The passing of the great race; or, The racial basis of European history — John Shaqi
The passing of the great race; or, The racial basis of European historyGrant, Madison
History
The passing of the great race; or, The racial basis of European history
Grant, Madison
Ethnology -- Europe
The claim that the Nordic race is a mere variation of the Mediterranean
race and that the latter is in turn derived from the Ethiopian Negro
rests upon a mistaken idea that a dolichocephaly in common must mean
identity of origin, as well as upon a failure to take into consideration
many somatological characters of almost equal value with the cephalic
index. Indeed, the cephalic index, being merely a ratio, may be
identical for skulls differing in every other proportion and detail, as
well as in absolute size and capacity.
Eye color is of very great importance in race determination because all
blue, gray or green eyes in the world to-day came originally from the
same source, namely, the Nordic race of northern Europe. This light
colored eye has appeared nowhere else on earth, is a specialization of
this subspecies of man only and consequently is of extreme value in the
classification of European races. Dark colored eyes are all but
universal among wild mammals and entirely so among the primates, man’s
nearest relatives. It may be taken as an absolute certainty that all the
original races of man had dark eyes.
One subspecies of man and one alone specialized in light colored eyes.
This same subspecies also evolved light brown or blond hair, a character
far less deeply rooted than eye color, as blond children tend to grow
darker with advancing years and populations partly of Nordic extraction,
such as those of Lombardy, upon admixture with darker races lose their
blond hair more readily than their light colored eyes. In short, light
colored eyes are far more common than light colored hair. In crosses
between Alpines and Nordics, the Alpine stature and the Nordic eye
appear to prevail. Light color in eyes is largely due to a greater or
less absence of pigment but it is not associated with weak eyesight, as
in the case of Albinos. In fact, among marksmen, it has been noted that
nearly all the great rifle-shots in England or America have had light
colored eyes.
Blond hair also comes everywhere from the Nordic subspecies and from
nowhere else. Whenever we find blondness among the darker races of the
earth we may be sure some Nordic wanderer has passed that way. When
individuals of perfect blond type occur, as sometimes in Greek islands,
we may suspect a recent visit of sailors from a passing ship but when
only single characters remain spread thinly, but widely, over
considerable areas, like the blondness of the Atlas Berbers or of the
Albanian mountaineers, we must search in the dim past for the origin of
these blurred traits of early invaders.
The range of blond hair color in pure Nordic peoples runs from flaxen
and red to shades of chestnut and brown. The darker shades may indicate
crossing in some cases, but absolutely black hair certainly does mean an
ancestral cross with a dark race—in England with the Mediterranean race.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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