Can you tell Maltese/East/West Sicilians apart, or do they strongly overlap?

[alfieb]

I think that it's somewhere in between. I have pre-conceived notions of what people from different areas are likely to look like, and my intuition tends to be right more often than wrong, but I still manage to be terribly wrong more often than I'd like to admit. I think I have an easier time telling East from West or East from Maltese than West from Maltese.

[Sikeliot]

I think if you showed me pictures and made me guess, I would probably be able. Or at least notice trends.

To me the distinction is northeastern, southern, and northwestern.

Messina, Catania, Syracuse, and Enna to me have the most people who look Greek, a significant number of pan-Italic types, and the fewest people who look Western Euro/Germanic/etc.

Ragusa, Caltanissetta, and Agrigento have a combination of people who look Greek, Italic, and Levantine, and these areas also have the highest proportion of haplogroups J1, T, etc. that are generally accepted as Southwest Asian.

The northern part of Caltanissetta, Palermo, and Trapani as well as Malta don't have as many Greek types, and tend to be more extremes.. I've seen people from these provinces who look straight out of Norway, and people who looked Tunisian. I think these provinces have both the most truly "exotic" people (i.e. look legitimately Levantine/North African/etc) and the greatest number of blue eyed blondes who can fit further north in Europe, and a lot of types that just look neutral and pan-European. Also there are the most Armenoids in these provinces,which could be due to Elymian, Phoenician, and Carian influences.

[Sikeliot]

I'll also add that "Greek" looking Sicilians look very close to Rhodians, Cypriots, Cretans and other islanders and do not look like mainland Greeks, who tend to be much more Balkan looking from my experience.

[alfieb]

To me the distinction is northeastern, southern, and northwestern.
I think that's fair. Culturally, there isn't a North vs. South divide, but biologically, the southern provinces have more MENA influence than anywhere else, both in genetics and in phenotype.


Messina, Catania, Syracuse, and Enna to me have the most people who look Greek, a significant number of pan-Italic types, and the fewest people who look Western Euro/Germanic/etc.
Yeah, the name of "Greek Coast" that Eastern Sicily has earned is more or less deserved.


The northern part of Caltanissetta, Palermo, and Trapani as well as Malta don't have as many Greek types, and tend to be more extremes.. I've seen people from these provinces who look straight out of Norway, and people who looked Tunisian. I think these provinces have both the most truly "exotic" people (i.e. look legitimately Levantine/North African/etc) and the greatest number of blue eyed blondes who can fit further north in Europe, and a lot of types that just look neutral and pan-European. Also there are the most Armenoids in these provinces,which could be due to Elymian, Phoenician, and Carian influences.
I would throw in the northeastern part of Agrigento with those "exotic" areas, as well.

I also really want to go to Sciacca, to see if it lives up to the reputation that it's received from anthropologists over the years. I have only driven through there before.

[Sikeliot]

I've looked up pictures from Sciacca and they do have a North African sort of look, at least some of them.

[Virtuous]

Just Czech my fucking thread already.

[Sikeliot]

Maltese don't look so much Greek so yes I would say there is a difference between Maltese/western Sicilians and eastern Sicily.