People living in different countries differ not only in their culture, traditions, language, psychology, lifestyle, but also in appearance. Of course, now no society lives apart. In the last one and a half to two hundred years, people have been actively migrating around the globe, adapting to new conditions, absorbing someone else's culture and customs, and learning other languages. But the anthropological type of man cannot change for three or four generations.
Instruction manual
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At first glance, nationality can be determined by facial features. At least in cases where many generations of relatives lived in the same locality and have a very characteristic appearance described in specialized literature.
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So, if they say, for example, about Italians, a picture appears in the view of many people: a narrow swarthy face, dark eyes, black, curly hair, fast, impetuous movements, emotional speech. The opinion about the Scandinavians is just the opposite: light, often white hair, very fair skin, blue or gray eyes, tall, leisurely in movements and conversations.
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The Chinese are distinguished by their short stature, dark, yellowish tint, skin, narrow brown eyes, small nose and thin lips. And the inhabitants, for example, Peru or Chile are represented as people of short stature, black-haired, white-skinned, with smooth, beardless faces, small, slightly slanting eyes, a large nose and thin lips.
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But if you ask the opinion of anthropologists about this (and the inhabitants of these countries), they will not agree with such descriptions, because this characteristic, and even then not completely, corresponds only to a part of the population of a particular country. And the term "nationality" itself, which was introduced into use only in the 19th century, is used in many states to mean citizenship (citizenship), and not ethnic traits. That is why, if you are told about a Frenchman, then he does not necessarily have subtle facial features, a little dark skin, dark, slightly curly hair and a large, flat, or with a humpy nose. He may be a black representative of the African continent, whose ancestors once rooted in the country of the Gauls.
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It is more correct to talk about the human races, each of which has a similar gene pool and a certain geographical distribution area. By tradition, there are only three main races: the Eurasian (Caucasians), the equatorial (Negroids) and Asian-American (Mongoloids). But many anthropologists are of the opinion that there are more races, from a biological point of view, of about ten.
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In particular, they call South African, Australoid, Americanoid and other races that differ in color of skin, eyes and hair, features of the structure of the face, growth, etc. Races, in turn, are conditionally divided by scientists into small races and different types of the main race. For example, in Africa there are Sudanese, South African, Nilotic, Central African and Ethiopian types. At the same time, scientists admit that there can be much more options, but the faces of Africans are poorly understood.
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But in Europe and Asia, facial features of people are classified by type much better. From the shores of the Mediterranean to the south of Central Asia, the Indo-Mediterranean minor race lives. The appearance of its representatives as a whole is distinguished by swarthy skin, a narrow and high face, almond-shaped eyes, a straight and narrow nose and relatively thin lips. Their growth is usually not very high, and the physique is elongated, fragile.
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A chain of mountains stretches north of this range from the Alps and the Balkans to the Himalayas. The population of this belt belongs to the Balkan-Caucasian minor race. It is characterized by fair skin, lighter than in the first case, hair and eyes (often with a reddish tint), massiveness, high growth and a stocky physique. These people have a large nose, often with a hump, increased hair growth on the face and body, often a broad face.
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To the north of the mountain belt, various types of northern Caucasians are common. They have lighter coloration of the eyes and hair, higher growth and smaller palpebral fissure. It has also been observed that from west to east, the width of the face gradually increases in people and the growth of the beard and mustache decreases.
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The middle strip of Europe - the so-called brown-haired belt, habitat of the Central European race. People here are characterized by brown hair of different shades, mixed shades of eyes, different shapes of the nose and lips. But more often there is a straight, protruding nose with a straight or curved back and thin lips.
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The Atlanto-Baltic and White Sea-Baltic races are also very different. The first scientists even call the bleached Indo-Mediterranean race and believe that the roots of its origin are somewhere in the south. The more eastern White Sea-Baltic race is the lightest of all Caucasians.
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But it should be borne in mind that within all the described small races there are many different types that are almost impossible to understand for a non-specialist. Moreover, the process of the so-called cross-breeding does not stop - mixing races as a result of the movement of people and marriage with partners of the “alien” genotype. Thus, we can conclude that the appearance is deceiving.
