Kolid Phenotype - Face Features & Origin

Average Face

The Kolid composite below is not a photograph of a real person. Historical anthropologists aligned multiple individual portraits from the Kolid 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 — Kolid

Geographic Distribution

Geographically, Kolid anchors to 23.5° N, 85.3° E (South Asia). That is the point where historical anthropologists judged Kolid most concentrated, not a hard edge; modern migration and intermarriage have long since softened whatever boundaries once existed.

Physical Characteristics

Black-brown skin, often darker than Veddoids except for Malids.

• Curly or wavy hair, short, mesoskelic, ectomorph, sometimes endomorph
• Dolicho- mesocephalic, ortho- hypsicranic, small-headed
• Meso- platyrrhine, triangular nose
• The face is high and angular with relatively full lips
• Similar to Karnatids and Gondids, from the latter it is distinguished by higher, longer faces, stronger chins, higher foreheads, and absence of prognathism

Historical Background

North Dravidian type, related to Melanids but with stronger Gondid influence. An important population element in India. Purest in Jharkhand and West Bengal, particularly in Kolarians. Typical in Santhal and Ho, extends west to Rajputana. Transitional to Melanids in East Dekkan and East Brachids in Bengal.

Research History & Naming

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

Eickstedt ( 1928 , 1934 , 1952c ) named the Kolid Indomelanid subtype. Drexel (1955) used the term Kolarid. Lundman (1967) , Knussmann (1996) classified it as Indomelanid as well. Similar to Sarkar's (1961) Mundari type and Vallois' (1971) Melano-Indian. Detailed analysis on Santhal by Ghosa and Malik (2007) .

Comparison With Nearby Phenotypes

Ranked by great-circle distance from Kolid's reference center, these are the five nearest documented phenotypes — the closest being North Gondid at 403 km. Overlapping distributions like these are exactly what makes the quiz hard, and the North Gondid row is where to start looking.

Kolid in the Game

When the Kolid composite shows up in the quiz, players who know the South Asia distribution pattern have the edge. The reference answer sits near 23.5° N, 85.3° E; pins on the wrong continent score close to zero, so even a rough regional instinct beats a precise but misdirected pin.

Kolid Phenotype FAQ

Where does the Kolid phenotype come from?

Historical sources center the Kolid phenotype on 23.5° N, 85.3° E (South Asia). Treat that as a rough anchor: the type appeared across a wider surrounding area — its nearest documented neighbors, North Gondid and East Brachid, sit 403 and 562 km from the reference point — and its present-day distribution no longer matches the historical map.

What does the Kolid phenotype look like?

The composite emphasizes recurring traits: black-brown skin, often darker than Veddoids except for Malids. The full trait list for Kolid appears in the physical characteristics section above.

Is the Kolid phenotype a race or a nationality?

No. Phenotypes like Kolid are descriptive averages, not ancestry groups. Kolid is one of several types documented in and around South Asia — see the comparison table above — and the same individual can carry traits associated with several of them at once. The Kolid entry describes a statistical pattern, not a group of people and not a nationality.

How does Kolid appear in the game?

When the Kolid 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 23.5° N, 85.3° E. The nearest documented type, North Gondid, lies about 403 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 Kolid type. The originals behind the Kolid entry are worth consulting directly.

• Eickstedt, E. von. 1928. Das Rassenbild des westlichen und zentralen Hinterindien. In: Anthropologischer Anzeiger (5), 176-187.
• Eickstedt, E. von. 1934. Rassenkunde und Rassengeschichte der Menschheit. Ferdinand Enke. Stuttgart.
• Eickstedt, E. von. 1952c. Rassentypen und Typendynamik von Asien In: Historia Mundi. Band 1, Munich, 147-166.
• Drexel, A. 1955. Die Völker der Erde. 2nd Ed. Akademie Verlag. Zürich.
• Lundman, B. 1967. Geographische Anthropologie. Rassen und Völker der Erde. G. Fischer, Stuttgart
• Knussmann, R. 1996. Vergleichende Biologie des Menschen: Lehrbuch der Anthropologie und Humangenetik. 2ed. Spektrum Akademischer Verlag.
• Sarkar, S. S. 1961. A racial classification of India. Bulletin of the Anthropological Survey of India 10, 27-34.
• Vallois, H. V. 1971. Las races humaines. 8 Ed. Grammont.
• Ghosa, S. and S. L. Malik. 2007. Sex Differences in Body Size and Shape among Santhals of West Bengal. Anthropologist 9 (2), 143-149.

Related Phenotypes

More entries from the same region of the historical map as Kolid, each with its own composite and trait profile.

• North Gondid

  South Asia · 403 km away

  Ancient phenotype native to North Central India, found up to the Himalaya. Gondid proper type, the robust counterpart of South Gondids. Comm...

• East Brachid

  South Asia · 562 km away

  Relatively recent contact type intermediate between Indids and South Mongolids. Widespread, reaching from Western Himalaya / Nepal to Bhutan...

• Gracile Indid

  South Asia · 599 km away

  The most widespread and frequent Indid subtype, one of the most populous phenotypes in the world. Common along the Ganges river and Deccan, ...

• South Gondid

  South Asia · 787 km away

  Gracile Gondid variety of Central India that shares many similarities with Gondids proper, except for a variety of features that puts them m...

• Tibetid

  South Asia · 955 km away

  Contact type of Indid and Sinid. Possibly also Paleo Sibirid groups that have adapted to the high altitude of the Tibetan Plateau, sometimes...

Further Reading

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

• Guess My Ethnicity: What One Guess Can Carry

  When someone types guess my ethnicity, they are asking a stranger to place a bet, and the odds depend far more on the list of labels...

• Geography Games Like GeoGuessr: Six Kinds of Clue

  Street panoramas, country outlines and average faces all answer one question. Here are six geography games sorted by the clue they hand...