Chocó-Motilon Phenotype - Face Features & Origin

Average Face

The Chocó-Motilon composite below is not a photograph of a real person. Historical anthropologists aligned multiple individual portraits from the Chocó-Motilon reference population and averaged them into one image, so recurring structures — skull outline, nose form, lip thickness, brow position — dominate while individual idiosyncrasies cancel out.

Composite source: Human Phenotypes — Chocó-Motilon

Geographic Distribution

The reference center for Chocó-Motilon sits near 5.7° N, 76.7° W in South America. Around that anchor, prevalence falls off gradually — the type is not confined to one valley or one modern border, and the historical map should be read as a gradient rather than a boundary.

Physical Characteristics

Medium brown skin with straight or wavy hair.

• Short, macroskelic, endomorph to ectomorph
• Mesocephalic, chamae- orthocranic, mesorrhine nose with a slightly depressed root
• The face is relatively high and long, the supraorbital arches are visible
• Eyes narrow, lips rather full
• The chin is often receding

Historical Background

Special type found in Colombia, Venezuela, as well as Panama. Contains Brasilid elements as well as relicts of one of the first migrations to South America that show similarities to Fuegids. Typical groups include Chocó (Embera, Wounaan), Motilon (Barí, Yukpa) and some related people, many of them extinct today. Was also present in Pre-Columbian Ecuadorian cultures.

Research History & Naming

The passage below traces who first defined Chocó-Motilon, which rival names competed with it, and how later authors consolidated or disputed the classification — the raw material of any serious phenotype reference.

The type was described as a Fuegoid-influenced element by Biasutti (1967) . Lundman (1967) reported similar types on the coasts of Ecuador, Venezuela, and South of the Maracaibo lake. Imbelloni (1958) noted Fuegid as well as Lagid admixed groups in the area.

Comparison With Nearby Phenotypes

The five phenotypes whose documented centers lie closest to Chocó-Motilon, ranked by great-circle distance. They are the types players most often confuse with Chocó-Motilon in the quiz, precisely because their distributions overlap.

Chocó-Motilon in the Game

Chocó-Motilon is one of the faces that can appear in Classic Daily and Challenge Mode. When it does, the winning pin lands near 5.7° N, 76.7° W in South America — and because the scoring decays with distance, recognizing the region matters more than pixel-perfect placement.

Chocó-Motilon Phenotype FAQ

Where does the Chocó-Motilon phenotype come from?

Historical sources center the Chocó-Motilon phenotype on 5.7° N, 76.7° W (South America). Treat that as a rough anchor: the type appeared across a wider surrounding area — its nearest documented neighbors, Isthmid and West Amazonid, sit 512 and 1,203 km from the reference point — and its present-day distribution no longer matches the historical map.

What does the Chocó-Motilon phenotype look like?

The composite emphasizes recurring traits: medium brown skin with straight or wavy hair. The full trait list for Chocó-Motilon appears in the physical characteristics section above.

Is the Chocó-Motilon phenotype a race or a nationality?

No — and the Chocó-Motilon naming history above shows why. Chocó-Motilon was defined, renamed, and regrouped repeatedly by different researchers, which is the opposite of how a fixed racial category would behave. A phenotype is a recurring bundle of visible traits recorded across a population; the Chocó-Motilon label says nothing about where any individual's ancestors were born.

How does Chocó-Motilon appear in the game?

When the Chocó-Motilon face comes up in Classic Daily or Challenge Mode, you pin the world map where you believe the type is historically most common, and the score decays with your distance to 5.7° N, 76.7° W. The nearest documented type, Isthmid, lies about 512 km away, so regional placement usually carries most of the score.

References & Literature

The Chocó-Motilon phenotype entry above is compiled from the 3 academic references. Readers are encouraged to consult the original Chocó-Motilon sources for verification and deeper context.

• Biasutti, R. 1967 (1941). Le Razze e i Popoli della terra. 4th Ed. Vol 1-4. U.T.E.T., Torino.
• Lundman, B. 1967. Geographische Anthropologie. Rassen und Völker der Erde. G. Fischer, Stuttgart
• Imbelloni, J. 1958. Nouveaux apports à la classification de l'homme américain. Miscellanea P. Rivet octogenario dicata. Mexico.

Related Phenotypes

If Chocó-Motilon interested you, these neighboring phenotype entries cover adjacent parts of the map with distinctly different trait bundles.

• Isthmid

  South America · 512 km away

  Centralid subtype, that has partially adapted to the tropical forests of the Isthmus of Panama and the surrounding regions from Colombia to ...

• West Amazonid

  South America · 1,203 km away

  Amazonid subtype, the most frequent type in the Western Amazon rainforest. Common among Arawakan speakers, typical groups are Yawalapiti, As...

• North Amazonid

  South America · 1,996 km away

  Amazonid proper, the dominant type of the rainforests North of the Amazon River to the Caribbean. Common among Cariban speakers, e.g. Caribs...

• Maya

  North America · 2,034 km away

  Centralid subtype with a position between Pueblid and Isthmid and a variety of unique features. Was the dominant element in the ancient Maya...

• North Andid

  South America · 2,197 km away

  The most important and numerous Andid subvariety, adapted to the high altitudes of the Peruvian and Ecuadorian Andes. Typified by Quechua. T...

Further Reading

Background articles from the blog that explain where the Chocó-Motilon type fits, how these composites are built, and what a face can and cannot tell you.

• What Ethnicity Am I? Three Ways to Actually Answer It

  The question is personal, but the answers arrive from three different places: records, DNA, and appearance. Each can tell you something...

• What Ethnicity Do I Look Like? What a Face Can and Cannot Tell

  The question assumes a face carries an ethnicity label. What it carries is a set of trait distributions that overlap heavily between...