Monday, October 17, 2005

What is the difference between Nordic and Nordish?


There is a trend that claims the existence of a "Nordish" or "Northern European" race which does not exist. Nordish race is a made-up category by Richard McCulloch to cluster most Northern and Central Europeans together, regardless of how far they diverge anthropometrically.



In other words Richard McCulloch cluster together Northern Europeans with Western Europeans and call them Nordish. What they have in common is white skin pigmentation and light color hair and light color eyes. This is called Nordish. According to Nordish Diane Sawyer, an Anglo-Saxon, is the same race as Swedes and Norwegians. Both of them are nordish race.

It seems to be a way for McCulloch (Nordicist) to include Northwestern Euros who're not Nordic into the Nordic family, simply because they share the same geographical area. By the same token Catherine Zeta-Jones would be Nordish simply because she is from North West Europe.
"Nordish" is just some unscientific way to group people together based on geography rather than actual subracial belonging.

Nordic race on other hand is a science based on anthropology. There's a reason why say Swedes as a group of people do not look like British or the Irish or the French. Scandinavians are by and large Nordic. Nordics exist in other countries as well, but most people outside of Scandinavia are not Nordic because nordics are mixed with other forms such as Alpine and Med. The only countries that the Nordic race exists in its pure form are Scandinavia, Iran and Afghanistan. There are also Aryans in Northern India. They are called nordoid in anthropology.

Anthropometrically, Nordics are closer to Irano-Afghans than they are to Upper Paleolithics (eg., Borrebys and Bruenns). The similarities between Irano-Afghan and Nordic groups are that both of them are dolicocephalic (long and slim face) and have a rounded occupit in addition to the shape of the face. Physical anthropology is a lot more than skin and hair colour which the proponents of "Nordish Race" or Nordcist imagine.

Even if it were true that Upper Paleolithics (UPs) are closer to Nordics genetically than Nordics are to Mediterraneans, or that Nordics are actually reduced Upper Paleolithics, contrary to what Coon claimed, clustering Nordics with UPs goes against mainstream anthropology and there would still be no scientific basis to group them together given their anthropometric divergence.

The Nordics are quite possibly a mixture of UPs with Neolithic Mediterraneans.

Ashkenazi Jews prefer the "Nordish Race" to the Nordic Race. The reason is that Ashkenazi Jews are classified together with Nordics due to geography living in Europe and Jews are then regarded as a "Nordish Race". This way Ashkenazi Jews would be included and undesirable elements such as Persians and Afghans would be excluded from "Nordish race" because of geography. There is also a lot of political and economical advantages at stake and it is attached to the category of "Nordish Race" and its members. So attaching a demarcating line inside the Nordic race to separate Scandinavian Nordics from Persian and Afghans has been the primary concern of these people. To accomplish that they have added an imaginary "hooked nosed" character to the Irano-Afghan group. In reality the hooked nosed trait is associated with both semites and Azeri Turks who reside in the region. That is why they have defined a race called Irano-Afghan race which defines 20 to 30 ethnic groups and is essentially a description of Turkomans and Azeri Turks unrelated to Persians and Afghans. And on this basis hollywood insists on stereotyping Persians as "hooked nosed" characters in their films to prove their point. They usually use Iranian Azeri Turks to depict "Persians".


The Nordish is not a race or a science. The Nordish race does not exist. The Nordish theory is looking for light haired and light skinned Europeans and classifying them as a race. Their problem is Nordish theory can not classify Soraya (Soraya is a Persian singer posted above) because it uses skin and hair color and geographical location to classify races. Soraya according to Nordish theory should be of Nordish race but lives in a wrong geographical location. That is she lives far away from Northern and North Western Europe. So Soraya is not nordish despite she qualifies for all other conditions.


1 comment:

Survive the Jive said...

catherine zita jones is a briton - she is welsh. not anglo saxon. english and british are different. brits have the same genes as northenr spanish, english have the same as the danish and north germans.