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Old 07-27-2013, 05:43 PM
 
33 posts, read 185,677 times
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Like in Europe, the Northern Europeans look pale and much lighter almost like vampires. While Southern Europeans are darker, almost as dark as Arabs and Hispanics.
Or in Asia, the Middle east has the olive colored curly haired Arabs, south Asia has the straight haired brownish red colored Hindus, the people in west/central Asia look like a blend of East asian and European. East Asians have almost white skin with chinky eyes, while southeast asians have the skin tone of south asians but features that resemble east asians.
But in Africa, other than North Africa which basically an extension of the Arab world, I cannot tell the difference between a East african and a west african, or a central african and a southern african. Other than their culture, what is the difference between sub sahara Africans, the physical difference.
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Old 07-27-2013, 11:53 PM
 
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Yes, not sure how you can't see the variations. Who can't see the general differences between the Khoisan and the Dinka for example? Or the Yoruba and the Amhara?

Btw, Hindus are followers of Hinduism. Did you mean South Asians?
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Old 07-28-2013, 11:25 PM
 
674 posts, read 695,841 times
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Africa is the most ethnically diverse continent on the planet. It is also the most linguistically diverse. Black Africans can tell one another apart. You can not tell the difference between Africans frankly because you're not African. And I have news for you: to us you all look the same as well. In fact I still have a hard time explaining to my husband why Asians and whites are considered different races.
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Old 07-29-2013, 09:35 AM
 
Location: Pittsburgh, PA (Morningside)
14,360 posts, read 16,858,085 times
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Is this a joke?

Some variance in Sub-Saharan Africa.


Nama from Southern Africa


Girls from Madagascar


Mbuti pygmies from the Congo


Maasai


Fulani girl


Amhara men

It is true that a lot of Bantu groups (which populate most of southern Africa) look fairly similar, because they are descendants of a group of farmers which left an area around the Cameroon/Nigeria border around 3,000 years ago. But excepting them, there is a huge range of diversity in terms of physical appearance in Africa.
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Old 07-31-2013, 12:22 PM
 
Location: San Diego, California Republic
16,581 posts, read 27,248,742 times
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Every facial feature variation seen around the world can be seen in Africans and just about all of these are in subsaharan Africa. Some of the tallest and the shortest people are found in that region.
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Old 07-31-2013, 11:45 PM
 
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I don't know much about most of the African nations, but East Africans tend to be slimmer than West Africans.
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Old 08-02-2013, 11:39 PM
 
578 posts, read 956,933 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by usernameX View Post
Like in Europe, the Northern Europeans look pale and much lighter almost like vampires. While Southern Europeans are darker, almost as dark as Arabs and Hispanics.
Or in Asia, the Middle east has the olive colored curly haired Arabs, south Asia has the straight haired brownish red colored Hindus, the people in west/central Asia look like a blend of East asian and European. East Asians have almost white skin with chinky eyes, while southeast asians have the skin tone of south asians but features that resemble east asians.
But in Africa, other than North Africa which basically an extension of the Arab world, I cannot tell the difference between a East african and a west african, or a central african and a southern african. Other than their culture, what is the difference between sub sahara Africans, the physical difference.
Africa is the most diverse INTRAPOPULATIONALLY!
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Old 08-04-2013, 12:42 AM
 
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I think there are variations even within East Africans, same for West Africans, ect. It is indeed a very diverse continent. It's like asking what are the difference between Americans from the midwest and from the north. I think you find a mix of everything in every region so it's hard to say that x is a specific trait of region A or region B, as you might find x throughout the continent. I think the reason for that is usually the physical difference is due to the person's ethnic group and because of colonization and the way the continent is, you will find the same ethnic groups in different countries. For ex, one might say all Irish look alike, in the case of Africa, let's take the Fulanis, all fulanis will look alike or have certain common traits particular to this ethnic group, however you will find Fulanis in Senegal, Niger, Sudan, Egypt ect. and the same goes with other ethnic groups. So I guess instead of grouping by region, a better way to find the physical differences would be by ethnic group i-e what's the difference between Arab, Yorouba, Fulani, Berber,Hutu, Zulu, etc . Now, when you look at the dif. ethnic groups, there are clearly a lot of differences between them
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Old 08-05-2013, 02:15 AM
 
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The differences are so apparent that it's sometimes easy to know who is from where without ever having talked them.

Remember, Africa isn't divided by nations, it's divided by tribe.
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