As you know, on our planet all people are representatives of three large races. It is Caucasoid, Mongoloid, and Negroid. In these large groups, in turn, races with a second and third order are distinguished. Their names correspond to territorial localization. For example, scientists distinguished the northern and southern branches of Europeans. Their representatives differ among themselves in some anthropological grounds. So, the peoples belonging to the northern Caucasians are long-headed, light-pigmented and tall. Their representatives can often meet a nose with a straight back, strongly protruding on the face. Southern Caucasians have opposing features. Dark skin pigmentation prevails in them, the body has a shorter length, and the head, as a rule, is rounded.
European classification
What race are the Slavic peoples? There is no doubt about it. They are representatives of the Caucasian race. However, this does not at all speak of the homogeneity of the Slavs when considering the main anthropological features. In their composition, scientists identified several subtypes of the race, which form very compact habitats. Their list includes such groups of anthropological types as:
- White Sea-Baltic;
- Eastern European
- Dnieper-Carpathian;
- dinar;
- Pontic.
Each of these groups, in turn, is divided into several having a lower taxonomic rank.
Racial types of Russian people
The indigenous peoples inhabiting the territory of our country come from five medieval tribes. Based on the appearance of the Russian ancestors, scientists created a classification of the racial types of modern residents. The craniometric data of people who inhabited the territory of Russia in earlier times were obtained thanks to the remains found in burial mounds of various regions.
The expanses of the central part of our country in former times were occupied by Vyatichi. They became the tribe that gave rise to the Russian population of central Russia. Vyatichi lived in the territory from the Middle and Upper Oka up to the Upper Volga. At one time, they were able to oust some peoples to the East and erected the most ancient Russian cities - Murom, Ryazan, Vladimir, and later along with the Krivichi and Moscow.
Through the expansion, they were able to maintain their gene pool as a whole without assimilating with their neighbors.
Based on these excavations, the Vyatichi had high dolichoran skulls, and their faces were characterized by leptoproscopy, a high nose bridge, and a pronounced profiling. Sculptural portraits of representatives of this tribe testify to their racial Nordic type. At the same time, population anthropology was recognized as the most Nordoid by the Russians of the Lower Ook variant, which is the Don-Sur type. It is he who is considered the northern pontid. What is this race?
Features
This race is one of the subspecies of the Caucasian. It is distributed among the population living on the Black Sea coast. These are such nationalities as Abkhazians and Circassians, Georgians and southern Ukrainians, part of Romanians and southern Russians.
Pontid is a race first described in 1932 by V.V. Bunak. Sometimes it is brought closer to the Caucasus. However, representatives of the pontids (see photo below) have a narrower face.
Sometimes these people belong to the Mediterranean race. Among the ancient peoples, the Hutts possessed the appearance of the pontida. It is worth noting that representatives of this type are sometimes people with blond hair and eyes. If you look at the pontida in profile, you can see that the tip of its straight nose can be slightly omitted.
The origins
The Pontic combination, according to researchers, was one of the variants of the southern branch of the Caucasians, which originated in Eastern Europe in the Neolithic era. However, scientists do not exclude the penetration into this region of the features characteristic of southern peoples in an earlier period.
Based on the obtained craniological data, the movement of tribes that are representatives of the Pontic type in the Volga region and in the Russian steppes from the Caucasus and the Mediterranean continued until the late Bronze Age. These traces are visible in the East Slavic population, which is the basis of the ethnographic glade group that took place in the Middle Ages. To date, the movement of Pontic tribes to the north is confirmed in the features of the inhabitants of modern Ukraine, belonging to the Prut type in anthropology, as well as Russian Don-Sur territories.
Varieties
Pontid is a race that got its name from the ancient name of the Black Sea. In former times it was called Pontos.
This race has nothing to do with the North European. Its representatives are distinguished by light brown eyes, dark (but not black) hair. Today, people of the Pontic type can be found in Greece, the Southern Balkans and Romania. They are distinguished by high growth, a narrow forehead, fair skin, soft facial features.
There are several types of pontida. All of them are included in the eastern branch, distinguished from the Mediterranean race. Representatives of these species settled in the forest-steppe and steppe zone north of the Black Sea, and also developed the eastern and northeastern directions up to Nizhny Novgorod and Samara.
In addition to the territories of Russia, the Pontic race can be found in the spaces of southern Ukraine, as well as from the Sea of Azov to Bukovina. You can find it among the Kazan Tatars and some of the inhabitants of the North Caucasus.
Today there are Russian people who represent the Pontic race in its purest form, without any Baltic and Eastern European impurities. They come from the Middle Don or are of the Black Sea West Caucasian, Kuban, Greek, Bulgarian and South Ukrainian origin.
The eastern territories of the Pontic zone, which are located in the Middle Volga region and east of the Don, are inhabited by representatives of this race, possessing Ural features. This is caused by a mixture of carriers of various relic species.
The Pontic zone is also represented by the Lower Danube type. These are Ukrainians of southwestern and southern origin. Today they compactly live in the Odessa region and in Transnistria. This also includes Russified Moldovans, Bulgarians, Greeks - descendants of mixed marriages. This Pontic type is significantly removed from the Central Russian version.
This also includes the Don-Sur type. These are the Great Russians belonging to the North European group. They are called the Northern Pontids. How did this group come about? The Northern Pontid (photo below) is a mixture of the Pontic race with the Nords and partly with the Cro-Magnids.
After such a mixture, some representatives of this group began to differ in light (blue or gray) eyes. At the same time, their hair retained its dark tone, ranging from a brunette to a light brown. When describing the appearance of the northern pontida, it becomes clear that it has become closer to the Nordic. Departure from the Mediterranean type led to the appearance of lighter skin than that of the Baltids and Nordids.
Classification of the North Pontians
The anthropological type, localized in the basins of the Oka, Seim, Desna rivers, as well as the upper reaches of the Khopr, Sura, Tsna and Don, has, in contrast to other Russian groups, some manifestations characteristic of southern Caucasians.
So, the representative of the northern pontida - a woman - is the owner of a narrower and lower face, which also has a slightly stronger horizontal profile. In men of this type, in addition, beards grow splendidly.
The name "northern pontid," as mentioned above, was given to these representatives of the Russian people by V.V. Bunak. Other researchers in their own way fixed this type. They called it East Great Russian, Ryazan, Ryazan-Penza, Don-Sur, Tambov-Penza, Middle Oka, and sometimes Lower Oka-Don-Sur.
Origin
Representatives of the northern pontid type, according to researchers, may be descendants of various peoples. Some scientists consider their ancestors tribes belonging to the southeastern (southern) branch of the Slavs who lived in the Ryazan-Murom, Pereslavl, Seversky and Chernigov lands. Others are of the opinion that the northern pontid is an anthropological type, the origin of which was the result of the assimilation of tribes and the introduction of mixed marriages with the Slavs, who formerly inhabited territories along the southeastern borders of Kievan Rus. During the existence of the Khazar Khaganate, the North Pontians were quite possibly under its influence. It is assumed that they could even participate in battles against the eastern Slavs. However, after the defeat of the Khazars and the destruction of their state, the Pontians switched to symbiosis with the Slavs. After that, their northern variety was formed.
There is an opinion that the Pontic type has an autochthonous origin on the territory of the Black Sea-Caspian steppes. Based on these judgments, the migration of peoples from the Mediterranean has nothing to do with this.
Prevalence
The man and woman of the northern pontids are easy to track among the Russian population. However, the proportion of such people is small. Of the total number of residents of the country, they are unlikely to make up more than 10-15%.
Severnopontiytsy most often found among the population of chernozem areas located in areas located south of the Middle Oka. Carriers of this type, based on their marked difference with people of the Baltic species, are sometimes considered of "non-Russian" origin. However, this is misleading in relation to the North Pont. This point of view is incorrect for posterity in the 15-20 generation.
Features
The North Pontians belong to a separate branch of the white race, which is not part of either its southern or northern variety. What is characteristic of this racial type? For example, a girl - a northern pontid is attractive for her harmony, a little slanting brown or indefinite color with gray-green-blue eyes, thick thin straight or slightly curly hair of dark, but not black tones. Representatives of this type have narrow faces. Moreover, a mandatory anthropological sign for them is a slightly swollen part of the upper eyelid. A similar phenomenon occurs with an increased size of the orbits. They are also called empty or Gothic. That is why when selecting actors for films about vampires, the director, as a rule, seeks to invite one of the representatives of the northern pontids for filming.
Another characteristic and rather surprising feature of this anthropological type is that in mixed marriages they absorb, as if “dissolving” in themselves, those dominant features that other races possess. That is, from the North Pontine and a representative of another nation, only North Pontians are born. Moreover, such heredity can be traced not only externally, but also by phenotype and genotype.
The appearance of the North Pontians is different from that characteristic of the peoples of the Mediterranean. After all, their faces never expand upward. The eyes are a little slanting. And their noses are sometimes straight, and sometimes snub-nosed. But never humpy and certainly small. This is what they differ from the Mediterranean. By the way, a little slanting eyes is an echo of the Mongoloid race. A similar case of mixing this element with the Caucasian is the only one. Indeed, as a result of such marriages, the descendants always have a broad-shouldered and broad, and not a narrow face.
Character traits
In their mentality and behavior, the North Pontians have much in common with the Nordic racial type.
Representatives of this anthropological type are gloomy, courageous and very stubborn. Sometimes they are cruel. These people are not prone to deception and betrayal.
As for the Mediterranean, on which the Pontians are similar in appearance, they are very frivolous. They are distinguished by liveliness of character. Representatives of this anthropological type like to make noise, gesticulate a lot and are loving. In support of this, it is enough to recall the southern French and Italians. These people, as they say, “on their own mind”, fight poorly and will never miss their chance, allowing them to get personal gain.
Scientific description
Some researchers believe that the northern pontid was the result of a mixture of three types. Among them:
- leptoprosopal, dolichocephalic type, having a Central European origin;
- meso- or leptoproscopic, dolichocephalic type of golind-Baltic;
- leptoproscopic, dolichocephalic type, having a "steppe" origin.
Representatives of this race species currently, according to researchers, live in Russia and Ukraine, Bulgaria and Romania, Poland, Serbia and Croatia.
Scientists have compiled a list of the external distinguishing features of these people. It includes:
- high growth;
- leptosomal physique;
- highly developed hairline;
- blue, brown, light mixed eyes;
- average bone width;
- white-yellow-pink skin color;
- straight eyebrows;
- lips of medium thickness;
- straight or snub nose;
- average cheekbone width;
- narrow jaw;
- average forehead height with a moderately sloping shape;
- narrow face with a facial index of more than 88;
- occiput moderately convex.
Alternative judgments
Those anthropologists who use the typological approach to compile racial classification do not use the term “northern pontid”. This concept was introduced by V. Bunak for the possibility of using the population method to solve scientific problems. In 1932, this scientist pointed to the existence of the North Pontic type, presenting it in three varieties. Among them are Polesie, Central-East European and general, which corresponds to Eastern Great Russian. In his later work, written in 1962, V. Bunak somewhat changed the classification he created.
However, there are alternative opinions about this work. For example, Alekseev expressed a slightly different point of view. He believes that the presence of light eyes and dark brown hair does not give the right to unite many peoples in one group. After all, such signs are overly generalized.
In addition, Alekseev expressed the opinion that those three variants of the Northern Pontians, which Bunak pointed out, have nothing to do with this type when considering it at the population level. On the contrary, the Polesie population can be attributed to the Cro-Magnoid type, and, possibly, to the Cro-Magnid-Alpine mixtures. As for the Central-East European variety of the race, it is a mixture of racial components such as the Nordic, Cromanoid and East Baltic. At the same time, they all have different ratios. According to Alekseyev, the Eastern Velikoros population is expressed mainly by the Nordic type. Only small inclusions of eastern Baltic and Mediterranean are observed in it. Based on this description, none of the populations represented relates to Pontians or their mixtures.