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Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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Would you group Mongolia more with East (China, Japan, Korea, de-facto Vietnam, Taiwan), or Central (mostly the stans but also possibly Afghanistan, Western China)?
I thought I'd do a comparison by criteria in order to decide:
Genetically: Both really. I'd say closer to China than Kazakhstan, though, so I'll go with East Asia.
Linguistically: Mongolian is an Altaic language so Central Asia. It also uses Cyrillic alphabet.
Social Structure: Probably similar to North Asia than either, Mongolians are mostly nomads and patriarchal which seems similar to both old Manchuria and Kazakhstan. Not sure how Confucian it is. I'll go Central Asia.
Musically: Mongolian music seems more reminiscent of Chinese and Tibetan music rather than the music of the 'stans' which sounds more Turkish-Arabic.
Gastronomically: The Mongolian diet is heavy on meat (***, sheep), and dairy (mare's milk, cheese, other dairy products) so this one goes to Central Asia.
Spiritually: Mongolia is majority Buddhist and Shamanist, while Central Asia is mostly Muslim so East Asia.
Economically: Mostly a pastoral society, strongly reminiscent of both the Soviet Union and Communist China. Tie.
Locationally: Although it extends pretty far west, Western China is still a lot further west, so I'd say geographically it lies within East Asia.
They are about as close to Koreans genetically as you can possibly get.
I worked in Seoul and Mongolia. The Koreans told me they are closely related to the Mongolians and there's even a certain birth mark supposedly that distinguishes this but I don't recall what it is. Mongolians I've talked to don't accept this close of a kinship with Mongoians and culturally, they are very very different. Some of the difference could be related to the long allegiance between Mongolia & Russia. Remember also that there is plenty of Chinese blood mixed in wtih Mongolian over the centuries. To me, the Mongolians seem just different than the other Asian cultures incluidng different from Chinese & Korean. But of all the Asian countries I've visited, I like the Mongolians the best as they're the most independent of the Asians and more gregarious as well.
The Koreans told me they are closely related to the Mongolians and there's even a certain birth mark supposedly that distinguishes this but I don't recall what it is.
Yep, it's kind of a blue birthmark just above the tailbone.
I've also noticed the hot-headed alcohol-driven 'way' is very similar with Koreans and Mongolians, much more than, say Chinese, which are much more tea-drinking, or Japanese who are just so mellow and slightly passive.
I lived in South Korea for 7-8 years, and met quite a few Mongolians, and they seemed quite indistinguable from Koreans. WHereas I could absolutely spot a Japanese person within a crowded Korean-filled room. CHinese were a bit harder to always identify, sometimes i could, and sometimes I couldn't. Northeast China is also tall and similar facial bone structure to Koreans. (A lot of other CHinese seemed shorter, much thinner hair, more weaker cheekbones, and much worse teeth).
Koreans and Mongolians both almost universally have that 'Mongolian birthmark', plus strong thick hair, much stronger jawlines/facial structures, and so on.
Intersting that the Mongolians don't agree with the Koreans on their similarities. Koreans always mention it.
Are there any studies that show Mongols and Koreans are any more related to each other than they are to Northern Han Chinese, Manchus, and Japanese, or the Evenks, yakuts, and chukchis?
the only koreans with reddish hair are the ones that dye their hair so they can look like a anime character
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