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Map of world ethnic
groups & related genetic families
by James Mayfield (Chairman, European Heritage Library)
 Print
this Article About
the Author Bibliography/Sources
Below is an exclusive map
the EHL has published charting the major dispersal of dominant
ethnic and cultural groups in the world. As with religion,
ethnic heritage is the keystone which symbolizes the heritage
and identities of all cultures of the world. The modern conceptualization
of each society owes itself to an eclectic heritage of culture,
language, genetics, experience, and ethnicity. If you have
any questions, please feel free to notify us.
Mapping Information &
Extra Notes:
The field of ethnocartography
is difficult and often controversial. Many communities and
cultures claim falsely to be be completely independent ethnic
or racial groups because of independence movements and nationalism.
Other communities include other unrelated groups as their
relatives for the same political reason. Russians have considered
Romanians to be Slavic in order, in part, to annex them, whilst
Romanians bitterly deny that they are Slavic. Poles, too,
sometimes referred to themselves as Iranian Sarmatians in
order to avoid Russian pan-Slavic claims. Some Europeans dismiss
the Albanians as Slavic tribes who mixed with the hated Muslim
enemy (i.e. with the Turkish race), though Albanians claim
descent from an ancient Roman-era culture (the Illyrians)
despite having almost no factual basis for it. This makes
ethnic cartography difficult. Further, the growth of modern
multicultural and liberal characteristics, primarily derived
from American academia, have worked to transfer the meaning
of "ethnicity" from genetic heritage to language
use. On this map, each color represents a different ethnic
and genetic amily in Europe. For example, "German"
and "Danish" are not known instead of "Germanic"
to denote their same genetic relation, and Portuguese and
Spaniards are linked as "Iberian" because of a common
ethnic heritage. All of these interpretational conflicts are
clearly noted where it applies. Also be aware that due to
the finite number of colors, some colors are re-used. This
does NOT imply that the two groups are related unless otherwise
stated.
On a global map, this is
even more difficult. Less developed regions lack cultivated
national, ethnic, and cultural affiliations and thus it is
sometimes difficult to determine racial or genetic ancestory
using other means than physiognomy. Places like Africa have
historically had such little formal national development that
it is impossible to know whether or not there are 500 completely
unique racial or cultural groups in Sub-Saharan Africa or
5. This all compounds the difficulty of charting the ethnic
groups and races of the world. The fact that on this map Africa
is charted as "African", and the Americas are charted
as "Native American" is not Eurocentric, but a legitimate
reflection of these region's lack of specific development
on ethnic, cultural, or national grounds. Further, scholars
disagree on different terminology and classifications for
political means. America lumps the many different ethnicities
of Europe -- just as diverse as any other part of the world
-- into the monolithic "Caucasians" at the same
time as they espouse the diversity of Africa and Latin America.
So too, the actual Caucasians (Circassians, Armenians, Georgians,
Azeris) are not European at all. This proves the difficulty
in understanding ethnicity uniformly.
Note that colours are re-used
due to a finite amount of different colour combinations; they
do not imply a common origin.
Colors which extend beyond
nations (like the Asiatic Malay Indonesian color extending
into western Papua) is intentional, included to show that
these portions are dominant Asiatic in a black ethnic territory.
Click the below map
for the full-size version! Click on the map to zoom.
If an error has been made,
or you think some important information has been omitted and
needs inclusion for clarity, please notify the EHL Staff.
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ABOUT
THE AUTHOR:
James Mayfield is a historian
and the Chairman of the European Heritage Library. I have
a Cum Laude BA in History with a Minor in Germanic Studies
(language and history), am presently working for my Masters
in History, and plan to immediately progress to my PhD Doctorate.
I have a special academic interest in Europe's diverse ethnic
identities, languages, and cultures, and the political struggles
of native European and immigrant minority identities. See
my staff entry for more information.
BIBLIOGRAPHY/SOURCES
USED:
The image used as the basis
for the map is widely redistributed and is not protected.
The map was entirely made by me.
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