History or Genetics?

[EraPhilips]

Why do some pashtuns look white as Italians or west europeans? I mean, persians look a bit dark, so do tajikistan and pakistan, yet afghanistan is between those all and they look white. Is it history or genetics?

[Nora]

peraisn are much more white than pashtun ppl :S only some part of afghanistan has white skin the rest looks like indian/paki and even bangoli

[Tjanaparh]

Oh this is a difficult theme dear Philip.
Look that real Persians are mostly not very dark - darker tend to be Kurds, Azari, Baloch...
Many Tajik in Tajikistan if you notice tend to have mongoloid faces, but at the same time many tajik look like russians, one other part of Tajiks looks like Armenians or Lezgins.
I do not know so many pashtuns personally - but those I knew were or darker skinned a bit similar to Baloch or very white skinned and similar to some Russian with their face.
Even italians can look very differently , some You cannot differ from an Arab, some look like norvegian.

[Karachi]

i have met many iranians who are (brown), but they are mostly from central or southern Iran. Northern Iranians probably are whiter

btw, isn't southern Iran the real persia?? Persepolis is located in southern Iran and early iranian civilizations started from there

[Karachi]

Oh this is a difficult theme dear Philip.
Look that real Persians are mostly not very dark - darker tend to be Kurds, Azari, Baloch...
Many Tajik in Tajikistan if you notice tend to have mongoloid faces, but at the same time many tajik look like russians, one other part of Tajiks looks like Armenians or Lezgins.
I do not know so many pashtuns personally - but those I knew were or darker skinned a bit similar to Baloch or very white skinned and similar to some Russian with their face.
Even italians can look very differently , some You cannot differ from an Arab, some look like norvegian.

I am not sure about Azari , never seen one but Kurds tend to be light

[al-arab]

Oh this is a difficult theme dear Philip.
Look that real Persians are mostly not very dark - darker tend to be Kurds, Azari, Baloch...
Many Tajik in Tajikistan if you notice tend to have mongoloid faces, but at the same time many tajik look like russians, one other part of Tajiks looks like Armenians or Lezgins.
I do not know so many pashtuns personally - but those I knew were or darker skinned a bit similar to Baloch or very white skinned and similar to some Russian with their face.
Even italians can look very differently , some You cannot differ from an Arab, some look like norvegian.

This is because 1/3 of all Italians share the same gene as we Arabs mostly do (Haplogroup J).

One of the earliest civilizations in Italy, if not the oldest as I remeber were Etruscians who were descendents of Middle Eastern/Semetic people from the area of todays Iraq.

Also strangely enough the haplogroup J Y-DNA is mostly found in Tuscany and middle Italy (where Etruscian culture had their base) and a bit less than Sicily who is further south and have been under Arab influence just 1000 years ago.

But this is a interesting topic. But to make it short. I will use Arabs again as an example.

Some in the Maghreb look very similar to Berbers, others (especially in Libya) have much black ancestry as have large parts of Yemenis, Omanis and Saudis.

While people in the Gulf (natives) tend to look similar to us Iraqis, and people from the Levant (Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan) as well as Egyptians in the north of the country.

People from western Iran also look similar as do a lot of Kurds in the Middle East.

But of course it depends mostly on your ancestry and geography. For example Arabs from Basra are more darker skinned than Arabs from Mosul or Baghdad and central Iraq. But only very little difference. But is is pretty interesting.

I know a few Iranians who look very "European" (as do a lot of Arabs and other groups in the Middle East/West Asia).

Although most Pakistanis I know and Bangladeshis are very dark compared to most Arabs/Persinians.

[Khyber Pass]

Why do some pashtuns look white as Italians or west europeans? I mean, persians look a bit dark, so do tajikistan and pakistan, yet afghanistan is between those all and they look white. Is it history or genetics?

I've never met a Pashtun in my life that looks white, never. When their children they tend to be white looking but as they grow older they turn into your average "brown" person. Persians are a lot whiter then Pashtuns, I've met some that I have mistaken for white.

[IamDZJ]

it's obviously genetic. people from logar seem to be exceptionally fair and have blue eyes.

[randolph85]

things are not always as they seem.

compare karzai and ahmadinejad.

[Laila]

Why do some pashtuns look white as Italians or west europeans? I mean, persians look a bit dark, so do tajikistan and pakistan, yet afghanistan is between those all and they look white. Is it history or genetics?

Not all Pashtuns look white. You will come upon plenty that are tall and well tanned, with brown eyes and hair. You have to also look at the exact area as well. People who are from the mountains and valleys tend to be lighter skinned, those that are from the city tend to be darker skinned.

[retro]

This is because 1/3 of all Italians share the same gene as we Arabs mostly do (Haplogroup J).

One of the earliest civilizations in Italy, if not the oldest as I remeber were Etruscians who were descendents of Middle Eastern/Semetic people from the area of todays Iraq.

Also strangely enough the haplogroup J Y-DNA is mostly found in Tuscany and middle Italy (where Etruscian culture had their base) and a bit less than Sicily who is further south and have been under Arab influence just 1000 years ago.

Semtic peoples are Western Asians and they are very distinctly related to indigenous European peoples. As Haplogroup J and I both have a paternal common ancestor. What is more, they have a common, shared, Western Eurasian mtDNA pool.

Sicilians are very dark and they do look alot like Arabs or North Africans. However the Arab influence in Sicily, Southern Italy and Iberia was neglectable, compared to the Phoenicians. As the Phoenicians, Iberians and Egyptians where amongst the first seafaring peoples to colonise the Mediterranean.

As in ancient times the Phoenicians where a powerful Naval power who traded with Iberia and by extension Western Europe until their monopoly on trade in the West Mediterranean was broken by Rome. You see, the Celtiberians in Iberia where allied with the Phoenicians against Rome and they mined silver and tin which they traded with the Phoenicians.

The ancient Etruscans where not a Semitic peoples and like the Minoans in Crete, they had Caucasian/Anatolian origins.

Another study showed that the areas of historical Etruscan occupation share a relatively high concentration of y-haplogroup G with Anatolians, and the people of Caucasus, where the haplogroup reaches its greatest presence, particularly amongst the Ossetians and Georgians. This evidence is not specific to any period or calendar date, and might reflect contiguous populations or significant migration far back in the Stone Age. Another team of Italian researchers showed that the mtDNA of cattle (Bos taurus) in modern Tuscany is different from that of cattle normally found elsewhere in Italy, and even in Europe as a whole.[22][23].

An autochthonous population that diverged genetically was suggested as a possibility by Cavalli-Sforza.[24] The mtDNA is similar to that of cattle typically found in the Near East. Many tribes who have migrated in the past have typically taken their livestock with them as they moved. This bovine mtDNA study suggests that at least some people whose descendants were Etruscans made their way to Italy from Anatolia or other parts of the Near East. However, the study gives no clue as to when they might have done so. There is the possibility that Etruscan civilization arose locally with maritime contacts from all across the Mediterranean, and the genetic presence could have been all along since the Neolithic and the expansion of the seaborne Cardium Pottery cultures of same origin.

Another study by geneticist Alberto Piazza of the University of Turin linked the Etruscans to Turkey. The team compared DNA sequences with those from men in modern Turkey, northern Italy, the Greek island of Lemnos, the Italian islands of Sicily and Sardinia and the southern Balkans. They found that the genetic sequences of the Tuscan men varied significantly from those of men in surrounding regions in Italy, and that the men from Murlo and Volterra were the most closely related to men from Turkey. In Murlo in particular, one genetic variant is shared only by people from Turkey.[25][26][27]

Etruscan origins - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[kakargirl]

Helmand is a very hot place in southern Afghanistan , dry desert even today the temp is 33c whiles i was there temps were at 49c to even 54c and still it has the fairest pashtuns , its genetics its nothing else..

[retro]

I am not sure about Azari , never seen one but Kurds tend to be light

The Azeris are Caucasian Turko-Persians and they have little historical legitimacy as a nation. The Kurds on the other hand differ from each other quite markedly from each other from region to region and Kurdish dialects aren't mutually intelligible.

[Karachi]

these 3 videos give a good indication how Azeris look, they mostly look very light (brown) tone, some of them look white. Though overall i dont think they would be considered white:

www.antv.ws | Sorğu - Metroda gediş pulunun artmasına münasibətiniz - YouTube

Eurovision 2012 - Azərbaycan! Sorğu. Paytaxt sakinləri - YouTube

Sorgu ( Tehsilimiz) By Mehman & Mirkamil - YouTube

[IamDZJ]

i have a question....why are we talking about skin color here?? so we can figure out which portion of what type of people are fair and what portion brown?? and then what?? what do we do with that information?? what do we do with it??