Editorial deep-dives on phenotype, anthropology, and the people behind the catalog.
September 20, 2026
Butt shape by ethnicity: what an MRI study found and what our database records Ask what makes one butt look different from another and almost everyone gives the same answer: fat. More of it or less of it, in one place.…
July 9, 2026
The Wodaabe and the Gerewol: male beauty, the yaake dance, and the Fulani pastoral world Across the Sahel, from Niger and Chad through northern Nigeria and Cameroon, the Wodaabe are known for something that inverts…
July 9, 2026
San peoples of the Kalahari: the Khomani, Ju|'hoan, Taa, and their forager kin The San, historically and sometimes still called Bushmen, are the indigenous foraging peoples of southern Africa, and they hold a special…
July 9, 2026
The peoples of the Lower Omo Valley: Mursi, Suri, Karo, Hamar, and their neighbors The Lower Omo Valley in southwestern Ethiopia is one of the most ethnographically documented regions on earth. Along the last two hundred…
July 9, 2026
The Himba and the Herero-kin of the Kaokoveld and southwest Angola The arid Kaokoveld, the mountainous northwest corner of Namibia, and the Cunene River basin that separates it from southern Angola are home to a cluster…
May 10, 2026
How skin tone is classified — the Fitzpatrick scale, ITA°, and what they actually measure Skin tone variation is one of the most visible markers of human population ancestry. Most people have heard of "Fitzpatrick types"…
May 10, 2026
How to read the phenotype catalog — a guide for first-time visitors The catalog has 1,500+ ethnic-group pages, 200+ country pages, and 22 atlas categories. If you arrived here looking for a specific group or specific…
May 10, 2026
Penile dimensions across world populations — what the clinical literature actually documents Penile dimensions are among the most-asked-about and least-rigorously-documented physical traits. Most online "average size…
May 10, 2026
The peer-reviewed classification scales we use, and why Phenotype description without a controlled vocabulary becomes subjective ("she has medium-light skin"). Phenotype description with a controlled vocabulary becomes…
May 10, 2026
Hair texture, color, and density across world populations Hair phenotype varies more than almost any other visible trait — texture from straight to tightly coiled, color from white-blonde to black, density from 80,000…
May 10, 2026
Foot length and shoe size — anthropometry and the international sizing tangle Foot length is one of the more reliably-measured anthropometric traits — feet stay still, the measurement protocol is simple, and shoe-fitting…
May 10, 2026
Eye color and morphology — what 12,000 generations of selection produced Eye phenotype has two distinct dimensions that are commonly conflated: iris color (genetics dominated by OCA2/HERC2) and eye morphology (the eyelid…
May 10, 2026
Breast morphology — what clinical anthropometry actually documents Breast size and shape are visible, sex-dimorphic, and culturally loaded. Like penile dimensions, the topic suffers from circulation of unreliable…
May 10, 2026
Body composition and somatotype — Heath-Carter, BMI, and what they don't capture "Are X people thin or stocky?" is one of the more visible questions about human variation. The answer requires distinguishing between…
May 10, 2026
Adult height across world populations — what 100 years of measured data tells us The question "are X people tall?" is asked about almost every ethnic group. The honest answer requires distinguishing measured mean stature…