Olive Skin and Other Undertones

"Dark" and "Swarthy" Italians Are Still Light

Al Capone: From "Dark" to "Fair"

Clinal Differences in Pigmentation

My guess is it's all in the various ethnicities that make up the "Italian" race. Many came from Anatolia & the Middle east (as well as India, Greece, etc) & those ancient peoples no doubt brought the higher melanin genes with them.

Northern Italians are lighter generally because of more Northern ...

Sicilians are approximately 44% Middle Eastern and North African (mostly from Phoenician colonists and Arab/Berber conquerers [...] 18% Northern European (In part from the Normans [...] Northern Italians have a high amount of Northern European DNA, probably because of the invasions of Northern ...

JoeyGorbonzo wrote: 09 Feb 2020, 01:07 Well as our paisan Quentin Tarintino probably told it best in this politically incorrect scene from True Romance, it was the Moors. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tsIEAipTNbE

No it wasn't:

Moors Expelled from Sicily and Southern Italy

Mediterranean Sea as Genetic Barrier

Why are Southern Italians darker than Northern Italians?

Because differences in pigmentation are clinal, and it's like that in every European country:

https://italianthro.blogspot.com/2019/1 ... ation.html

It's normal.

Italians have the same ancestry as other Europeans, just in different proportions. They're basically a mix of Neolithic farmers and Bronze Age Indo-Europeans (Italic, Greek, Celtic, Illyrian). Later admixture from other sources has been negligible.

http://italianthro.blogspot.com/2017/04/much ...

Why are Southern Italians darker than Northern Italians?

For the same reason Northern Italians are darker than Southern Germans, and Southern Germans are darker than Northern Germans etc. etc. -- more sun as you go south and more depigmentation as you go north.

But the difference between ...

The only truly Jewish surnames are those of Hebrew origin . All others are European names that are sometimes carried by Jews for various historical reasons. But there's no more reason to suspect that an Italian named "Ferro" or "Marano" has Jewish roots than there is to suspect the same of a German ...

If you're interested in genealogy, you might also be interested in the related subject of anthropology, as I am. It covers a wide range of topics, including genetics, phenotypes, history, economics, immigration, IQ, and many others. There's also an effort to dispel myths and stereotypes about ...