Two Races Not One: Genetics Falsifies the Category “Caucasian”
There are two distinct populations, European (spain to urals), and West Asian (or South Eurasian, or Southwest Eurasian, consisting of North Africa, the Middle east)
–“The West Eurasian splits into European and West Asian. The latter is labeled as such (rather than the usual Middle-Eastern-North-African) because this ancestry component likely originated in West Asia before spreading to North Africa via an ‘into Africa’ return migration.”–
I use the term “South eurasian” I adopted from Lynn instead of “west asian” for clarity.
Now, technically speaking, that group still consists of at least the north africans, the middle easterners (see below), the iranic-caucasians, and the iranic-indians. And sometimes we include the turkic people (iranic-turkic) of central asia because they are also muslims.
So despite west islamic civilization consisting of north africa, the levant, the arabian peninsula, mesopotamia, anatolia, iran, and the central asian countries, and the west indus countries captured as pakistan, and parts of afghanistan, we, in the west genrally just group all of islamic civilization into the term “Middle East”.
Disambiguation
In General this terminology helps disambiguate:
Islamic Civilizations: (West Islamic Civilization or MENA > (Semitic (North African < Middle Eastern) > IndoEuropean( Iranic > Indo-Iranic) > Turkic(Iranic-Turkic(central asia, anatolia)) > East Islamic Civilization (Indonesia, Malasia, Brunei, parts of Phillipines and Thailand))
The Middle East?
What is the correct name for that territory between the mediterranean, the black sea, the caspian sea, the indus river valley, the persian gulf, the arabian sea, the gulf of aden, and the red sea – in other words, that area that is the arabian peninsula, iraq, syria, lebanon, israel, jordan etc. We call it the middle east but isn’t there a more specific name for that subregion?
The region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, and surrounding areas, is commonly referred to as the Middle East.
However, the term “Middle East” is broad and can be used to include a wider area extending into parts of North Africa and Central Asia.
MENA (middle east, north africa) generally includes Iran but not necessarily all Iranic peoples, especially those outside the Middle Eastern and North African region.
There isn’t a universally agreed-upon name that is more precise than “Middle East,” but there are a few terms that are sometimes used:
Near East: Historically, this term was used by Europeans to describe the region closer to them, including the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire, but also extending to the Arabian Peninsula and the Levant. Over time, its usage has become less common, and it has largely been replaced by “Middle East.”
Levant: This term specifically refers to the Eastern Mediterranean region, which includes Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, and sometimes extending to parts of Turkey and Iraq. It’s a more precise term for the eastern Mediterranean part of your described area.
Mesopotamia: This historical term refers specifically to the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq and parts of Syria and Turkey. It’s well-known as a cradle of civilization.
Arabian Peninsula: This term specifically denotes the large peninsula in Western Asia that includes Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait.
Fertile Crescent: This is a historical term that describes a region that includes modern-day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and parts of Turkey and Egypt. It’s known for its historically fertile land and is considered the birthplace of agriculture and early civilizations.
Each of these terms captures a part of the area but not the entirety. The lack of a single, more specific term is partly due to the region’s complex history and the fluidity of its geographic and political boundaries over time. “Middle East,” despite its vagueness, remains the most commonly used term for the entire region.
It’s about time we forced the federal government to separate european and south eurasian populations in surveys so that our data is learer and we don’t confate peoples.
