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| The Iberian Peninsula | ||||||||||||||||||
| [What follows are transcriptions from "The races of Europe", the great work written in 1939 by the renowned anthropologist Carleton Coon. While I do not agree with some things that Coon writes about Portugal, this chapter is nevertheless a rarely seen approach to both History and Anthropology. Just as an example, according to most Portuguese historians and according to recent genetic studies, the Celtic presence was felt even in southern Portugal, and the Moorish genetic impact was minimal even in southern Portugal.] | ||||||||||||||||||
| The Iberian Peninsula - Portugal | ||||||||||||||||||
| Portugal is, on the whole, fully as Mediterranean in race as is Spain, and perhaps, in some respects, it is more so. The chief differences between the two countries are: (1) that the Portuguese are almost uniformly brunet in pigmentation and (2) that there are no regions in Portugal in which brachycephaly is as important as in the Asturias and Galicia. In fact, Portugal contains some of the lowest cephalic index means on the continent of Europe. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Historically, Portugal has long been divided into two parts, a northern and a southern, with the river Tagus forming the boundary between the two. In pre-Roman times, the Lusitanians lived in the northern half of the country, while other tribes inhabited the south. Later on, the Celtic invasions affected only the north, as did the inroads of the Germans. On the other hand, the Arabs and the Berbers settled mostly in the south. Relations between Moslems and Christians lack, in Portugal, the bitterness manifested in Spain, and many Portuguese Moslems were baptised at the time of the expulsion. | ||||||||||||||||||
| As in southern Spain, the skin colour is evenly divided between a light brown, 45 per cent, and brunet-white, 45 per cent, while pinkish-white skins are found in only one-tenth of the population. Again as in Spain, the prevailing hair colour is dark brown, which amounts to 68 per cent of the total; blond and red hair is limited to 2 per cent. Eye colour, with 7 per cent of "blue", 15 per cent of "medium", 78 per cent of "dark", shows some correlation with latitude, which is not as clear in the cases of skin colour and hair colour. Blue eyes run to 13 per cent in the north, and as low as 1 or 2 per cent in the south. Dark eyes seem to range inversely from 71 per cent to 87 per cent. Portugal contains no more than the traditional 25 per cent of incipient blondism common to many groups of Mediterraneans. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Regional stature means in Portugal vary from 162 to 165 cm, while the mean for the whole country is 163,5 cm. The shortest statures are found in the Tagus valley; the tallest in both the north and the south. The stature curve for the entire country shows a slight skewness, with concentrations at 158 to 160 cm., and 164 cm. The second peak is by far the greater. The inference is that a short Mediterranean type has been absorbed by one of moderate stature. The mean relative span of the Portuguese is 102, a normal Mediterranean racial mean, but the relative sitting height rises to a mean of 53.2, which is high for Mediterraneans and more typical of Europeans outside the Iberian Peninsula. | ||||||||||||||||||
| The cephalic index mean for the entire nation is 76.4, with two pronounced peaks in the distribution curve, one at 74 and the other at 77. Regional variation is slight, with provincial means ranging from 75 to 78. The most dolichocephalic local groups live in the north-western part of the country. The heads of the Portuguese are large in relationship to their stature, with a mean head length of 194 mm and a breadth of 147 mm. | ||||||||||||||||||
| In a large series of modern Portuguese crania, while all are typically Mediterranean in morphology, a clear difference may be seen between several distinct types. In the first place, the head length has two definite modes at 179 mm and 186 mm, while the head breadth has modes at 132 mm and 141 mm. The cephalic index has modes at 70, 73 and 75. From this evidence, and from that fo stature, we are led to the conclusion that two or more different Mediterranean strains are involved in the Portuguese population. This conclusion is strengthened by the fact that the orbital index of Portuguese crania is bimodal, with modes at 65 and 88. There is both a low-orbited and a moderately high-orbited element in this population. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Returning to the living, we find that the upper facial index, the mean of which is 54.3 for the entire nation, shows regional differences, being consistently higher in the north and lower in the south. Two peaks at 49 and 54 are clearly differentiated, and the former is the larger. In most of Portugal the leptene tendency is associated with relatively great dolichocephaly, but in the coastal regions of the north, in Entre Douro and Minho, a leptene face is associated with brachycephaly and tall stature, indicating that in this region there is evidence of a submerged Dinaric element which may, presumably, be attributed to the early metal age invasions. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Detailed studies of small regional populations have been made in various parts of Portugal. A particularly interesting community is that of Sao Pedro Mogadouro in a mountainous olive-growing section of Bragan�a, in the province of Tras-os-Montes. These people are the most dolichocephalic group in Portugal, and may serve as an illustration of one end type in the Portuguese population. Stature is short to moderate, with a mean of 163 cm, the relative sitting height at 51.9; the relative span, 102.5. The head length is 193 mm, that of head breadth 141 mm, the auricular height mean, 122 mm. Thus the cephalic index of 73.3 would be low even for North Africa; the absolute length is of a normal Mediterranean size, while the vault is low. The face is short, 119 mm, and narrow, 133 mm, while the bigonial has the relatively great breadth of 105 mm. The nasal dimensions, 55 mm by 35 mm, are typically Mediterranean, and the length is particularly great in relationship to vertical facial dimensions. The nasal index of 67 is moderately leptorhine. In almost all instances the nasal profile is straight. The skin is dark, the hair is dark brown, and the eyes are of a medium brown shade. This population conforms in most respects, to Deniker's Ibero-Insular type, and may be taken as a relatively pure example of the shorter, longer headed strain among the Portuguese. A few individuals in this group show Nordic influences, which manifest themselves in taller stature and mixed or light eye colour. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Other local series, which represent the coastal regions of northern Portugal rather than the interior, are relatively Mediterranean, and are comparable metrically to Spanish groups. Some of the fishing villages along the coasts, however, contain locally differentiated populations as do fishing villages everywhere; one, Povoa do Varzim in the Minho province, is distinguished by a slightly greater than usual degree of blondism, broad faces, and broad jaws (bizygomatic = 133 mm, bigonial, 108 mm). Whence this broad-faced strain is derived is not known. It is curious that the Portuguese, like the Andalusians, are broader jawed than most Mediterraneans, and comparable in this respect to some Berbers. | ||||||||||||||||||
| The apparent homogeneity of the Portuguese, in a racial sense, masks the presence of several brunet Mediterranean strains, as Portuguese anthropologists are well aware. One may distinguish tall Atlanto-Mediterraneans, particularly in the southern provinces, as well as the small, extremely long-headed type found in Sao Pedro Mogadouro. The coarser mesocephalic strain, which dates back to Muge, may also be identified. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Non-Mediterranean elements in the Portuguese population are rare and of little importance. A few Nordics are scattered throughout but are particularly concentrated in the north. Traces of Dinaric blood, as we have already seen, may likewise be found on the northern coast. Negroid blood, introduced into Portugal through the medium of freed slaves, has largely been absorbed. The liberated Negroes settled mostly in the cities, where Negroes from the Portuguese colonies are still to be seen in some numbers. The liberality of the Portuguese social attitude toward persons of different race has prevented the retention, as in Arabia and the United States, of a stigmatised Negroid class. On the whole, the absorption of Negroes by the Portuguese has had no appreciable effect on the racial position of the country. Portugal remains, as it has been since the days of the Muge shell-fish eaters, classic Mediterranean territory. | ||||||||||||||||||
| [The anthropologist Bertil Lundman, also mentioned the Iberian Peninsula in his book "The races and peoples of south-west Europe"] | ||||||||||||||||||
| North Spain is predominantly West-Mediterranid in race, with several local types. There is also Nordid strains, Alpine strains in the Asturian mountain region, and weak Berid strains in Galicia. Northern Portugal resembles Spanish Galicia in anthropological structure. The rest of the Iberian Peninsula is principally South-Mediterranid, with Berid strains in the Sierra Nevada region. We find a strong Litorid mixture in a wedge-shaped area in south-eastern Spain. The whole south-east Spanish coast forms the base of the wedge, while the point reaches deep into the land. There is also a unique population isolate in the Castillian border region, which unfortunately has still not been comprehensively investigated. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Refuting Kemp | ||||||||||||||||||