“I have no good model for why mountains would foster such a phenotypic difference, but that’s all I’m left with.”

Couldn’t their (the various Northern Pakistani tribes) phenotypic variation easily be explained by two rather important factors as follows?;

Weather and Climate – Climatic conditions and altitude might also well be the reason behind the occurrence of such individuals. The Hunza Valley, home to the frequently light pigmented Burusho, is mountainous in nature. North Waziristan, in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas is known to have a hilly geographic character. Chitral, home to the Kalash tribes is also rather mountainous and filled with passes. In the winter the night time temperature occasionally drops to -10 C with snowfall being abundant.

Endogamy – The highly tribal mentality of these people could also be one of the factors contributing towards the occurrence of such traits. As many have noted, these features are often seen in close-knit tribes in isolated geographic areas. The Kalash are the best example, but so are some of the mountain Pashtun clans. The light traits among them occurring so frequently might simply be a by-product of their inbreeding. Thus, the lack of out-breeding, has successfully spread these traits in a few generations in specific clans and tribes rather fast. Indeed, even their genetics throws light on their distinctiveness relative to others. The Kalash have for instance, through generations of inter-marriage, formed their own genetic cluster as increased isolation will only increase the rate of homozygosity. Thus, their divergence from other Eurasians has been accelerated through their natural isolation. To add to this, their cultural distinctiveness relative to sorrounding populations only further reinforces the same. This is why they always cluster within themselves and show minimal admixture from outside. This has been shown in a number of experiments, and attempts at extrapolating their genome structure have been unsatisfactory due to this.

Although one can’t help but wonder whether the occurrence of such phenotypes might be attributed to the ~15% Northern European admixture that groups like the Burusho and Pathans exhibit in ADMIXTURE, although morphology-specific phenotype genetics seems to be a rather ambiguous science as of now, and these features occur among West-Asians as well..

from what i know about pakistan, probably not (as noted many pathans look like the kalash). and some kalash look like more conventional south asians (albeit, of the northwest variety).

(I think I said something like that before in another case.)

http://www.indigenouspeople.net/Kalashvalley.htm

Here’s an extreme example (from Chitral) I found on the web. It’s associated with an interesting thread on a Pashtun discussion forum where Pashtuns are discussing the commonly held variations in appearance among the different Pashtun tribes. It’s obviously all hearsay (although better than the average non-academic discussion forum), but from what I can gather, it’s the populations closest geographically to the Kalash and Burusho which show the most “European” features – suggesting they’re mainly descended from highland groups which assimilated into Pashtun culture later.

“would foster such a phenotypic difference, but that’s all I’m left with.”

I wonder what their actual phenotype in person would look like. If someone brought in a Northern European and placed them to the right of a Kalash and placed a Pashtun to the left them in the same photograph we might see a noticalbe difference. I realize eyewitnessness describe the Kalash as lighter than their neighbors so it is not all smoke and mirrors. However, lighting and camera angle could still be accentuating this creatung the rather romantic fantasy of “lost white tribe.”

Just for fun you should run this with the Onge

Indeed, you yourself seek to ban us from this blog.