Anthropological Oddities

Yes, another article. Three in quick succession. This one's to make some notes on another text, namely Maurice Fishberg's Physical Anthropology of the Jews II. - Pigmentation. Published 1903.

Fishberg was a Jewish-American anthropologist.

First up, there's a mention that King Ladislaus of Hungry issued a decree in 1092 prohibiting marriage between Jews and Christians. This comes in a passage where speculation is being made that the blond hair of Jews in Germany and Austria is the product of marriage between Christians and Jews. Clearly if a decree is issued against it it must have been taking place (albeit in Hungry at least). The passage then goes on to state that the,

"decree apparently did not have the desired effect, for in 1229 Bishop Robert van Grau reported that many Jews lived with Christian women illegitimately and that the latter were often converted to Judaism; that Christian parents sold their children to Jews, and that many even permitted themselves to be circumcised. In a few years Christianity thus lost thousands of adherents."

We also get some stats for red hair amongst Jewish populations. (19th century, not medieval.)

"Another interesting point is the high percentage of red-haired Jews. From our own investigations we find 2.53 percent of men and 3.69 of women with red hair. Majer and Kopernicki, Weissenberg, and Talko-Hryncewicz find 4 percent of Jews with red hair, and Beddoe's studies of the Sephardim, who are known to be darker than the Ashkenasim, show 3.5 percent with red hair. Gluck found one red-haired individual among fifty-five Jews in Bosnia"

Finally, there's also a claim that "Jewesses have darker skin than Jews." That is, that females, on average, tend to be slightly darker skinned than males. This is probably just a statistical anomaly, or an error in the way the data was compiled and collected, but it's one of those weird little curiosities worth noting.

(click to enlarge)

Royte Yidelekh Continued..

I feel I should do a follow up to that last post about the "little Red Jews" (royte yidelekh), as it was a bit all over the place. There was too much I wanted to say, so what I shared ended up a little half-explained.

The focus was supposed to be the Yiddish stories about the Red Jews, but I didn't really give an account of the actual stories, so I'll explain the basic archetype here:

The general theme is that the Jews are being persecuted. In Ma’aseh Akdamut, one version of the tale, the persecutor is an evil, wizard monk who's killing Jews. He threatens to kill all the Jews unless they can find someone capable of matching his magic. To find such a person an emissary is sent to the Red Jews across the Sambatyon river. A river that's only supposed to be crossed at the end times, in the messianic age. However, extraordinary circumstances demand extraordinary measures. So someone crosses and the Red Jews send a helper. In this particular tale it's a little, limping old man. In others it's small children. (The motif being that they are (seemingly) physically weak, yet spiritually strong.) Needless to say, the old man defeats the evil monk in an epic battle of magical one-upmanship.

Like some sort of medieval Pokémon battle.

These tales take place within a wider narrative, where the Red Jews represent this heroic force, that one day will come, en masse, as an army of liberators. They're deemed so strong that even a single child or old man from their nation can overcome thousands of enemies ..or the most evil of magical monks.

Their physical prowess stands in contrast to the "effeminate" nature of the Jews in Europe, who weren't in a position to physically overcome the peoples they lived amongst.

One passage from the book Sons of Saviors I failed to share yesterday (in my garbled post) was this one:

Medieval Christian theology and science deprecatingly likened male Jews to women when characterizing them as "unmanly." [..] The French Roman Catholic priest Henri Grégoire, better known as Abbé Gregoire, actually linked this "womanish" weakness to red hair in the late eighteenth century, when he voiced popular opinion that Jewish men "have almost all red beards, which is the usual mark of an effeminate temperament."

This is interesting not just for the mention of red hair, but for the overall observation. I've voiced before the idea that red hair, Jewishness and "effeminacy" are the product of city living. Essentially civilised life or cosmopolitanism. That the melting pot nature of cities (or crossroads cultures) gives rise to red hair, as the diversity and mixing of peoples leads to greater fluidity in pigmentation.

The link between city life and effeminacy is something that Jewish writers were all too aware of. In fact, the dream of a Jewish state in part expressed a desire to counteract this effect. Leaving the city to return to the farm or countryside, to reforge Jewish warriors, in the mould of Biblical figures such as David. Current world events express this human alchemy. It's fascinating how all these things intertwine and overlap.

Little Red Riding Jew

I recently read Sons of Saviors: The Red Jews in Yiddish Culture by Rebekka Voß. It charts the evolution of the story of the Red Jews through the centuries. It was very informative as it explores the Yiddish variants of the story. So, though I was already quite familiar with the general theme, this whole perspective was new to me.

In the gentile telling the Red Jews are portrayed as a group of people locked away in the east. A threat to the Christian world, ready to break loose and cause carnage. Somewhat akin to the eastern horde. Or Gog and Magog, sealed off behind mountains by Alexander the Great.

In the Yiddish tradition it's similar, but the story is flipped. Here they're sealed off beyond the river Sambatyon. A river that's impassable, except on the Sabbath ..the one day the Jews aren't allowed to cross it. Far from being a threat they're viewed as liberators. Saving the European Jews from Christian persecution, at the coming of Mashiach.

Likewise, the Red Jews are also often portrayed as red-haired in these Yiddish traditions. In fact, the book is full of information about red hair. Too much to catalogue in this article. (I genuinely recommend reading it, the context will make more sense that way as well.)

I'll share a few things though. For example, this passage:

Moses b. Elijah Galina writes that redheads are jealous, irascible, and deceptive. Jacob b. Mordecai of Fulda, in Shoshanat Ya'acov (Rose of Jacob; Amsterdam, 1706), a guide to palmistry and the so-called wisdom of the face, states: "Red hair [signifies]: a jealous person, a fraud, an irritable person, one whose speech and tongue are no good."

We've noted the negative stereotypes associated with red hair in European folklore many times before on here. In the Yiddish speaking world it seems this was also the case.

One thing I really liked about the Yiddish stories was how they often gave the Red Jews the moniker Little Red Jews. Things take on a whole new sense once the prefix little is added. It all suddenly gets a bit more cute. Sometimes the Red Jews sent to help European Jews in these tales were actually children too. It brings to mind other European folktales, such as Little Red Riding Hood.

[As an aside, we've speculated about potential links to red hair with some of these tales too. The red is clear, but the word hood also. No doubt cognate with head - where a hood is worn. Robin Hood could give a similar rendering. The word robin quite probably having its root in the word red, hence robin redbreast, or red rubies ..we could go full circle and try to link it to rabbi/rebbe ;) ]

There were so many other interesting things in the book I could mention. For instance, apparently some later Jewish writers equated the Red Jews with the Native Americans - another 'red' people. There were also more modern satires written that used the Red Jews (along with their red hair) to make commentary on the political situation of the Jews in the 19th and early 20th century. In one short story by Sholem Aleichem (the writer whose works provided the basis for the musical Fiddler on the Roof), a Red Jew visits the land on the other side of the Sambatyon river and is shocked to find that the Jews have black hair. He "couldn't even imagine a Jew with no red hair."

I would quite like to read some of these stories. So perhaps that might be a post for the future.

Scientists find ultra-rare gene variant responsible for red hair in India

In a previous post about the genetics of red hair we said that the exact number of MC1R variants is not known, since geneticists keep finding new ones.

Well, as a matter of fact Indian geneticists have just found novel variants! I'm going to copy and paste this article from The Times of India. 

Prayagraj: In a groundbreaking genetic study, Indian scientists, including three from Banaras Hindu University (BHU), have shed new light on variations in hair and skin colour across populations, explaining why red hair is extremely rare in India.

The large- scale study identified an ultra-rare gene variant responsible for red hair in a five-year-old Indian girl - a striking case given that both her parents have normal dark hair and eyes, pointing to a recessive pattern of inheritance. 

At the centre of the research is the melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R), a protein that regulates melanin production, which determines hair and skin colour. While red hair is relatively common in parts of Europe, it is unusual in India. Researchers found that a rare alteration in the MC1R gene led to the child's red hair despite her dark eyes.

The team, led by Kumarasamy Thangaraj, analysed genetic data from over 10,000 individuals belonging to 91 Indian communities. The analysis led to the identification of 21 new or ultra-rare genetic variants linked to differences in skin and hair pigmentation.

The study also found that some genetic variants associated with lighter skin tones were concentrated in specific populations. One such variant, identified in the Ladakh region, was found to be linked to lower melanin levels.

The research involved 18 authors from 11 institutions across the country and was published this week in Human Genetics and Genomics Advances, a journal of the American Society of Human Genetics.

"The study shows that genetic traits vary sharply across India. Certain variants are more common in northern and northeastern regions, where lighter complexions are more prevalent, and are far less frequent in southern populations," said Prof Gyaneshwar Chaubey of the department of zoology, BHU, a member of the research team.He added that geography, ancestry and evolution play a major role in shaping physical appearance.

To validate their findings, the researchers used advanced laboratory techniques, including experiments on zebrafish, to observe how the identified genetic changes affect pigmentation. "The results confirmed that some variants can switch off normal pigment production, leading to features such as lighter skin and red hair," Prof Chaubey said.

The study highlights India's vast genetic diversity and its influence on physical traits and could also help improve understanding of skin-related conditions and support the development of personalised medical approaches in the future.

Here's the original study: Novel MC1R variants cause red hair and lighter skin color.

I quote this passage:

Comprehensive screening of 11,021 individuals revealed 21 novel/ultra-rare variants in the MC1R coding region, alongside common coding and non-coding variants. Among them, nine variants were unique to the Indian population.

Below, the photos of the red-haired girl and her sister.

This is not the first known case of red hair in India. In 2017, many websites reported on the story of Pooja Ganatra, a 24-year-old Indian woman with red hair. In this article from Metro UK she says she has always felt like a stranger in her country and that when her freckles strated appearing she was taken to a doctor, because her parents were afraid she had a skin disease!

Source

Is there a connection among ancient Scythia, Scotland and Ireland?

Scythia was the ancient Greek designation for the vast expanse of the Eurasian steppes. The Scythians' territory, often termed Greater Scythia by ancient sources, extended across the Pontic-Caspian steppe, including modern-day Ukraine, southern Russia, and parts of the Caucasus and Central Asia, with cultural influences reaching as far as Siberia and the fringes of China. The Scythians were a confederation of nomadic Iranian-speaking tribes who emerged as a dominant force from the 8th to 7th centuries BC. These horse-riding pastoralists, skilled in archery and warfare, maintained a mobile lifestyle centered on herding and raiding, leaving behind no written records but abundant archaeological evidence in the form of elaborate kurgan (mound) burials.

During the Hellenistic period, the use of "Scythia" by Greek and Latin speakers was extended to also cover the southern Russian steppe in general, as well as the entire treeless steppe bounded by the Danubian plains in the west and the Chinese marches in the east.

Greater Scythia

Beginning in the late 4th century BC, another related nomadic Iranian people, the Sarmatians, moved from the east into the Pontic steppe, where they replaced the Scythians as the dominant power of that area. Due to the Sarmatian incursion, "Sarmatia Europea" (European Sarmatia) replaced "Scythia" as the name for the region.

In this blog we have covered some of the red-haired tribes that lived in that area.

The Budini (around 800 – 500 BC)

The Kipchaks and the Thracians

The Kipchaks in Eurasia, around 1200

Thrace within the Roman Empire

We also covered tribes a bit distant from that area, but which probably had ties with it.

The Yenisei Kyrgyz (3rd century BC - 13th century AD)

The Tarim Mummies (1800 BC - first centuries BC)

The Alat tribe

The Alat tribe probably lived in the area circled in red

Here’s what Wikipedia writes about Scythians’ physical appearance.

The Greek physician Hippocrates described the Scythians as having "ruddy" skin, which he attributed to the cold climate in which they lived. Callimachus and Clement of Alexandria described the Scythians as having "light" (xanthon) hair, Polemon recorded that Scythians had "red" (rubris) hair and "blue-grey" (glaucis) eyes, Galen wrote that the northern peoples such as Germans, Illyrians, Dalmatians, Sarmatians and Scythians had "reddish" (purrhas) hair, and Adamantius claimed that the Scythians had "light" (xanthe) and "whitish" (hupoleukos) hair.

And, apparently, these ancient descriptions are consistent with modern DNA analysis. I quote from the same page.

Most of the Scythians were predicted to have brown or blond hair, with a notable proportion of blue-eyed individuals. Several Scythians had MC1R gene variants associated with red hair, freckles, and skin, with a tendency to sunburn. Overall, these results are consistent with the descriptions of the Scythians provided by historical sources. (The genetic history of Scythia)

 But is there a connection between Scythia and the British Isles?

Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum

We find a first connections in the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum  (Ecclesiastical History of the English People) written by Bede the Venerable in about AD 731.

As you can read here (page 24), the Picts sailed from Scythia and landed on the northern shores of Ireland. Here, they begged the Scots to be allowed to settle among them, but the Scots replied that the island could not contain them both, so they suggested the Picts to move to the island nearby, called Britain. The Picts accepted and began to inhabit the northern parts of Britain. However, since they had no wives, they asked them of the Scots, who consented only on the condition that the Picts would choose a king from the female royal race rather than from the male.

Lebor Gabàla Erenn

The name Scythia comes back in The book of Ireland’s taking (Lebor Gabàla Erenn), a collection of poems and prose narratives in the Irish language intended to be a history of Ireland and the Irish from the creation of the world to the Middle Ages. There are a number of versions, the earliest of which was compiled by an anonymous writer in the 11th century.

Here, we read that Fénius Farsaid is the forebear of the Gaels. Fénius, a prince of Scythia, is described as one of 72 chieftains who built the Tower of Babel. His son Nel weds Scota, daughter of the Egyptian pharaoh Cingris, and they have a son named Goídel Glas. Goídel crafts the Goidelic (Gaelic) language from the original 72 languages that arose after the confusion of tongues. Goídel's offspring, the Goidels (Gaels), leave Egypt at the same time as the Israelites (the Exodus) and settle in Scythia. After some time, they leave Scythia and spend 440 years travelling the Earth, undergoing trials and tribulations akin to those of the Israelites. Eventually, they conquer Iberia, where Goídel's descendant Breogán founds a city called Brigantia (apparently, modern-day A Coruña). The first people to arrive in Ireland are led by Cessair, daughter of Bith, son of Noah. They are told to go to the western edge of the world to escape the oncoming Flood, so they set out in three ships, but two are lost at sea. They land in Ireland, at Dún na mBárc on Bantry Bay, forty days before the Flood. 

The Declaration of Arbroath

Last but not least we have the Declaration of Arbroath, a letter, dated 6 April 1320 at Arbroath, written by Scottish barons and addressed to Pope John XXII. It constituted King Robert I's response to his excommunication for disobeying the pope's demand in 1317 for a truce in the First War of Scottish Independence. The letter asserted the antiquity of the independence of the Kingdom of Scotland, denouncing English attempts to subjugate it. Submitted in Latin, the Declaration was little known until the late 17th century, and is unmentioned by any of Scotland's major 16th-century historians. In the 1680s, the Latin text was printed for the first time and translated into English in the wake of the Glorious Revolution, after which time it was sometimes described as a declaration of independence.

Here are the first lines: 

Most Holy Father and Lord, we know from the deeds of the ancients and we read from books -- because among the other great nations of course, our nation of Scots has been described in many publications -- that crossing from Greater Scythia, via the Tyrhennian Sea and the Pillars of Hercules, and living in Spain among the fiercest tribes for many years, it could be conquered by no one anywhere, no matter how barbarous the tribes. Afterwards, coming from there, one thousand two hundred years from the Israelite people's crossing of the Red Sea, to its home in the west, which it now holds, having first thrown out the Britons and completely destroyed the Picts, and even though it was often attacked by the Norse, the Danes and the English, it fought back with many victories and countless labours…

Full text here.

Modern scholars agree that the goal of these texts was to provide a history for Ireland and Scotland that could compare to that of Rome or Israel, and which was compatible with Christian teaching. Probably, Bede mentioned Scythia because this land was seen both as ancient and barbarian, and obviously the Irish and the Scottish people never doubted what Bede wrote. So, a Scythian origin was useful to legitimate their ancient cultures.

However, it is also worth noting that here the editor of Bede’s Ecclesiastic History writes that by Scythia Bede meant Scandinavia.

As of now, modern DNA analyses don’t show a connection between ancient Scythians and ancient Picts.

I quote from Wikipedia:

A study published in 2023 sequenced the whole genomes from eight individuals associated with the Pictish period, excavated from cemeteries at Lundin Links in Fife and Balintore, Easter Ross. The study observed "broad affinities" between the mainland Pictish genomes, Iron Age Britons and the present-day people living in western Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Northumbria, but less with the rest of England, supporting the current archaeological theories of a "local origin" of the Pictish people.

The same goes for the Gaels.

In any case, it’s interesting that a connection exists, although “mythical”, among these red-haired peoples. It’s also interesting the connection with Egypt, since some of the ancient pharaohs had red hair. Besides, we know that sometimes myths have some truth in them, so it is possible that, in some way we don’t know yet, this connection among these peoples is real. 

 

More red-haired ancient tribes: the Budini

The Budini were an ancient Scythian tribe that lived in the valley of the Vorskla river (we’ll get back to Scythia in a following and more detailed post).

During the 6th century BC, the city of Gelonus was built in the country of the Budini, where the Gelonians set up an important industrial, commercial, and political centre. The Budini and Gelonians both lived in Gelonus, although each population lived in separate sections of the city: the Gelonians in the eastern earthwork, the Budini in the western earthwork. The Budini led a largely nomadic life and were dependent on hunting otters, beavers, and other animals, whose skin they used to make cloaks. It seems they engaged in ritual cannibalism.

Herodotus of Halicarnassus’s Histories is the main ancient source about the Budini. In Book IV, chapter 108 (or 109, depending on the edition) Herodotus mentions Budini’s red hair.

Here’s the Greek version along with the English translation.

Greek:

Βουδῖνοι δέ, ἔθνος ἐὸν μέγα καὶ πολλόν, γλαυκόν τε πᾶν ἰσχυρῶς ἐστι καὶ πυρρόν.

γλαυκόν comes from γλαυκός (glaucòs) which means bluish green, blue, grey  This is the same root of a word like glaucoma.

πυρρόν comes from πυρρός (pyrròs) which means flame-coloured, red, tawny, yellowish red and it was also used for red-haired people  This is the same root of words such as pyromaniac or pyrotechnics.

English: 

The Budini are a large and powerful nation: they have all deep blue eyes and bright red hair.

Obviously, one could wonder how reliable Herodotus is, and, as a matter of fact, some historians claimed he never visited those lands, and that his work is based only on second-hand Greek sources.

However, according to this article, he was quite accurate. I quote from the conclusion:

“In summary, we can see that Hero­dotus gives relatively accurate descriptions of the way of life of the nomads who were in fairly close contact with the Greeks, as, for example, in his description of the burial process. But he is considerably more vague about details of tribes far away, where the evidence he had was hearsay and passed through many hands, as in his discussion of the Agrippaeans. He does, however, have a tendency to exaggerate, or to generalize from specific or unique observations. Nevertheless, from a comparison with currently available archaeological evidence, it is clear that Hero­dotus as an ethnographer was more often right than wrong.”

So, probably, not all Budini had red hair and blue eyes, but some of them did.

More posts about ancient redheads: The Yenisei Kyrgyz, More Red-Haired Ancient Tribes,  Did Genghis Khan and His Son Have Red Hair?, The Tarim Mummies, The Red-Haired Mummies of Peru and Chile, Pliny's Natural History and red hair (maybe). 

Red Hair in Art: Gaston Bussière

 Gaston Bussière (April 24, 1862 – October 29, 1928 or 1929) was a French Symbolist painter and illustrator.

He found inspiration in the theatre works of Berlioz (La Damnation de Faust) as well as William Shakespeare and Richard Wagner. He became in demand as an illustrator, creating works for major authors. He illustrated Honoré de Balzac's Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes published in 1897, Émaux et camées, written by Théophile Gautier, as well as Oscar Wilde's Salomé. He also illustrated several works by Flaubert.

Elsa and Lohengrin

Juventa

Les iris

Helen of Troy

Brunhild

Tristan and Iseult

Ophelia

Embrace in Evening Light

Leilah