italianthrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09861218992434816390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5767646968911347208.post-47195125607043849662019-11-28T08:06:00.001-05:002021-01-10T09:07:52.971-05:00

We've already seen that modern Italians are genetically close to ancient Mycenaean Greeks, and now we finally have Ancient Roman DNA, which shows the same genetic closeness, refuting Nordicist fantasies about an original "Northern European" stock becoming "orientalized". The Romans (Latin and Etruscan) were all Southern European, similar to modern Italians from North to South. There were

Italianthrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09861218992434816390noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5767646968911347208.post-44004977123483012012019-06-09T08:57:00.001-04:002019-12-06T09:04:48.916-05:00

Many people think "olive" is a skin color like white, black or brown and refers to a separate or "mixed" ethnicity with some kind of "tan" complexion, usually in the Mediterranean region. But it's actually just one of several skin undertones that are found in all races, light and dark. The 4 undertones are: Cool (blue/pink), Neutral (yellow/beige), Olive (green/gray) and Warm (red/gold). And

Italianthrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09861218992434816390noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5767646968911347208.post-41883556033567463082019-04-19T08:00:00.000-04:002019-04-19T08:00:46.194-04:00

Actress from Vercelli, Piedmont.

Italianthrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09861218992434816390noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5767646968911347208.post-66043996400676368632019-04-04T09:10:00.000-04:002019-04-04T09:10:20.781-04:00

Like all Europeans, most Italians have straight or wavy hair. Curly hair in Caucasoids is a western trait that decreases as you move east toward Asia. It's most common along the Mediterranean and Atlantic shores, with an average rate of ~17% in Italy, which is a little higher in the South than in the North, but not by much. Hair form...is of little use in distinguishing white sub-groups. Most

Italianthrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09861218992434816390noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5767646968911347208.post-27012878351075725142019-03-24T09:12:00.000-04:002019-09-20T08:22:57.189-04:00

Thin, high-rooted convex noses, which are common in Dinaric and Mediterranean types, exist at a frequency of ~15% in Italy. Wide, low-rooted concave noses, which are common in Alpine types, exist at a frequency of ~19%. The former are slightly more frequent in the North, and the latter slightly more in the South, which matches the distribution of sub-racial types throughout the country. The

Italianthrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09861218992434816390noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5767646968911347208.post-73002908363492894172018-06-26T08:33:00.000-04:002018-06-26T08:33:09.515-04:00

Nationalist and anti-immigrant attitudes in Western Europe have been an issue in a number of recent national elections around the region, particularly after the influx in the past few years of refugees from predominantly Muslim countries. But Western Europeans vary by country when it comes to having positive or negative views about immigrants and religious minorities, according to a Pew Research

Italianthrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09861218992434816390noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5767646968911347208.post-61550058260949649442018-01-15T08:58:00.001-05:002021-01-10T09:05:27.471-05:00

We don't have Ancient Roman DNA yet, but now we have the next closest thing: Ancient Mycenaean Greek DNA. This new study shows that Mycenaeans, like their Peloponnesean descendants, are genetically similar to modern Italians (and other Southern Europeans) because both are similar mixes of Neolithic farmers and Indo-Europeans, and also because of Ancient Greek settlements in Southern Italy. We

Italianthrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09861218992434816390noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5767646968911347208.post-90855134034334580122017-11-04T08:51:00.001-04:002019-04-04T09:13:52.918-04:00

William Z. Ripley was a little confused about the racial make-up of Europeans because early anthropology was pretty basic, but he collected some useful data, like in this world map of hair texture showing Italians to resemble other Europeans: What shall we say of the European races, the third of our intermediate types? Here also all individual variations occur, seemingly in utter defiance of any

Italianthrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09861218992434816390noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5767646968911347208.post-66239496961354025292017-08-14T08:03:00.001-04:002017-08-14T08:03:38.027-04:00

The Italian economy may not be in great shape, but Italians certainly are, according to a ranking of the world’s healthiest nations. The Bloomberg Global Health Index ranks Italy top of 163 countries, followed by Iceland, Switzerland, Singapore and Australia. While Italian babies can expect to live into their eighties, at the other end of the scale in Sierra Leone, life expectancy is just 52.

Italianthrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09861218992434816390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5767646968911347208.post-88272519864047397272017-07-11T08:02:00.000-04:002017-07-11T08:02:43.052-04:00

The exploded skull of a man who died in the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago has been pieced together, giving scientists a unique opportunity to capture the ancient face using 3D imaging. It is the first real-life reconstruction of the features of a victim of the volcanic disaster who lived in the ill-fated seaside town of Herculaneum. The appearance is that of a

Italianthrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09861218992434816390noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5767646968911347208.post-81803494953947246492017-06-22T08:09:00.003-04:002022-02-08T08:07:21.250-05:00

In this recent post, I talked about how ancestry clines in Italy could be due to the way Indo-European languages spread, and a new study suggests the same thing. Italy and the Balkans, especially the southern parts, differ from the rest of Europe by having a lot of the Caucasus Hunter-Gatherer (CHG) component of Yamnaya, but not much of the Eastern Hunter-Gatherer (EHG) component. The authors

Italianthrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09861218992434816390noreply@blogger.com1