2 ms·
> The people now "Greek" have little relationship to the ancient Greeks I don’t believe this is true, FWIW. If I’m not mistaken, most of the Mediterranean as h
by toasterlovin 6y ago
> The people now "Greek" have little relationship to the ancient Greeks
I don’t believe this is true, FWIW. If I’m not mistaken, most of the Mediterranean as had relatively little genetic replacement since the Indo-Europeans first stablished themselves. There has been cultural turnover in the Middle East, but this has mostly taken the form of elites engaging in tax farming conquered populations, rather than genocide and replacement.
- bawana 6y agoThe ancient Greeks were distinctly different from the modern day Greek gene pool. For 400 years, Greece was part of the Ottoman Empire. During that time the Turks were benevolent rulers, allowing the Greeks all the customs and privileges they previously had, except for paying tax to the Turks. Intermarriage was allowed and even the local Turkish bureaucrats were encouraged to have (take?) Greek wives. Much of the modern Greek cuisine comes from turkey and the Middle East. Ancient Greeks had a high proportion of blond and redheads. Today, that is a rare sight.
- foobar_ 6y agoI doubt it. Blondness is evolved for colder climates, that means the northern europe. Eastern europe has some slav influence so they might be blonde. This is the same reason why polar bears are white and other bears are brown or black. Southern europe has the mediterranean climate and so does turkey, isreal, lebanon and morocco. Being a black person in snow would attract predators and they would die so people with lighter skins who could camouflage easily in the background would survive.
- toasterlovin 6y agoFWIW, nobody actually knows why fair hair and complexions evolved. There are various hypotheses which sound more or less plausible, but that’s all they are. This is not a settled question by any measure.