I noticed the island of dark hued people in northern Scandinavia. Has this persisted up to today, and has anyone had a look at the sociology and genetics behind it?

The dark hued people of northern Scandinavia are probably Laplanders (Saami).

phillyguy is right.

If I recall correctly, the usual suspects at this blog have speculated that the Saami may be darker because they maintained a nomadic/hunting lifestyle longer, and so had a greater access to dietary vitamin D than their more-southern, agricultural neighbors, who developed pale skins to compensate.

The aboriginal peoples of the far North are in general fairly darkish tan, and they've traditionally hunted.

Does it list the villages where the Saami samples were taken or at least the source? Predominance of dark hair and eyes might be more plausible than the swarthy Saami parade that jaakkeli predictably rains on, but that blob looks a bit too neat. The majority of modern Saami live in Norway, btw.

windy, they may well have simply gone by *assuming* that the Saamis are swarthier and drawn the map darker according to where the author has believed Saamis to live in. In fact, I'd bet that this is exactly what they've done, since the fit is just too good (especially if you move the blob a tiny bit up). I *seriously* doubt that there's any "sampling" done for this map for Saamis, since it's from the 1930s (!), it draws the assumed Saami population in Finland and whoever drew it is obviously not familiar with Finnish surveys.

(If it's not obvious to someone: there is no east-west difference in inland Finnish blondeness. The Finnish studies I've found found no consistent patterns, except for swarthier coastal areas and Saamis and the obviously mixed north. Maps that print such a difference are generally either using one data point for Finland (in the southwest) or simply *assuming* that blondeness comes from the west.)

they may well have simply gone by *assuming* that the Saamis are swarthier and drawn the map darker according to where the author has believed Saamis to live in.

That may be likely, I was extending the author some benefit of the doubt and assuming there were samples :) It does say that the "source" is the artist who drew the map, which doesn't sound that convincing.

Afternoon, chaps.
Here's some students mucking about at Saami Uni. College in Norway.
http://tinyurl.com/32ual3
Look like perfectly ordinary and perfectly charming "Lapps" (sorry about that) to me. Apart from the bloke with the glasses, maybe a touch of the Swede about him, I reckon.
Better get the Munsell Charts out, eh?

yes, i think the map is rather coarse.

Look like perfectly ordinary and perfectly charming "Lapps"

wuz the blonde asian chick doing in the picture then? :0)

wuz the blonde asian chick doing in the picture then? :0)

dunno, but it must be o.k., judging by your man with the black hair's expression :^o.
I guess the uniformly dark eyes are more a result of the camera flash, but IIRC Saami do have dark eyes more than the Scands. Strange to say, to a brit like me the Saami in general look just "normal", it's the Swedes and allied trades who look (and act!) scary and "foreign". Probably because we tend to be the short side too, and possibly because the Saami, like the brits, are a fairly heterogenous crew?

This has been done before.
Google "Madison Grant".
Eugenics 101.
Love the map, though.

Looks like a Nazi study. 1939 hmmm...?