Why are Southern Italians darker than Northern Italians?

[borngenious]

I think this subject is very interesting. As my father have a very dark skin tone, and he doesn't know where his parents are from. I know for a fact that this is genetically my father, but we don't have same skin tone neither same hair color.

He looks like he is from either south of Italy, maybe Greece or a mix of Turkey. Does anyone know how I proceed to fint out where my genes comes from?

Thanks in advance,
John

[JoeyGorbonzo]

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

[andrechapman]

My grandmother seems to think it's more than just melanin toning over time in southern Italy. She took a DNA test and although she is very white, she is said to have black blood. Her grandparents on her father's side are from Calabria.

[darkerhorse]

Skin color, for example, is determined largely by the amount of melanin, a dark pigment, in the outer layer of the skin. (Carotene imparts a yellow tint.) In sunny climates close to the Equator, natural selection has favored dark, melanin-rich skin, which protects its owner by absorbing harmful ultraviolet rays before they penetrate to lower layers. But some ultraviolet light must penetrate the skin so that the body can produce Vitamin D. Thus, at higher latitudes, where sunlight is less intense, pale skin with little melanin is the norm.

One thing you can do is to look at the color of your veins under your wrist and uforearm. If they are more greenish than bluish then you probably have an olive complexion with more carotene than average. Your naturally blue veins are being filtered by the extra carotene.

[darkerhorse]

If I had a DNA test I would not be surprised to find Greek ancestors in my family from Calabria. I would not be surprised if I had Arab influences either. There are many Italians who have Albanian ancestors also.

My grandmother is from Sicily and she has Albanian ancestry. I was lucky enough that the church records go back into the early 1500s and it can be proven directly. And you are correct, it is highly likely a native of Calabria (or Sicily for that matter) would have Greek and Arab blood.

Does anyone know this claim from the Internet to be true?

When Sicilians have a baby, the question on everyone’s lips is, what carnagione do they have? Carnagione means skin tone, and in Sicily, you never know what you’ll get.

I wonder what the carnagione choices are?

My grandparents were third cousins with the same surname from the same small town in Sicily and their complexions couldn't have been any different.

[Edward Keeports]

My Sicilian great-grandfather had gray/green eyes, dark hair, and a "sallow" complexion, according to his draft card. His brother's eyes were brown, though. I don't know what the rest of their family/ancestors looked like, and my other great-grandparents weren't Italian.

[BrownEyedGirl]

My grandmother seems to think it's more than just melanin toning over time in southern Italy. She took a DNA test and although she is very white, she is said to have black blood. Her grandparents on her father's side are from Calabria.

You said your grandmother took a DNA test, and she is said to have black blood. So the DNA test said that? She has sub-Saharan African DNA? You mentioned a couple of her great grandparents were from Calabria. Maybe the black blood came from her Calabrian ancestors, but it might have come from someone else. Somewhere unexpected.

I have a close friend from Georgia whose English-Scottish family lived there since the 1700s. He took a DNA test and was shocked to see he's 16 percent African. Apparently, there's an African ancestry line in his family history. Blue-eyed blond . . . English-Scottish . . . Southern American heritage . . . He would have never guessed there was an African great grandpa in his tree.

[BrownEyedGirl]

I think this subject is very interesting. As my father have a very dark skin tone, and he doesn't know where his parents are from. I know for a fact that this is genetically my father, but we don't have same skin tone neither same hair color.

He looks like he is from either south of Italy, maybe Greece or a mix of Turkey. Does anyone know how I proceed to fint out where my genes comes from?

Thanks in advance,
John

Hi. I'm late to the party, so you might have done this already. But if not, take a DNA test from Ancestry.com or 23&Me. Very simple and the results are accurate.

[BrownEyedGirl]

My family always thought we were from Northern Italy but documents say Southern.
I have a photo of my great grandfather who was born in Laurenzana and he was fair skinned, light hair and eyes.

My great grandfather looked Nordic, and he was from Salerno. Over 6 feet tall, blue-eyed blond, fair skin. My great grandmother, from the same place, had pale skin, dark blonde hair and light brown eyes. My other great grandmother was from Campania, too, and she was ghostly white with hazel eyes and auburn hair. Seems fairly common in the South regardless of the stereotypes.

[BrownEyedGirl]

Since Italian DNA has a separate designation than Arabic and African DNA, if you're curious, why not take a test? That could answer the question about whether a "darker skin" person is ethnic Italian (white/European) or Arabic or Black. My guess is, most Italians ARE Italian even if they have a medium or olive skin tone.

[Italianthro]

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.

[Italianthro]

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