finşaų
01-01-2013, 01:35 PM
I have encountered quite a few people who believe that Finns possess an abnormal degree (in a European context) of facial flatness; this does, however, seem to be a myth stemming from outdated chauvinistic proto-anthropology and unreliable "eyeball taxonomy".
According to Markku Niskanen of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Oulu, the average Finnish face is only marginally flatter than the European mean:
An examination of average Mongol-index values reveals that they increase toward the east. The inhabitants of the British Isles (12.9%) have the sharpest facial profiles and the Buryats (90.0%) of the Lake Baikal region have the flattest faces. The Volga-Finnic-speaking Mordvians (39.4%) and Austrians (32.4%) have the flattest faces in Europe, but the Finns (25.4%) and the Saami (25.5%) are close to the European average (24.9%).
The Ainu (52.0%) have the least amount of facial flatness among the Asians, although their faces are considerably flatter than those of European populations. Moderate facial flatness may be an ancient feature of inhabitants of the Pacific coast of Asia because the Polynesians originating from this region are not particularly flat-faced either. It appears that the extreme facial flatness of the classic Mongoloid people originated in the inland of northeastern Asia.
The average Mongol-index does thus increase progressively as we go further East, though there are surprising irregularities; the most genetically Eastern East Eurasian group - the Ainu - have an abnormally low degree of facial flatness in the context of East Asia.
The Oriental-index values also increase toward the east. The Basques are genetically the most western (12.4%) and the Ainu are the most eastern (92.8%). Therefore, the Ainu cannot have an ancient Caucasoid origin, regardless of their relatively sharply profiled faces.
The Finns (25.1%) are quite average by European standards (European average is 22.8%) and genetically less eastern than the Greeks (33.4%), Saami (42.2%), Permian-Finnic-speaking Komi (30.1%), and Volga Finnic-speaking Mari (34.1%). The relatively high Oriental-index of the Saami (42.2%) is much higher than their admixture estimation (18%) based on genetic distances by Cavalli-Sforza et al. (1994), therefore, it is most likely a result of the markers used.
http://www.mankindquarterly.org/samples/niskanenbalticcorrected.pdf
According to Markku Niskanen of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Oulu, the average Finnish face is only marginally flatter than the European mean:
An examination of average Mongol-index values reveals that they increase toward the east. The inhabitants of the British Isles (12.9%) have the sharpest facial profiles and the Buryats (90.0%) of the Lake Baikal region have the flattest faces. The Volga-Finnic-speaking Mordvians (39.4%) and Austrians (32.4%) have the flattest faces in Europe, but the Finns (25.4%) and the Saami (25.5%) are close to the European average (24.9%).
The Ainu (52.0%) have the least amount of facial flatness among the Asians, although their faces are considerably flatter than those of European populations. Moderate facial flatness may be an ancient feature of inhabitants of the Pacific coast of Asia because the Polynesians originating from this region are not particularly flat-faced either. It appears that the extreme facial flatness of the classic Mongoloid people originated in the inland of northeastern Asia.
The average Mongol-index does thus increase progressively as we go further East, though there are surprising irregularities; the most genetically Eastern East Eurasian group - the Ainu - have an abnormally low degree of facial flatness in the context of East Asia.
The Oriental-index values also increase toward the east. The Basques are genetically the most western (12.4%) and the Ainu are the most eastern (92.8%). Therefore, the Ainu cannot have an ancient Caucasoid origin, regardless of their relatively sharply profiled faces.
The Finns (25.1%) are quite average by European standards (European average is 22.8%) and genetically less eastern than the Greeks (33.4%), Saami (42.2%), Permian-Finnic-speaking Komi (30.1%), and Volga Finnic-speaking Mari (34.1%). The relatively high Oriental-index of the Saami (42.2%) is much higher than their admixture estimation (18%) based on genetic distances by Cavalli-Sforza et al. (1994), therefore, it is most likely a result of the markers used.
http://www.mankindquarterly.org/samples/niskanenbalticcorrected.pdf