I consider Slavs to be the broad mass of Indo-European stock,

the population pool from which the others spun off and never came back. They are to the European race what chimpanzees are to the great apes, the most direct descendant of that common ancestor who was father to them all. The other large pool was the Aryan/Iranians, who occupied Central Asia before the Turks. To me, the descendants of the Aryans who invaded India in 1500 BC look more European than the Aryans who stayed behind and became Iranians, in the process of mixing with Arabs and Turks. But for the darker skin, the average northern Indian could be mistaken for someone hailing from Hackensack or Peoria. Interestingly, descendants of Portuguese who settled Malacca in the modern state of Malaysia, now mostly fishermen, look darker than the predominant Malays. They can trace their descent and know a smattering of the language, but more closely resemble Indians or Australian aborigines than modern-day Portuguese. Their first language now is English.

Advertisement