Why do so many people from the British Isles look southern european? (DNA, developed)

[lobsta]

Originally Posted by Neuling

Let me assure you, there is a reason why in most cases the Portuguese can tell just from people's faces if they are from central/nothern Europe or from the south. They can not tell where they are from, like Germany or Britain or Poland, but usually they know they are not from here.
They can often not tell whether someone is from Spain or even Italy, though.

I am from southern Germany originally, and the Portuguese can tell right away I am no Portuguese, just from my face, no matter if I dress like them and sit there without saying anything that would give me away. And I am not even Nordic looking as such...

I posted a picture of a Swiss German woman that is very common in Germany and Switzerland and pretended she was Spanish and fooled unbrainwashed easily. Obviously people are not as good at this game as they like to think they are.

[Neuling]

I don't quite follow your logic there. The Swiss are completely different from the Brits. Switzerland borders France and Italy, she might well be of partial Italian ancestry...
The Swiss are genetically closer to Italians than to Brits. The further south you go in Europe, the 'darker' people are. Switzerland is at a similar latitude as central to southern France.
Apart from that, we have said countless times by now that:
1. there are exceptions, which don't change the rule, though.
2. one cannot really say which country a person is from, but usually only where they are likely not from.

So, I don't see the point in posting the photo of one woman (who nobody knows, anyway, who knows who she is and what her ancestry is) and trying to prove anything.

[Neuling]

The city with the most Nordic looking people I have ever been to was in Britain Newcastle/Tyne, to be precise, because of the airport. Never had I seen so many blond and light-eyed people before. It felt like Scandinavia

By the way, since people keep mentioning Wales and Scotland as 'darker' places: While people there might look a bit darker on average, those two regions only have a population of about 8m combined. I.e. only 1 in 8 Brits live in either of those two regions.

[theunbrainwashed]

Originally Posted by lobsta

That's funny and I just proved you're full of it. That girl was not Spanish nor Italian but Swiss German. You're a liar when you say you can pick people out of a crowd and I know for a fact if Megan Fox and Catherine Zeta Jones were in those Spanish pictures you wouldn't pick them out.

"Odd apples" give me a break. I'm from Chicago one of the most diverse cities in the world. There are Polish, Russians, Chinese, blacks, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, British (Americans), Germans, Italians, and Spanish people there and in very few cases can you tell what nationality someone is within their race. You can take an educated guess in some stereotypical instances but that's it. But nationalites are not races nor are they homogenic ethnic groups.

I'm of old American colonial stock. I can pass for Italian or Spanish as well. I have tan/olive skin similar to Colin Farrell's tone, brown hair and blue eyes.

Lol, oh well, congratulations. You want a medal to go with that, seeming that this is a hugely important victory for you, lol

[french user]

Originally Posted by Neuling

Switzerland is at a similar latitude as central to southern France.

I agree with most of you that at European scale Switzerland is a relatively central/southern country and certainly not northern one (some will disagree on this). But Actually Switzerland is still not at similar latitude as central to southern France, but rather central to sligtly central/Northern France.
Switzerland is mostly lined with the french regions of Franche-Comté or Burgondy, even if northermost parts of Rhone-Alpes and Auvergne (rather central than southern) have similar latitudes as southernmost Switzerland (Tessino, Valais and Geneva areas).



Northern Switzerland is lined with southern Alsace or southern Britanny; Zurich is actually further north as Nantes; while Switzerland southernmost points are still further north than Lyon or Clermont Ferrand.

Where I live in Loire Valley is actually about the latitude of Lucern in the middle of Switzerland, but I still am clearly in the northern half of France.

I've observed that many people think Switzerland or even Austria to be more lined with the southern half of France. But Austria is even further north than Switzerland and lie at similar latitude than northern France (Burgondy, Alsace, Champagne to Ile-de-France or southern Normandy).



The general trend for hair color follows a north/south pattern, and, even if some do not like it, the UK is in the north half of Europe.




I have a hard time to understand that obsession of wanting to make british dark... even if some of them are

[Neuling]

Yes, at the same latitude as central France. (Just to prevent any misunderstandings, the red area in the map is not Switzerland, the bigger gray area to the right of it is.)
Many Europe maps are turned clockwise to a certain extent, that might create the impression that Switzerland is further to the South than it is, relative to France.

I read somewhere that Ötzi was actually from Corsica. Seems that people from the Mediterranean have been roaming the Alps thousands of years ago for whatever reason

Hehe, looking at your third map, that confirms what I witnessed in Britain.

[Mac15]

Originally Posted by french user

I agree with most of you that at European scale Switzerland is a relatively central/southern country and certainly not northern one (some will disagree on this). But Actually Switzerland is still not at similar latitude as central to southern France, but rather central to sligtly central/Northern France.
Switzerland is mostly lined with the french regions of Franche-Comté or Burgondy, even if northermost parts of Rhone-Alpes and Auvergne (rather central than southern) have similar latitudes as southernmost Switzerland (Tessino, Valais and Geneva areas).



Northern Switzerland is lined with southern Alsace or southern Britanny; Zurich is actually further north as Nantes; while Switzerland southernmost points are still further north than Lyon or Clermont Ferrand.

Where I live in Loire Valley is actually about the latitude of Lucern in the middle of Switzerland, but I still am clearly in the northern half of France.

I've observed that many people think Switzerland or even Austria to be more lined with the southern half of France. But Austria is even further north than Switzerland and lie at similar latitude than northern France (Burgondy, Alsace, Champagne to Ile-de-France or southern Normandy).



The general trend for hair color follows a north/south pattern, and, even if some do not like it, the UK is in the north half of Europe.




I have a hard time to understand that obsession of wanting to make british dark... even if some of them are

That map would be wrong. Northern Ireland is lighter than the East of ROI.

[lobsta]

Originally Posted by Neuling

I don't quite follow your logic there. The Swiss are completely different from the Brits. Switzerland borders France and Italy, she might well be of partial Italian ancestry...
The Swiss are genetically closer to Italians than to Brits. The further south you go in Europe, the 'darker' people are. Switzerland is at a similar latitude as central to southern France.
Apart from that, we have said countless times by now that:
1. there are exceptions, which don't change the rule, though.
2. one cannot really say which country a person is from, but usually only where they are likely not from.

So, I don't see the point in posting the photo of one woman (who nobody knows, anyway, who knows who she is and what her ancestry is) and trying to prove anything.

Clearly you missed the point. As for exceptions, that woman was no exception.

[virulentpeach]

This thread is predicated around an idea that Southern Europeans all look alike. I could generally tell people apart from various places. One side of my family is Sicilian and the other Portuguese and none of the people on either side can pass for the opposite ethnicity. And none of them look British.

[lobsta]

Originally Posted by virulentpeach

This thread is predicated around an idea that Southern Europeans all look alike. I could generally tell people apart from various places. One side of my family is Sicilian and the other Portuguese and none of the people on either side can pass for the opposite ethnicity. And none of them look British.

It's hard to say that when you already know their nationality.

The issue is when people actually don't know and that's when truth comes out that they really don't have the eye they think they have. Say I put any of these people in the pictures of those Spanish soccer fans. Nobody here would pick them out and say they're not Spanish and these are not exceptions to the rule. They are all famous and all common features at least in [sunnier] America. Lighter features are simply more common in northern Europe where Germanics had more of an influence along with the fact that people can't really go out and get a tan when it's 55 degrees and overcast. That's it. The Spanish are not a different race from the British and when a someone of British Isle descent inherits darker features they could easily fit in southern Europe where a good chunk of their ancestry hails from, just as there are many Spaniards who can fit in England as proven in the soccer photos. Heck, these people below are darker featured than a decent portion of the people in the Spanish soccer pictures.

Ben Affleck (Irish, English, Scottish and German)


George Clooney (Irish, English, German)


Megan Fox (Irish, Scottish, English, French, German, and supposed but questionable Cherokee)
Moderator cut: image removed

Grainne Seoige (Irish)


Colin Farrell (Irish)