Europeans, can you tell each other apart?

[Undertoad]

Well here's a fundamentally rude concept. Talking only about faces, and not styles, could you look at someone and say that there is a generations-long Frenchman or German or Portuguese or what have you?

Because us Americans, we can't tell where anybody's from, we move around so much and we're such a new country and all.

Examples. Having spent that formative time there, I think here is a very English looking guy, it's indie musician Robyn Hitchcock:



But if I didn't know, I might guess French:



What say you. And sorry, I just realized this is exactly the wrong time of day to ask. Hit us up in the morning.

[bluecuracao]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

Because us Americans, we can't tell where anybody's from, we move around so much and we're such a new country and all.

If you talking American Caucasians...I think many people of Irish or Italian descent have distinctive features, even if they've lived in the U.S. for a few generations.

[Aliantha]

I think there are clear differences between Spanish and German people, and also Portugues and then there are the Norse and other northern Europeans.

At the same time though, people move around a lot these days, so historically understood features are tending to be watered down a bit for almost all races.

One day we'll all look the same.

[Sundae]

Europe is heavily blended, as the borders have switched around for centuries.
Even Brits are a mongrel race, having been invaded and completely overtaken in wave after wave - until 1066 of course.

There are certain "types" of course.
I can pictures archetypal Italians, Scots, Spaniards, Scandanavians. But then I bet you could too. I could even have a stab at a Dutch man - less so a Dutch woman.

Because us Americans, we can't tell where anybody's from, we move around so much and we're such a new country and all.

I think it's more because you're all interbred (niot meant as a slur - couldn't think of a better way to put it).
I know many Americans claim to be half this and half that, but they are talking about the ethnicity of their family when they entered the country. Of course it's hard to recognise the features from one Irish woman and one Polish man in the family in 1850 or whatever.

Even over here, once someone marries (procreates) with someone not born and bred in the same area it lessens the chance of a "type". My own family is mixed - Grandad's generation do look Irish to me, Mum much less so. And I don't think you can see it in any of my generation at all, although I inherited the easily burned skin, that could have come from Nanny who was thoroughly English.

So I guess my answer is no.
As with all of the above, it is my personal answer and opinion. I couldn't dare assume I spoke for any other European on the Cellar!

[skysidhe]

One European, one American and one Frenchman. :P

[ZenGum]

I reckon I am *pretty good* at guessing country of origin. I have spent a lot of time in international (esp student) communities. Partly I pick accents and mannerisms, but also physical features. The tall, broad blonde? Swedish. The tall thin blonde? Lithuanian (and correctly guessing that might well have got me laid! Chick was crazy, tho, so I bailed). Looks Italian, sounds Slavic? Romanian. Smells like cheese and onions? French if it is their breath, English if it is their feet...

But yeah, there is so much mixing, both historically and especially presently, that these are never more than guesses.

[Trilby]

Those guys aren't European, American and French - they are all from the planet TooGorgeousToBeReal.

[casimendocina]

Originally Posted by Brianna

Those guys aren't European, American and French - they are all from the planet TooGorgeousToBeReal.

I sense thread drift coming on...

[monster]

scuse me but french is european. just sayin.

[Pete Zicato]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

Smells like cheese and onions? French if it is their breath, English if it is their feet...

[infinite monkey]

Johnny is from Owensboro KY. Don't knoe who the other two guys are.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by infinite monkey

Johnny is from Owensboro KY. Don't knoe who the other two guys are.

Me neither, but TinEye tells me they are Neil Gaiman and Chris Cornell.

[skysidhe]

The French thing was a joke. lolz

Originally Posted by Brianna

Those guys aren't European, American and French - they are all from the planet TooGorgeousToBeReal.

Originally Posted by glatt

Me neither, but TinEye tells me they are Neil Gaiman and Chris Cornell.

[skysidhe]

I think without clothes, mannerisms, and accent it would be too hard to tell.

Here is a good link of some famous people's ancestry.

http://starmixedrace.blogspot.com/20...1_archive.html


..and of the photos I posted, this is their ancestry.
Chris Cornell
Ethnicity
Irish and Jewish English, French Canadian and German

Johnny Depp
Ethnicity:
Cherokee, Irish, German

Neil Gaiman
Ethnicity:
Jewish Russian and Polish

[Sundae]

Again, you see - how far back are these ancestries?

Cornell has four - are those his Grandparents?
The blog says Irish father, Jewish mother (religion, not race btw)

Depp has three - who is missing?
Gaiman has two/ three?

Not a dig at you Sky, just - again - the idea that only "important" ancestors count.
I'm probably Irish/ Norman/ Saxon/ Celt by those standards. With a possibility of Roman/ Viking.
Which means I am English, same as anyone else whose parents did not move here.
I accept if your parents met and married in another country, you are genetically aligned to that country. And if you keep your dating pool within that community the same applies.

Anyone else, it's not worth the distinction.