What 12 People Look Like From Ethnic Groups You’ve Heard of, but Probably Don’t Know Much About

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2 years ago

Many people imagine a wise tribesman with feathers when they think about Native American people. And when they think about a gypsy girl, they probably imagine a woman with dark hair wearing a long colorful skirt.

We at Bright Side are trying to combat stereotypes and this article is another strike. Let’s find out what the members of these ethnic groups actually look like.

Gypsies

Gypsies are quite a closed group of people, they prefer to live in clans and get married to the people of their own nationality. In the past, girls in long skirts could often be seen on city streets but right now, Gypsy women are losing the art of divination and appear in public places less often.

On the other hand, fewer and fewer gypsies wear their national costumes. This is why, even if you see them somewhere, you probably won’t realize they are Gypsies.

Chukchi

This small group of people lives in the North-East of Asia and there are only about 16,000 of them. This is why the probability of seeing any of them is quite low. Besides, we don’t know much about them. A tent-like traditional mobile home of the Chukchi people is called yaranga.

Kurds

Many people have heard about Kurds, but few people know that it’s the biggest nation in the world that doesn’t have its own state. You can meet Kurds in Turkey, Iraq, and Iran.

Hutsuls

The mysterious inhabitants of the Carpathian Mountains are famous for energetic dancing and the low sounds of trembita — a horn that makes a sound that can give you the chills. Among Hutsuls, there are a lot of shamans called molfars.

Samaritans

Good news: Samaritans still exist. Bad news: It’s really hard to meet them because there are only about 800 of them left. By the way, one of the Israeli beauty queens, Sofi Tsedaka, is actually a Samaritan.

Berbers

Berbers are an ethnic group who are native to North Africa and West Africa and they are the second biggest nation after Kurds that don’t have their own country. You can see them in Morocco, Algeria, Libya, and France. One of the most famous Berbers is Zinedine Zidane.

Tuaregs

The Tuareg people are a large Berber ethnic confederation. They are Muslim people whose men aren’t supposed to appear with their faces open in public. And a true Tuareg gets married only once in their lives.

Papuans

In fact, Papuans are not just one group but several Indigenous peoples of New Guinea, Melanesia, and Indonesia. Not very long ago, the different tribes from this group wouldn’t even understand each other because there was nothing in common between their languages. But now, there’s a language called Tok Pisin that is based on English that they all share.

Basques

Many people only know that there’s very little information about Basques. Scientists still don’t know where they originated from and why their language is nothing like any other language in the world. What’s even more amazing is that some of their customs are a lot like the rituals of Finno-Ugrians and the people of the Caucasus.

Zulus

The traditional costumes of the Zulu people are thought to look like this: leather loincloths, aprons, and animal tails on their forearms and calves. However in reality, only actors that entertain tourists wear these clothes. But the unique language of this ethnic group is still there. It’s unique thanks to the clicking sounds that are only found in the Zulu language and the Bushmen language.

Inuits

Some people believe that the Inuit languages have an unusually big number of words for snow, but this is not really true. In reality, they have just about the same number of roots as the English language. But the morphology of their language is way freer, so they might just say the word snow in many different ways.

Native Americans

The closest neighbors of Inuits are the Native Americans we know about from the novels of Fenimore Cooper and Mayne Reid. Cherokee, Mohican, Iroquois, Apache, and Comanche are very famous names. They live on reservations, but take part in public life.

For example, Robin Maxkii (in the left photo) is a Native American technology activist, filmmaker, and writer, she’s fought for the right for Native Americans to have an internet connection. She’s also won the title Miss American Indian. And George Tahdooahnippah whose nickname is Comanche Boy (the right photo) is a professional boxer in the Super Middleweight division and is the former World Boxing Council of the Continental America’s middleweight champion.

What ethnic groups would you like to learn more about? Tell us in the comment section below!

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The Zulus don't click, the Bushmen and the Xhosa people click. Zulus are mostly from the KwaZulu Natal region in South Africa and their King (King Goodwill Zwelithini) died last month.

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Actually, Zulu does have some click sounds, but not as many as Xhosa (both are Nguni languages that picked up the clicks from the San languages).

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I would love to learn more about any Incan groups, or some of the Native American Indian peoples. Many Thanks, Blessed Be.

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