It is not surprising, but the real Europeans live only in the Russian North Caucasus, all the rest are already very mixed peoples. The Caucasian race in the West is often called the Caucasian (Caucasian), in honor of the Caucasians, who, thanks to life in hard-to-reach areas, practically did not mix with representatives of other races. Within the large Caucasoid group, subgroups are distinguished, including the small Balkan-Caucasian race.
About the Caucasian race
The Caucasoid race acquired modern features not earlier than the Holocene era, this is a period of time of about 12,000 years until modern time. The most probable place of origin is considered to be certain regions of Southwest Asia, as well as southern Europe and North Africa.
Perhaps the habitat was also individual foothill regions of the Near East, including some arid coastal areas of the Mediterranean. From where on came the ancestors of the Caucasians settled further, gradually occupying all of Europe, including the Balkan-Caucasian territory and North Africa.
North and south
In the composition of Caucasians there are two large branches: the North and South, between which there is a large group of peoples occupying an intermediate position. The differences between them mainly relate to the predominant pigmentation of the skin, hair, eyes.
Most ethnographers believe that the lighter Caucasians appeared as a result of a long process of depigmentation of the population, which was originally dark pigmented. That is, the southern branch, to which the Balkan-Caucasian race belongs, is the initial one. Many hunters and gatherers already had blue eyes, and the gene responsible for the light pigmentation of the skin became 100% dominant only by the Bronze Age.
Common features
In the process of migration, the population of Europe constantly mixed up with each other and with representatives of other racial groups. Already in the XVIII century, the famous German anthropologist Friedrich Blumenbach noted that the white race, to which Europeans belong, should be called the Caucasian race, because its most ancient and purest representatives are the indigenous mountain peoples of the Caucasus. For a long time, they practically did not mix with other races, since they lived in inaccessible places. These peoples, together with other mountain peoples of the Balkans, having common features, united into one Balkan-Caucasian race.
A characteristic feature of the representatives of this subgroup is the combination of light skin with very dark hair, and in many cases, darkening occurs along with reddish tones and a dark color of the iris. Representatives of the Balkan-Caucasian minor race also have an increased hairline on the face and body. Typical of them is a large face with brachycephaly (short-headedness), in many cases with massive superciliary arches, a large nose, often with a convex back, and a massive stocky physique. Among them are many people with high stature.
About some representatives
In the Balkan-Caucasian race there is a fairly wide variety of types of people. If you focus on the most characteristic representatives, then they differ in a rather massive physique, with a large chest and a large face. The peoples of the North Caucasus, like Georgia, have a very wide face, one of the largest in the world. It is impossible to imagine that the representatives of the Balkan-Caucasian race in the pictures, especially in national clothes, were without a mustache and beard. They are characterized by significant hair cover not only on the face, but also on the body. It used to be that the Ainu reached the maximum size, but now they are strongly mixed, mainly with the Japanese, losing the lead.
In Europe, the largest body sizes are considered among the Montenegrins, as well as among many Russian Caucasians, for example, Ossetians and their kindred peoples. The Balkan-Caucasian race developed in conditions of strong isolation, in the highlands, so the mountaineers' organism has obvious signs of adaptation to the relevant conditions. Large muscles well store blood, massive physique allows you to have a large chest - all this makes life easier in the mountains, where there is less oxygen than on the plain.
Typology
The Balkan-Caucasian race ethnographers are divided into several types, including:
- Alpine - a relatively small stature, with brachycephaly, lighter in comparison with other representatives of this small race, for the most part lived in the Alps.
- Dinarsky - is characterized by very high growth, a very broad face, with large features, natives of the Balkans.
- Caucasian - has a fairly broad face, with brachycephaly, lighter eyes than other mountain peoples, high growth, distributed mainly in the region of the North Caucasus.
- Armenoid - the most strongly developed tertiary hairline, strongly protruding nose, medium height and relatively broad face. Distributed in Armenia, Asia Minor, southeastern Georgia, Lebanon, Syria, etc.
Habitat
Over a thousand-year history, the European population from indigenous places of residence has spread to all inhabited continents and is now considered indigenous not only in Europe, but also in the Americas, Australia and even South Africa. The peoples of the Balkan-Caucasian race live in the regions of southern Europe, the Caucasus, South-West Asia and the south of Central Asia. Caucasians have become the largest race, accounting for about 40% of the world's population.
Representatives of this group of Caucasians settled in the vicinity of a mountain belt that runs from west to east from the European Pyrenees through the Balkans, the Alps to the Caucasus from Elbrus, and then to Asia to the Pamirs, Tien Shan, Hindu Kush and the Himalayas. An example of the Balkan-Caucasian race is:
- almost the majority of the indigenous population of the Caucasus ;
- the Balkan part includes the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, southern Austria, Malta, northern Greece and a number of neighboring countries;
- The peoples of the western part of Iran (Lurs, Assyrians, Bakhtiars, Iranians of Khorasan, etc.) are considered to be a sub-Asian subtype.