Swiss composite faces, the basic types of Western Central Europe

[Agrippa]

Swiss composite faces, the basic types of Western Central Europe

Some of the images I used were already presented on Skadi in this
http://forums.skadi.net/showthread.php?t=58376
and other threads already.

Beside the Atlantid, Nordid, Alpinid and Dinarid one can find mainly more gracile Mediterranids and Cromagnids/Dalofaelid in Switzerland, probably I'm making composite faces of those later too, though in the material I have from Dodona (Len posted it), there are not enough individuals of those types, which reflects their lower importance in this area of Europe.

Composite face from the Swiss plates: meso- to dolichocephalic, tall, dark or dark-mixed, narrow face and not too strongly deviating (from Nordoid and Mediterranoid standards) facial traits. The result being best described as Atlantid (ranging from tall [Atlanto-] Mediterranids to "dark Nordids" with limited Dinarid admixture ["Keltic"]:
http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/561/atlantoidswiss2mw3.th.jpg (http://img168.imageshack.us/my.php?image=atlantoidswiss2mw3.jpg)

The next element being Nordid, tall, light, meso-dolichocephalic, narrow face:
http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/3373/nordidswiss3hb5.th.jpg (http://img137.imageshack.us/my.php?image=nordidswiss3hb5.jpg)
One can see, though both are different samples, especially the profile is practically the same, especially if being compared with the other two most important types.

I made one of the relatively large Alpinid sample too (short-medium, brachycephalic, broad face, not too prominent-long nose, dark or mixed:
http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/9079/alpinoidswisszt2.th.jpg (http://img83.imageshack.us/my.php?image=alpinoidswisszt2.jpg)

Finally Dinarid, only the more typical ones, tall, brachycephalic, narrow-long face, large-prominent nose - the Dinarid looks longer headed because they typical Dinarid short head is less balanced, with some having rather forward pushed head - typical planoccipital, whereas others, which are otherwise typical, have a rather short forehead, area before the ears, in the morph this two patterns overlap to a certain degree and produce a longer headed looking result:
http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/5352/swissdinaridmo3.th.jpg (http://img243.imageshack.us/my.php?image=swissdinaridmo3.jpg)

If using both Nordid and Dinarid, the balanced result is closest to "Keltic", though it approaches Atlantid as well:
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/3290/swissnordiddinaridwk5.th.jpg (http://img175.imageshack.us/my.php?image=swissnordiddinaridwk5.jpg)

[noricum]

From my personal observation I have the impression that these Anthropological types occur more often in their pure forms in Switzerland than in Austria. Although both countries share the same types in roughly the same percentages, Austria seems to be more homogenous. For example I've frequently encounterd pure Nordic Swiss one will hardly find in Austria aside from the urban upper class youth maybe. Can you approve this, Agrippa?

[Agrippa]

From my personal observation I have the impression that these Anthropological types occur more often in their pure forms in Switzerland than in Austria. Although both countries share the same types in roughly the same percentages, Austria seems to be more homogenous. For example I've frequently encounterd pure Nordic Swiss one will hardly find in Austria aside from the urban upper class youth maybe. Can you approve this, Agrippa?

Well, yes and no.

Switzerland is really more fragmented, thats also part of its history and ethnoreligious divisions. All the valleys and smaller cities are often divided along certain lines for quite some time and as usual, religion is a great contributor to such patterns, since in Switzerland, unlike Austria, there is/was a large scale division of Protestants and Catholics.

Just compare:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/Karte_Religionen_der_Schweiz_2008.png

You probably too know, that even in the same ethnic (f.e. German or French) group, intermarriages between the different religions were not that common, so we can speak of limited "Heiratskreise", preventing large scale panmixture.

So the valleys, religious and historical-social differences and animosities between the Swiss areas played a big role for that pattern.

The Swiss in general and the non-Germans in particular have a stronger Mediterranid and more Southern looking Dinarid component, so some Dinarid variants seen in Switzerland or Austria look fairly distinct to me, usually those of Austria being more often Norid, those of Switzerland more often Dinarid with a stronger Mediterranid touch.

Additionally, from my personal impression, a lot of Austria is more clearly Colonised land, Colonised by a basic, lets call it Bavarian-Germanic group of people, thats really apparent and this basic variants appear to be everywhere, usually beside the different older, local elements.

You rarely find in Austria whole villages of Alpinids, but thats possible in Switzerland f.e. Its not about them being so much more Alpinid, there exist just those old breeding areas of farmers which were in Austria almost always crossed in by this "colonist variants" and we should also not forget, that the Eastern part of Austria becomes flatter and more fertile, more favourable land, was for the most time much more Nordid and Mediterranid than anything else, unlike the mountainous areas for the Dinarid herder and Alpinid tiller, to split it up stereotypically.


aside from the urban upper class youth maybe.

The Swiss seem to have more often very light skinned and somewhat more Northern looking variants, showing quite often Dalofaelid/Cromagnid influences.

Something like Michelle Hunziker f.e. would be rather rare in Austria:
http://estb.msn.com/i/3C/F79882D9F989BA17E6BF8CAC189E8D.jpg

Such jaws are really much more common, especially with the tall-light combination, in Switzerland than in Austria. Actually I can think of a certain Nordid-Dalofaelid variant looking "particularly Swiss" - so not even very Northern European or else, but like some kind of tribal variant one could say - probably from the ancient Allemanni already or later local developments?

Also rather typical Nordatlantid and Atlantid phenotype can be found more often in Switzerland, than in Austria, where those have usually a rather Dinarid than Mediterranid component.

So in Switzerland you have locals which are very Nordid and you encounter more often Dalofaelid variants, both pointing to the Germanic influx. Those are more concentrated in regions and social classes even too, than in Austria, where this element is practically always present, but usually in the mixture.

The most typical Nordids in Austria are indeed in the upper class, quite typical ones can be also found in the urban people in general, even the lower classes, usually having a skin tone like those Swedish which tan easy (golden) - and usually tanned I might add (solarium..) - are very leptomorphic build, narrow faced and rather long headed, so they approach "Hallstatt" and "Keltic" usually rather than more robust forms. Thats at least true for the Eastern parts of Austria, especially for the Danubian area and Vienna.

Quite often this basic Nordid variants are further mixed, producing all kinds of Keltic, Subnordid, Atlantid etc. phenotypes throughout the country, with the basic elements being Nordid, Dinarid and Alpinoid/Alpino-Cromagnoid.

[Marino]

Something like Michelle Hunziker f.e. would be rather rare in Austria:
http://estb.msn.com/i/3C/F79882D9F989BA17E6BF8CAC189E8D.jpg

Such jaws are really much more common, especially with the tall-light combination, in Switzerland than in Austria. Actually I can think of a certain Nordid-Dalofaelid variant looking "particularly Swiss" - so not even very Northern European or else, but like some kind of tribal variant one could say - probably from the ancient Allemanni already or later local developments?


Please note that Michelle Hunziker's mother is from the Netherlands, where Dalofaelid phenotypes are of course much more frequent than in Switzerland as a whole.

That's not to say that Dalofaelids don't occur at all in Switzerland. However, somewhat reduced (alpinised) Cromagnids and Cromagn(o)id elements in combination with Nordid and Mediterranid, especially Atlantid, are far more common than predominantly Dalofaelid individuals, the latter still being generally shorter in stature than their German, Dutch and Scandinavian fellows.

[Beethoven]

Swiss genetically shorter then germanics and vikings.

Netherlands 181,20 16318199
Iceland 179,00 319355
Hungary 179,00 10106017
Austria 178,20 8174762
Germany 178,10 82424609
Croatia 178,00 4496869
Australia 178,00 19913144
Norway 178,00 4737171
Sweden 178,00 8986400
Czech Republic 178,00 10246178
Serbia 177,80 10159046
Denmark 177,60 5413392
Poland 177,00 38626349
New Zealand 177,00 3993817
Estonia 177,00 1307605
Luxembourg 177,00 486006
Sudan 177,00 40218455
Finland 176,70 5214512
United States 176,20 293027571
Belgium 176,00 10348276
Romania 176,00 22355551
Switzerland 176,00 7450867
Ukraine 175,50 47732079
United Kingdom 175,30 60270708
Greece 175,00 10647529
Ireland 175,00 3969558

Switzerland is one few countrys in the world with legalized euthanasia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_euthanasia

In my humble opnion Swiss are more celtic + other central european then germanic

"The Swiss populace historically derives from an amalgamation of Gaulish or Gallo-Roman, Alamannic and Rhaetic stock"