Shari Phenotype - Face Features & Origin

Average Face

Averaging the portraits behind Shari leaves the features that repeat and erases the ones that do not. That is exactly how the Shari 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 — Shari

Geographic Distribution

Geographically, Shari anchors to 10.7° N, 16.2° E (West Africa). That is the point where historical anthropologists judged Shari most concentrated, not a hard edge; modern migration and intermarriage have long since softened whatever boundaries once existed.

Physical Characteristics

(Bluish/greyish) black skin, usually kinky hair.

• (Very) tall, (hyper-)brachyskelic and ectomorph
• Mesocephalic or even mildly brachycephalic, different from any other neighbouring desert and savannah type, hypsicranic
• Platyrrhine nose
• The face is large, lips and prognathy do not appear as pronounced as in Sudanids

Historical Background

Special type named after the Chari river of Chad. Intermediate between Sudanid and Nilotid, but with several unique features that have long been stabilised. Most common in Southern Chad and Northern Cameroon. Typified by the Sara. Also in Bua, Mbum, Ouldeme, Madara, Massa, Mousgoum, Banda, and even Azande.

Research History & Naming

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

Montandon (1928) included it in Nilocharienne (=Nilotid). Alcobé y Noguer (1952) and Eickstedt (1934) called it West Nilotid, Hooton (1946) the Shari type, a Nilotic variety. Biasutti (1967) had it as the Sudanid subrace Sciari, Lundman (1943) as Sharid. Tishkoff (2009) showed them have some relationship to Nilotics.

Comparison With Nearby Phenotypes

Ranked by great-circle distance from Shari's reference center, these are the five nearest documented phenotypes — the closest being West Bambutid at 759 km. Overlapping distributions like these are exactly what makes the quiz hard, and the West Bambutid row is where to start looking.

Shari in the Game

When the Shari composite shows up in the quiz, players who know the West Africa distribution pattern have the edge. The reference answer sits near 10.7° N, 16.2° E; pins on the wrong continent score close to zero, so even a rough regional instinct beats a precise but misdirected pin.

Shari Phenotype FAQ

Where does the Shari phenotype come from?

Historical sources center the Shari phenotype on 10.7° N, 16.2° E (West Africa). Treat that as a rough anchor: the type appeared across a wider surrounding area — its nearest documented neighbors, West Bambutid and Equatorial Sudanid, sit 759 and 782 km from the reference point — and its present-day distribution no longer matches the historical map.

What does the Shari phenotype look like?

The composite emphasizes recurring traits: (Bluish/greyish) black skin, usually kinky hair. The full trait list for Shari appears in the physical characteristics section above.

Is the Shari phenotype a race or a nationality?

No. A phenotype is a recurring bundle of visible traits documented by historical anthropologists across a population — for Shari, patterns such as (Bluish/greyish) black skin, usually kinky hair. The Shari 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 Shari, another closer to West Bambutid — and one phenotype can span many modern borders.

How does Shari appear in the game?

When the Shari 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 10.7° N, 16.2° E. The nearest documented type, West Bambutid, lies about 759 km away, so regional placement usually carries most of the score.

References & Literature

The Shari phenotype entry above is compiled from the 7 academic references. Readers are encouraged to consult the original Shari sources for verification and deeper context.

• Montandon G. 1928. L'ologenése humaine. Paris.
• Alcobé y Noguer, S.. 1952. Die Biodynamik des Afrikanischen Kontinentes. In: Historia Mundi. Band 1, Munich, 175-187.
• Eickstedt, E. von. 1934. Rassenkunde und Rassengeschichte der Menschheit. Ferdinand Enke. Stuttgart.
• Hooton, E.A. 1946. Up from the Ape. Rev. ed. Macmillan Company . New York.
• Biasutti, R. 1967 (1941). Le Razze e i Popoli della terra. 4th Ed. Vol 1-4. U.T.E.T., Torino.
• Lundman, B. 1943. Jordens Människoraser och Folkstammar. Nybloms Förlag, Uppsala.
• Tishkoff et al. 2009. The genetic structure and history of Africans and African Americans. Science. 324,1035-1044.

Related Phenotypes

Other human phenotypes whose documented centers lie in the same part of the map as Shari.

• West Bambutid

  West Africa · 759 km away

  Type of the West African Pygmies, that split from East Bambutid during the late Paleolithic. Shows a strong rainforest adaption. Historicall...

• Equatorial Sudanid

  West Africa · 782 km away

  Central African variety with Sudanid and Congolid elements, living in the Savanna regions of East Cameroon, Central African Republic, South ...

• West Congolesid

  West Africa · 1,033 km away

  African forest type, intermediate between Congolesid, Guinesid, and Sudanid, but with a variety of unique features. Common in Southern Camer...

• Saharan Ethiopid

  West Africa · 1,194 km away

  Ethiopid type that was more common during the Neolithic when the Sahara was still green. Today it extends from Chad to Niger, Northern Niger...

• Congolesid

  Sub-Saharan Africa · 1,264 km away

  Widespread type of the Congo forest basin, common from Gabon to DR Congo, Central African Republic, Angola, and Zambia. Typical for Western ...

Further Reading

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

• Ethnicity Quiz: Five Question Types Behind the Label

  A face quiz, a census form, a reaction-time experiment, a surname model and an ancestry report all answer to the same phrase.

• Ethnicity Guesser Photo: What Happens to the File First

  A photo handed to a face tool stops being a photograph almost at once: the file is decoded, rotated, colour-converted and resized before...