Katanga Phenotype - Face Features & Origin

Average Face

Averaging the portraits behind Katanga leaves the features that repeat and erases the ones that do not. That is exactly how the Katanga composite below was built: individual photographs were aligned and statistically merged, exaggerating shared structure into a single reference face that no actual person looks like.

Composite source: Human Phenotypes — Katanga

Geographic Distribution

Geographically, Katanga anchors to 72.4° N, 104.0° E (Siberia). That is the point where historical anthropologists judged Katanga most concentrated, not a hard edge; modern migration and intermarriage have long since softened whatever boundaries once existed.

Physical Characteristics

Light yellowish-brown skin, darker than the Baykal type, coarse straight hair.

• Short, macroskelic, endomorph
• Brachycephalic, mildly chamaecranic
• Mildly leptorrhine nose that is more prominent than in the Baykal type
• The face is short, rather low, and very broad, and differs from all neighbours
• Body hair very sparse, lips thin, forehead straight
• Eyes slanting, Mongolian fold is found in some individuals

Historical Background

Western Tungid variety, influenced by Sibirid, but with several distinctive features differentiating it from both. Named after the Khatanga river. Native to the vast Central Siberian forests East of the Yenisei and along the Tunguska rivers. Frequent in the pre-Tungus population. Today most common in Tofalars, Western Evenks of the Yenisei and Taz river basins, as well as Eastern Tuvins. Although their territory is large, the population exceeds no more than a few thousand.

Research History & Naming

Typological names were coined, contested, and renamed repeatedly across the 20th century, and Katanga is no exception. The extract below records the researchers who defined Katanga, the alternative labels it accumulated, and where the modern consensus settled.

Named and separated from the Baykal type by Debets (1951) , who also used the type in his later typology ( Debets, 1974 ). Described in detail by Levin (1963) . In others systems usually a (Paleo) Sibirid-admixed Tungid ( Eickstedt, 1934 ; Biasutti, 1967 ; Kunssmann, 1996 ).

Comparison With Nearby Phenotypes

Ranked by great-circle distance from Katanga's reference center, these are the five nearest documented phenotypes — the closest being Samoyedic at 1,242 km. Overlapping distributions like these are exactly what makes the quiz hard, and the Samoyedic row is where to start looking.

Katanga in the Game

When the Katanga composite shows up in the quiz, players who know the Siberia distribution pattern have the edge. The reference answer sits near 72.4° N, 104.0° E; pins on the wrong continent score close to zero, so even a rough regional instinct beats a precise but misdirected pin.

Katanga Phenotype FAQ

Where does the Katanga phenotype come from?

Historical sources center the Katanga phenotype on 72.4° N, 104.0° E (Siberia). Treat that as a rough anchor: the type appeared across a wider surrounding area — its nearest documented neighbors, Samoyedic and Yenisey, sit 1,242 and 1,389 km from the reference point — and its present-day distribution no longer matches the historical map.

What does the Katanga phenotype look like?

The composite emphasizes recurring traits: light yellowish-brown skin, darker than the Baykal type, coarse straight hair. The full trait list for Katanga appears in the physical characteristics section above.

Is the Katanga phenotype a race or a nationality?

No. A phenotype is a recurring bundle of visible traits documented by historical anthropologists across a population — for Katanga, patterns such as light yellowish-brown skin, darker than the Baykal type, coarse straight hair. The Katanga entry is not a genetic ancestry, not a nationality, and not a statement about any individual person. Two people from the same country can match completely different phenotypes — one resembling Katanga, another closer to Samoyedic — and one phenotype can span many modern borders.

How does Katanga appear in the game?

When the Katanga 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 72.4° N, 104.0° E. The nearest documented type, Samoyedic, lies about 1,242 km away, so regional placement usually carries most of the score.

References & Literature

Every claim on this page traces back to the sources below — the researchers who defined, measured, and argued over the Katanga type. The originals behind the Katanga entry are worth consulting directly.

• Debets, G. F. 1951. Zaselenie Juznoj i Perednej Azii po dannym antropologii. Trudy Inst. Ethnograf. AN SSSR 16. 355-370.
• Debets, G. 1974. Essay on the Graphical Presentation of the Genealogical Classification of Human Races. In: Bromley, Y. Soviet Ethnology and Anthropology Today. Mouton & Co.
• Levin, M. G. 1963. Ethnic origins of the people of Northeastern Asia. Arctic Inst. North America, Anthropology of the North. Translations from Russian sources 3. Toronto.
• Eickstedt, E. von. 1934. Rassenkunde und Rassengeschichte der Menschheit. Ferdinand Enke. Stuttgart.
• Biasutti, R. 1967 (1941). Le Razze e i Popoli della terra. 4th Ed. Vol 1-4. U.T.E.T., Torino.
• Knussmann, R. 1996. Vergleichende Biologie des Menschen: Lehrbuch der Anthropologie und Humangenetik. 2ed. Spektrum Akademischer Verlag.

Related Phenotypes

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

• Samoyedic

  Siberia · 1,242 km away

  Northwestern Sibirid contact type, influenced by strong Tungid and possibly Lappid elements. Has migrated to the Yamal peninsula and surroun...

• Yenisey

  Siberia · 1,389 km away

  Sibirid subtype of the Yenisei River basin in Siberia. Shows some Americanoid features. Also seems to be culturally and linguistically linke...

• Uralid

  Siberia · 1,877 km away

  West Sibirid subtype, especially common in the basin of the Ob River among Khanty and Mansi people. Sometimes in Altai and Khakassia. Due to...

• Baykal

  Siberia · 2,100 km away

  Northern Tungid variety, native to the vast, sparsely populated Taiga and Tundra regions of East Siberia, adapted to survive in the coldest ...

• Chukchid

  Siberia · 2,536 km away

  Far Eastern Sibirid variety, influenced by Eskimid, adapted to one of the coldest inhabitable places on Earth: the Arctic tundra of Chukotka...

Further Reading

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

• What Country Do I Look Like: The Count Comes Before the Face

  Which country a face resembles depends on which official list you are using, and the world publishes several that disagree on how many...

• Ethnic Guesser: Which Facial Cues Actually Decide a Round

  A round of the game turns on a handful of facial cues, and they are not equal. Here is how pigment, the epicanthic fold, nasal shape...