olive-skinned & swarthy

[joetucciarone]

A conversation on the Italian Genealogy section of this site touched on the olive skin of Italians. U.S. newspaper articles of the late 1800s often described the appearance of Italians by referring to their dark complexion. Sometimes, mentions of their olive skin occurred in positive comments, as in this article:

22AUG1889_Italian_immigration.jpg

Here's a less flattering mention of the olive complexion of Italian brigands:

24DEC1872_brigands.jpg

Finally, Italians were often described as swarthy. This almost always occurred in negative contexts, like this:

16APR1895_Italian_murderer.jpg

[MarcuccioV]

There was a famous 1953 murder here in SoCal (Burbank) that was immortalized in a 1958 film called "I Want to Live..!" starring Susan Hayward as Barbara Graham (Graham was executed along with her co-conspirators in 1955). One of her cohorts was a man named Jack Santo. In most of the articles found online, Santo is described as "swarthy"...

[darkerhorse]

Dean Martin comes to mind as having skin that fits the Italian stereotype.

Would you cal that brown with olive undertones or white with deep olive undertones?

[darkerhorse]

I saw Dean Martin's daughter up-close and she appeared to have regular color skin, but I think her mother might not have been Italian.

[MarcuccioV]

Dean Martin comes to mind as having skin that fits the Italian stereotype.

Would you cal that brown with olive undertones or white with deep olive undertones?

Dino was of Napolitano ancestry. I would definitely consider him medium-to-brown w/ the appropriate olive...

[darkerhorse]

I wouldn't be surprised if darker skin color was more prevalent among Italians in the southern mainland than in Sicily where there's more skin color variation.

[darkerhorse]

A conversation on the Italian Genealogy section of this site touched on the olive skin of Italians.

I wouldn't doubt it if new visitors think they've stumbled upon a physical anthropology site by mistake.

[MarcuccioV]

I wouldn't be surprised if darker skin color was more prevalent among Italians in the southern mainland than in Sicily where there's more skin color variation.

Sicily is interesting since it was invaded by many cultures (including Vikings). Your observation does ring true. I have members of my family that are 100% Sicilian yet are not very dark.

It seems the darker tones are more commonly found in places like Calabria and Puglia.

Maybe you've stumbled onto something here...

[MarcuccioV]

A conversation on the Italian Genealogy section of this site touched on the olive skin of Italians.

I wouldn't doubt it if new visitors think they've stumbled upon a physical anthropology site by mistake.

ROTFLMAO...

[Italianthro]

Olive Skin and Other Undertones

"Dark" and "Swarthy" Italians Are Still Light

Al Capone: From "Dark" to "Fair"

Clinal Differences in Pigmentation

[darkerhorse]

Thanks for replying.