As a whole, do Europeans or South Asians pass better in the Middle East and North Africa?

[Avicenna]

This shouldn’t even be a question, obviously it’s Europeans.

Look at where Middle Easterners plot on a PCA in relation to Europeans and South Asians, they’re closer to Europeans.

The only Middle Easterners close to South Asians are Afghans and some far eastern Iranians/Tajiks, which some may not even consider to be Middle Eastern.

Going by yourr logic, Europeans pass better in Yemen than a Pakistani does based on artificial PCA plots which puts Europeans closer to Yemen than to Pakistan .

[Oliver109]

I couldn't care less about Pak pashtuns but Afghans are not south Asian, leave us out of this.

Of course the border lies in the mountains, i would say it is only in the flatlands that people are properly south Asian and in parts of Mirpur etc. Even Quetta is more west Asian i think.

[Tooting Carmen]

Europeans. While there is some non-trivial overlap between us and MENAs, most South Asian groups tend to look distinctly South Asian and can't be confused for MENAs.

In that case, why do far Southern Europeans often get heated up when they are said to look closer to Turks, Kavkazians and even many Levantines and Iranians than to Scandinavians and even many Britons and Germans?

[Eurafricanid]

Are y'all kidding, lol? South Asians obviously pass better in the Middle East and North Africa, Europeans being closer genetically doesn't make them pass in there as a whole.

[Avicenna]

Are y'all kidding, lol? South Asians obviously pass better in the Middle East and North Africa, Europeans being closer genetically doesn't make them pass in there as a whole.

People using PCA plots and autosomal calculators to determine genetic distances between populations is also strange. I would be interested to see what dstats and IBD analysis show regarding genetic distances between mainstream Europeans and MENA/South Asians.

[Richard Alvarez]

Someone like Osama bin Laden could easily pass as a native in Pakistan, but nowhere in Europe lmao.

[Aldaris]

In that case, why do far Southern Europeans often get heated up when they are said to look closer to Turks, Kavkazians and even many Levantines and Iranians than to Scandinavians and even many Britons and Germans?

Go ask them, I'm not the spokesperson for the ones who do. I acknowledge that there are many West Asians who would pass in many parts of Europe rather well and vice-versa. And it's certainly not limited to Southern Europe. Even I would not look completely out of place in the Levant. Of course, I would stand out in the Arabian Peninsula or North Africa, but when we stick to the original question, the intersection of Europeans and MENAs seems to be greater than the intersection of South Asians and MENAs. Whether SOME Southern Europeans are closer to SOME MENAs than to SOME Northern Europeans is a different question, but I don't make a big deal out of phenotypes either way.

[Avicenna]

Go ask them, I'm not the spokesperson for the ones who do. I acknowledge that there are many West Asians who would pass in many parts of Europe rather well and vice-versa. And it's certainly not limited to Southern Europe. Even I would not look completely out of place in the Levant. Of course, I would stand out in the Arabian Peninsula or North Africa, but when we stick to the original question, the intersection of Europeans and MENAs seems to be greater than the intersection of South Asians and MENAs. Whether SOME Southern Europeans are closer to SOME MENAs than to SOME Northern Europeans is a different question, but I don't make a big deal out of phenotypes either way.

The Caucasus and Turkey is not MENA btw, the intersection between Europe and the former region is far greater than the intersection between South Asia. However MENA, so north Africa, middle east ( Levant, Gulf Arab and Mesopatamia/Iran) have more overlap with South Asia than Europe.

[arkas]

Going by yourr logic, Europeans pass better in Yemen than a Pakistani does based on artificial PCA plots which puts Europeans closer to Yemen than to Pakistan .

The question was asked “as a whole…” and there are more Yemeni people who blend in more with Horn Africans, not South Asians.

[Avicenna]

The question was asked “as a whole…” and there are more Yemeni people who blend in more with Horn Africans, not South Asians.

I'm talking about Europe and South Asia however. Based on PCA plots which are flawed, one would think Yemenis are "closer" to Europe than to south Asia, however even a child can see they phenotypically look Alot more like south Asians than Europeans.