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'''Miscegenation''' (Latin ''miscere'' "to mix" + ''genus'' "kind") is the mixing of different ], that is, ], ], having ] and having children with a partner from outside one's racially or ethnically defined group.

==Usage==

The term "miscegenation" has been used since the nineteenth century to refer to ] and interracial ], and more generally to the process of ], which has taken place since ] but has become more global through European ] since the ]. Historically the term has been used in the context of laws banning interracial marriage and sex, so-called ]. It is therefore a ] word and is considered offensive by many.{{Citation needed|date=December 2008}}

Today, the word miscegenation is avoided by many scholars, because the term suggests a distinct biological phenomenon, rather than a categorization imposed on certain relationships. The word is considered offensive by many and other terms such as "interracial," "interethnic" or "cross-cultural" are more common in contemporary usage.<ref>{{cite book |last=Newman |first=Richard |editor=] and ] |title=] |edition=1st |year=1999 |publisher=Basic Civitas Books |location=New York |isbn=0-465-00071-1 |pages=1320 |chapter=Miscegenation |quote=Miscegenation, a term for sexual relations across racial lines; no longer in use because of its racist implications }}</ref> However, the term is still used by scholars when referring to past practices concerning ]ity, such as anti-miscegenation laws that banned interracial marriages<ref>{{cite journal|last=Pascoe|first=Peggy|month=June | year=1996|title=Miscegenation Law, Court Cases, and Ideologies of "Race" in Twentieth Century America|journal=The Journal of American History|volume=83|issue=1|pages=48|url=http://www.jstor.org/pss/2945474|accessdate=2008-07-13|doi=10.2307/2945474}}</ref>.

In ], ] and ], the words used to describe the mixing of races are ''mestizaje'', ''mestiçagem'' and ''métissage''. These words, much older than the term miscegenation, are derived from the Late Latin ''mixticius'' for "mixed", which is also the root of the Spanish word ]. Portuguese also uses ''miscigenação'', derived from the same Latin root as the English word. These non-English terms for "race-mixing" are not considered as offensive as "miscegenation", although they have historically been tied to the ] (]) that was established during the colonial era in Spanish-speaking ]. However, some groups in South America consider the use of the word mestizo offensive due to the fact that it was used during the times of the colony to just refer to the mixes between the conquistadores and the indigenous people. Today the mixes among races and ethnicities are diverse so it is preferable to use the term "mixed-race" or simply "mixed" (mezcla).
It should be mentioned that in Portuguese-speaking ] (i.e., ]), a much milder and mostly symbolic form of Caste system existed. In fact, miscegenation occurred significantly from the very first settlements, leading to high-ranking individuals of mixed ancestry. As a result, up to this day, the Brazilian classes system is drawn mostly around socio-economic lines, not racial ones (in a manner similar to other former Portuguese colonies).
The concept of miscegenation is tied to concepts of racial difference. As the different connotations and etymologies of miscegenation and mestizaje suggest, definitions of ], "race mixing" and ]ity have diverged globally as well as ], depending on changing social circumstances and cultural perceptions.
Thus, mestizo are people of mixed white and indigenous, usually ] ancestry who do not self-identify as indigenous peoples or ]. In Canada however, the ], who also have partly Amerindian and partly white, often French-Canadian, ancestry, are a constitutionally recognized ].

The differences between related terms and words that encompass aspects of racial admixture show the impact of different historical and cultural factors leading to changing ] and ethnicity. Thus the ], in exile during the ], equated class difference in eighteenth century France with racial difference. Borrowing ]' discourse on the "]" as being the French aristocracy that invaded the plebeian "Gauls", he showed his contempt for the lowest ], the ], calling it "this new people born of slaves ... mixture of all races and of all times".

==Etymological history==

''Miscegenation'' comes from the ] '']'', "to mix" and '']'', "kind". The word was coined in the U.S. in 1863, and the ] of the word is tied up with political conflicts during the ] over the ] of ] and over the ] of ]. The reference to "genus" was made to emphasize the supposedly distinct biological differences between whites and non-whites. In fact, all humans belong to the same ], ], to the same ], ] and to the same subspecies, ].

The word was coined in an anonymous ] ] published in ] in December 1863, during the ]. The pamphlet was entitled ''Miscegenation: The Theory of the Blending of the Races, Applied to the American White Man and Negro''.<ref name="hoaxes">{{cite web
|title=The Miscegenation Hoax
|url=http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/Hoaxipedia/Miscegenation_Hoax/
|work=Museum of Hoaxes
|accessdate=2008-04-02
}}</ref>
It purported to advocate the intermarriage of whites and blacks until they were indistinguishably mixed as a desirable goal, and further asserted that this was the goal of the ]. The pamphlet was in fact a hoax, concocted by ], to discredit the Republicans by imputing to them what were then radical views that offended against the attitudes of the vast majority of whites, including those who opposed slavery. There was already much opposition to the war effort, in New York in particular the opposition reached heights of the ], that included numerous lynchings.

The pamphlet and variations on it were reprinted widely in both the North and the Confederacy by Democrats and rebels. Only in November 1864 was the pamphlet exposed as a hoax. The hoax pamphlet was written by ], managing editor of the '']'', a Democratic Party paper, and George Wakeman, a ''World'' reporter.

By then, the word ''miscegenation'' had entered the common language of the day as a popular ] in political and social discourse. The issue of miscegenation, raised by the opponents of Lincoln, featured prominently in the election campaign of 1864.

In the United States, miscegenation has referred primarily to the intermarriage between whites and non-whites, especially blacks.

Before the publication of ''Miscegenation'', the word ], borrowed from ], had been in use as a general term for ethnic and racial intermixing. A contemporary usage of this metaphor was ]'s private vision in 1845 of America as an ethnic and racial smelting-pot, a variation on the concept of the ]. Opinions in the U.S on the desirability of such intermixing, including that between white ] and ] immigrants, were divided. The term miscegenation was coined to refer specifically to the intermarriage of blacks and whites, with the intent of galvanising opposition to the war<ref name="hollinger">{{cite journal|last=Hollinger|first=David|month=December | year=2003|title=Amalgamation and Hypodescent: The Question of Ethnoracial Mixture in the History of the United States|journal=The American Historical Review|volume=108|issue=5|pages=1363|url=http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/108.5/hollinger.html|accessdate=2008-07-13|doi=10.1086/529971|format={{Dead link|date=July 2008}}{{ndash}} <sup></sup>}}</ref>.

==Laws banning miscegenation==
{{Sex and the Law}}
{{Main|Anti-miscegenation laws}}
Laws banning "race-mixing" were enforced in ] (the ]) until 1945, in certain U.S. states from the Colonial era until 1967 and in South Africa during the early part of the ] era. All these laws primarily banned marriage between spouses of different racially or ethnically defined groups, which was termed "amalgamation" or "miscegenation" in the U.S. The laws in Nazi Germany and many of the U.S. states, as well as South Africa, also banned sexual relations between such individuals.

In the United States, the various state laws prohibited the marriage of whites and blacks, and in many states also the intermarriage of whites with ] or ]<ref>{{cite journal|last=Karthikeyan|first=Hrishi |coauthors=Chin, Gabriel|year=2002|title=Preserving Racial Identity: Population Patterns and the Application of Anti-Miscegenation Statutes to Asian Americans, 1910-1950|journal=Asian Law Journal|volume=9|issue=1|url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=283998|accessdate=2008-07-13}}</ref>. In the U.S., such laws were known as ]. From 1913 until 1948, 30 out of the then 48 states enforced such laws<ref>{{cite web|url=http://lovingday.org/map.htm|title=Where were Interracial Couples Illegal?|publisher=LovingDay|accessdate=2008-07-13}}</ref>. Although an "Anti-Miscegenation Amendment" to the ] was proposed in 1871, in 1912–1913, and in 1928,<ref> Lovingday.org Accessed ],]</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Stein|first=Edward|year=2004|title=Past and present proposed amendments to the United States constitution regarding marriage|journal=Washington University Law Quarterly|volume=82|issue=3|url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=576181|accessdate=2008-07-13}}</ref> no nation-wide law against racially mixed marriages was ever enacted. In 1967, the ] unanimously ruled in '']'' that anti-miscegenation laws are ]. With this ruling, these laws were no longer in effect in the remaining 16 states that still had them.

The laws in U.S. states were established to maintain "]" and ]. Such laws were passed in South Africa to prevent the white minority from being "bred-out" by a black majority.

The Nazi ban on interracial marriage and interracial sex was enacted in September 1935 as part of the ], the ''Gesetz zum Schutze des deutschen Blutes und der deutschen Ehre'' (The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour). The Nuremberg Laws classified ] as a race, and forbade marriage and extramarital sexual relations between persons of Jewish origin and persons of "German or related blood". Such intercourse was condemned as ''Rassenschande'' (lit. "race-disgrace") and could be punished by imprisonment (usually followed by deportation to a concentration camp) and even by death.

The ] in South Africa, enacted in 1949, banned intermarriage between different racial groups, including between ] and non-whites. The ], enacted in 1950, also made it a criminal offense for a white person to have any sexual relations with a person of a different race. Both laws were repealed in 1985.

==History of ethnoracial admixture and attitudes towards miscegenation==
===Africa===
] men, who have long been traders in ], at times married among local ]n women. The ] brought many Indian workers into East Africa to build the ]. Indians eventually populated ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ] and ] in small numbers. These interracial unions were mostly unilateral marriages between Indian men and East African women.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.colorq.org/MeltingPot/article.aspx?d=Africa&x=Indians|title=Jotawa: Afro-Asians in East Africa|publisher=Color Q World|accessdate=2008-07-15}}</ref> ]s and ]s in South Africa are the descendants of liaisons between the ]an men and indigenous ] women. The ] dealt with many black African women.

===Asia===
Inter-ethnic marriage in ] dates back to the spread of ], ] and ] to the region. From the 1st century onwards, mostly male traders and merchants from the ] frequently intermarried with the local female populations in ], ], ], ], the ], and ]. Many ]s arose in Southeast Asia during the ].<ref>{{citation|title=Streams of civilization|last=Albert Hyma|first=Mary Stanton|volume=1|publisher=Christian Liberty Press|page=215}}</ref>

From the 9th century onwards, a large number of mostly male ] traders from the ] settled down in the Malay Peninsula and Malay Archipelago, and they intermarried with the local ], ]n and ] female populations. This contributed to the spread of ].<ref name=Arab-Malays>{{citation|title=Arab and native intermarriage in Austronesian Asia|publisher=ColorQ World|url=http://www.colorq.org/MeltingPot/article.aspx?d=Asia&x=ArabMalays|accessdate=2008-12-24}}</ref> From the 14th to the 17th centuries, many ], ] and Arab traders settled down within the maritime kingdoms of Southeast Asia and intermarried with the local female populations. This tradition continued among ] traders who also intermarried with the local populations.<ref>{{citation|title=The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia|first=Nicholas|last=Tarling|]|year=1999|isbn=0521663709|page=149|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge}}</ref> In the 16th and 17th centuries, thousands of ] also travelled to Southeast Asia and intermarried with the local women there.<ref name=Leupp/>

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, there was a network of ] and Japanese ] being ], in countries such as ], ], ], ] and ], in what was then known as the ’Yellow Slave Traffic’. There was also a network of prostitutes from ] being ], ], Singapore, China and Japan at around the same time, in what was then known as the ’White Slave Traffic’.<ref>{{citation|first=Harald|last=Fischer-Tiné|title='White women degrading themselves to the lowest depths': European networks of prostitution and colonial anxieties in British India and Ceylon ca. 1880-1914|journal=Indian Economic Social History Review|year=2003|volume=40|doi=10.1177/001946460304000202|pages=163–90 }}</ref>

], ]. August 8, 1945. A young ] woman who was in one of the ]'s "comfort battalions" is interviewed by an ] officer.]]

During ], ] soldiers engaged in ] during their invasions across ] and Southeast Asia. The term "]" is a ] for the estimated 200,000, mostly ] and Chinese, women who were forced into prostitution in ] brothels during World War II.<ref></ref> Some ] women, captured in Dutch colonies in Asia, were also forced into ].<ref>{{Citation
|ref=CITEREFchosun.com2007-03-19
|url=http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200703/200703190023.html
|title=Comfort Women Were 'Raped': U.S. Ambassador to Japan
|publisher=Digital Chosunibuto (English edition)
|date=], ]
|accessdate=2008-07-02
}}</ref>

====China====
There have been various periods in the ] where large numbers of ]s, ] and ] from the "]" (] and ]) migrated to ], beginning with the arrival of ] in the 7th century. Due to the majority of these immigrants being male, they often intermarried with local ] females. While intermarriage was initially discouraged by the ], it was later encouraged during the ], which allowed ] with official titles to intermarry with Chinese imperial princesses. Immigration to China increased under the ], when large numbers of West and Central Asians were brought over to help govern ] in the 13th century.<ref name=colorq>{{cite web|title=Chinese of Arab and Persian descent|publisher=ColorQ World|url=http://www.colorq.org/MeltingPot/article.aspx?d=Asia&x=ChineseWestAsians|accessdate=2008-12-23}}</ref>

By the 14th century, the total population of ] had grown to 4 million.<ref name="Israeli 2002, p. 285">{{cite book | last = Israeli | first = Raphael | title = Islam in China | publisher = ] | year = 2002 | location = United States of America | isbn = 073910375X | page = 285 }}</ref> After Mongol rule had been overthrown by the ] in 1368, this led to a violent Chinese backlash against West and Central Asians. In order to contain the violence, the Ming administration instituted a policy where all West and Central Asian males were required to intermarry with native Chinese females, hence assimilating them into the local population. Their descendants are today known as the ].<ref name=colorq/>

====Hong Kong====
] throughout the colonial period, before the ] into the nations of ] and ]. They migrated to ] and worked as police officers as well as army officers during colonial rule. 25,000 of the ] trace their roots back to what is now Pakistan. Around half of them belong to 'local boy' families, Muslims of mixed ] ancestry, descended from early Indian/Pakistani Muslim immigrants who took local Chinese wives and brought their children up as Muslims.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Weiss|first=Anita M.|title=South Asian Muslims in Hong Kong: Creation of a 'Local Boy' Identity|journal=Modern Asian Studies|volume=25|number=3|date=July 1991|pages=417–53|doi=10.1017/S0026749X00013895}}</ref><ref>{{citation|title=Diaspora Entrepreneurial Networks: Four Centuries of History|last=Ina Baghdiantz McCabe|first=Gelina Harlaftis, Iōanna Pepelasē Minoglou|publisher=]|year=2005|isbn=185973880X|page=256}}</ref>

====Indian subcontinent====
The ] has a long history of inter-ethnic marriage dating back to ]. Various groups of people have been intermarrying for millennia in ], including groups as diverse as the ], ], ], ] and ] peoples. Invading ], ], ], ] (]), ] took Indian wives.

In ], a ], during the late 16th and 17th centuries, there was a community of ] and traders, who were either ] fleeing persecution in ],<ref name=Leupp-52/> or young ] women and girls brought or captured as ] by ] traders and their South Asian '']'' crewmembers from Japan.<ref name=Leupp-49/> In both cases, they often intermarried with the local population in Goa.<ref name=Leupp-52/>

Interracial marriages between European men and Indian women were very common during colonial times. It is believed that about one in three European men had Indian wives. This was primarily because the Europeans (mostly ], ], ] and ]) — came to India in the prime of their youth and there were very few white women available in India. The most famous of such interracial liaisons was between the beautiful Hyderabadi noblewoman Khair-un-Nissa and the Scottish resident ]. In addition to intermarriage, inter-ethnic ] was also fairly common at the time, when British officers would frequently visit Indian '']'' dancers. In the mid-19th century, there were around 40,000 British soldiers but less than 2,000 British officials present in India.<ref>{{citation|title=Excluding and Including "Natives of India": Early-Nineteenth-Century British-Indian Race Relations in Britain|first=Michael H.|last=Fisher|journal=Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East|volume=27|issue=2|year=2007|pages=303–314 |doi=10.1215/1089201x-2007-007}}</ref> In the 19th and early 20th centuries, thousands of women and girls from ] and Japan were also ] into ] (and ]), where they worked as prostitutes servicing both British soldiers and local Indian (and Ceylonese) men.<ref>{{citation|first=Harald|last=Fischer-Tiné|title='White women degrading themselves to the lowest depths': European networks of prostitution and colonial anxieties in British India and Ceylon ca. 1880-1914|journal=Indian Economic Social History Review|year=2003|volume=40|doi=10.1177/001946460304000202|pages=163–90}}</ref><ref>{{citation|first=Ashwini|last=Tambe|title=The Elusive Ingénue: A Transnational Feminist Analysis of European Prostitution in Colonial Bombay|journal=Gender & Society|year=2005|volume=19|pages=160–79|doi=10.1177/0891243204272781}}</ref><ref>{{citation|title=Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women's Lives|first=Cynthia H.|last=Enloe|publisher=]|year=2000|isbn=0520220714|page=58}}</ref>

As British females began arriving to British India in large numbers from the early to mid-19th century, miscegenation became increasingly uncommon in India and was later despised after the events of the ], known as "]" to the Indians and as the "Sepoy Mutiny" to the British, where Indian ]s rebelled against the British East India Company.

Despite the questionable authenticity of many colonial accounts regarding the rebellion, the ] "dark-skinned rapist" occurred frequently in ] of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The idea of protecting English "female chastity" from the "lustful Indian male" had a significant influence on the policies of the ] in order to prevent racial miscegenation between the British elite and the native Indian population. While some restrictive policies were imposed on British females in order to "protect" them from miscegenation, most of these discriminatory policies were directed against native Indians.<ref>{{citation|title=Converting Women|first=Eliza F.|last=Kent|publisher=] US|year=2004|isbn=0195165071|pages=85–6}}</ref><ref>{{citation|title=Review Essay: Colonial Figures and Postcolonial Reading|first=Suvir|last=Kaul|journal=]|volume=26|issue=1|year=1996|pages=74–89 |doi=10.1353/dia.1996.0005}}</ref> For example, the 1883 ], which would have granted Indian judges the right to judge British offenders, was opposed by many British colonialists on the grounds that Indian judges cannot be trusted in dealing with cases involving English females.<ref>{{citation|first=Sarah|last=Carter|title=Capturing Women: The Manipulation of Cultural Imagery in Canada's Prairie West|publisher=]|year=1997|isbn=0773516565|page=17}}</ref> In the aftermath of the 1919 ], the long-held stereotype of Indian males as dark-skinned rapists lusting after white English females was challenged by several ]s such as '']'' (1924) and '']'' (1966), both of which involve an Indian male being wrongly accused of raping an English female.<ref>{{citation|title=Colonialism-postcolonialism|first=Ania|last=Loomba|publisher=]|year=1998|isbn=0415128099|pages=79–80}}</ref>

When ] was ruled under the administration of British India, millions of ], mostly Muslim, migrated there. The mixed descendants of Indian males and local Burmese females are called "Zerbadees", often in a prejorative sense implying mixed race.<ref name=Myanmar/>

====Japan====
''See also : ], ]''

] dates back to the 7th century, when ] and ]n immigrants began intermarrying with the local ] population. By the early 9th century, over one-third of all noble families in Japan had ancestors of foreign origin.<ref name=Leupp-52/> In the 1590s, over 50,000 ] were forcibly brought to Japan, where they intermarried with the local population. In the 16th and 17th centuries, around 58,000 Japanese travelled abroad, many of which intermarried with the local women in ].<ref name=Leupp>{{citation|title=Interracial Intimacy in Japan|first=Gary P.|last=Leupp|publisher=]|year=2003|isbn=0826460747|page=52-3}}</ref> During the anti-Christian persecutions in 1596, many ] fled to ] and other ] such as ], where there was a community of Japanese slaves and traders by the early 17th century. Intermarriage with the local populations in these Portuguese colonies also took place.<ref name=Leupp-52>{{citation|title=Interracial Intimacy in Japan|first=Gary P.|last=Leupp|publisher=]|year=2003|isbn=0826460747|page=52}}</ref> ] traders in Japan also frequently intermarried with the local ] women.<ref>{{citation|title=Interracial Intimacy in Japan|first=Gary P.|last=Leupp|publisher=]|year=2003|isbn=0826460747|page=53}}</ref>

From the 15th century, ], Korean and other ]ern visitors frequented ]s in Japan.<ref>{{citation|title=Interracial Intimacy in Japan|first=Gary P.|last=Leupp|publisher=]|year=2003|isbn=0826460747|page=48}}</ref> This practice later continued among visitors from the "]", mainly ]an traders who often came with their ]n '']'' crew (in addition to some ]n crewmembers in some cases).<ref name=Leupp-49>{{citation|title=Interracial Intimacy in Japan|first=Gary P.|last=Leupp|publisher=]|year=2003|isbn=0826460747|page=49}}</ref> This began with the arrival of Portuguese ships to Japan in the 16th century, when the local ] assumed that the Portuguese were from '']'' ("Heavenly Abode"), the ] name for the ] (due to its importance as the birthplace of ]), and that ] was a new "]". These mistaken assumptions were due to the ]n city of Goa being a central base for the ] and also due to a significant portion of the crew on Portuguese ships being ].<ref>{{citation|title=Interracial Intimacy in Japan|first=Gary P.|last=Leupp|publisher=]|year=2003|isbn=0826460747|page=35}}</ref>

Portuguese visitors and their South Asian (and sometimes African) crewmembers often engaged in ], where they brought or captured young Japanese women and girls, who were either used as ] on their ships or taken to Macau and other Portuguese colonies in ], ],<ref name=Leupp-49/> and ].<ref name=Leupp-52/> Later European ], including those of the ] and ], also engaged in ].<ref>{{citation|title=Interracial Intimacy in Japan|first=Gary P.|last=Leupp|publisher=]|year=2003|isbn=0826460747|page=50}}</ref>

In the early part of the ], Japanese governments executed a eugenic policy to limit the birth of children with "inferior" traits, as well as aiming to protect the life and health of mothers.<ref>"The National Eugenic Law" The 107th law that Japanese Government promulgated in 1940 (国民優生法) 第一条 本法ハ悪質ナル遺伝性疾患ノ素質ヲ有スル者ノ増加ヲ防遏スルト共ニ健全ナル素質ヲ有スル者ノ増加ヲ図リ以テ国民素質ノ向上ヲ期スルコトヲ目的トス, Kimura, Jurisprudence in Genetics, http://www.bioethics.jp/licht_genetics.html </ref> Family Center staff also attempted to discourage marriage between Japanese women and Korean men who had been recruited from the peninsula as laborers following its annexation by Japan in 1910. In 1942, a survey report argued that "the Korean laborers brought to Japan, where they have established permanent residency, are of the lower classes and therefore of inferior constitution...By fathering children with Japanese women, these men could lower the caliber of the ]." <ref>
</ref>

In 1928, journalist Shigenori Ikeda promoted the 21 December as the "blood-purity day" (''junketsu de'') and sponsored free blood-test at the Tokyo Hygiene laboratory. <ref>Robertson, ''Blood talks'', p. 206</ref> By early 1930s' detailed "eugenic marriage" questionnaires were printed or inserted in popular magazines for public consumption. <ref>Roberston, ''Blood Talks'', p.205. </ref> Promoters like Ikeda were convinced that these marriage surveys would not only insure the eugenic fitness of spouses but also help avoid class differences that could disrupt and even destroy marriage. The goal was to create a database of individuals and their entire households which would enable eugenicists to conduct in-depth surveys of any given family's genealogy. <ref>Robertson, Blood talks, p.206</ref>

One of the last eugenic measure of the Shōwa regime was taken by the ] government. On 19 August 1945, the Home Ministry ordered local government offices to establish a ] service for allied soldiers to preserve the "purity" of the "Japanese race". The official declaration stated that : "Through the sacrifice of thousands of "Okichis" of the ], we shall construct a ] to hold back the mad frenzy of the occupation troops and cultivate and preserve the purity of our race long into the future...." <ref>Herbert Bix, ''Hirohito and the making of modern Japan'', 2001, p. 538, citing Kinkabara Samon and Takemae Eiji, ''Showashi : kokumin non naka no haran to gekido no hanseiki-zohoban'', 1989, p.244.</ref>

To prevent venereal diseases and rape by Japanese soldiers and to provide comfort to soldiers and head off espionage, the ] established "comfort stations" in the ] where around 200,000 women, mostly from Korea and China, were recruited or kidnapped by the ] or the ] as ]. <ref>Yuki Tanaka, ''Hidden Horrors, Japanese War Crimes in World War II'', 1996, p. 94-98., , "An estimated 200,000 to 300,000 women across Asia, predominantly Korean and Chinese, are believed to have been forced to work as sex slaves in Japanese military brothels", {{Harvnb|BBC|2000-12-08|Ref=BBC2000-12-08}};<br >
"Historians say thousands of women &ndash; as many as 200,000 by some accounts &ndash; mostly from Korea, China and Japan worked in the Japanese military brothels", {{Harvnb|Irish Examiner|2007-03-08|Ref=IE2007-03-08}};<br />
{{Harvnb|AP|2007-03-07|Ref=IHT2007-03-07}};<br />
{{Harvnb|CNN|2001-03-29|Ref=CNN2001-03-29}}.</ref>

According to ] in "''The GI War against Japan: American Soldiers in Asia and the Pacific during World War II''",<ref> by Xavier Guillaume, Department of Political Science, University of Geneva July 2003, (H-NET review of Peter Schrijvers. The GI War against Japan: American Soldiers in Asia and the Pacific during World War II. New York: New York University Press, 2002)</ref> rape "reflects a burning need to establish total dominance of the other" the enemy. According to Xavier Guillaume, ]' rape of Japanese women was "general practice". Schrijvers states regarding rapes on Okinawa that "The estimate of one ]n historian for the entire three-month period of the campaign exceeds 10,000. A figure that does not seem unlikely when one realizes that during the first 10 days of the occupation of Japan there were 1,336 reported cases of rape of Japanese women by American soldiers in ] prefecture alone".<ref> by Xavier Guillaume, Department of Political Science, University of Geneva July 2003, (H-NET review of Peter Schrijvers. "The GI War against Japan: American Soldiers in Asia and the Pacific during World War II". New York: New York University Press, 2002) The citation is cited to page 212 of "The GI War against Japan".</ref>

], with its ideology of homogenity, has traditionally been ] of ethnic and other differences.<ref></ref> Men or women of ], ], and members of ] faced ] in a variety of forms. In 2005, a ] report expressed concerns about ] in Japan and that government recognition of the depth of the problem was not total.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.unic.or.jp/new/pr05-057-E.htm |title=Press Conference by Mr Doudou Diène, Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights |accessdate=2007-01-05}}</ref><ref name="BBC"> ] (]). Retrieved on ].</ref> In 2005, Japanese Minister ] has called Japan a “one race” nation.<ref>, The Japan Times, October 18, 2005</ref>

====Korea====
Inter-ethnic marriage in ] dates back to the arrival of ] during the ], when ], ] and ] navigators and traders settled in Korea and took local ] wives. Some ] into ] and ] eventually took place, owing to Korea's geographical isolation from the ].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/11/06/39210_.html|title=Muslim society in Korea is developing and growing|publisher='']''|date=6 November 2002|accessdate=2008-12-23}}</ref>

There are several Korean clans that are descended from such intermarriages. For example, the Deoksu Jang clan, claiming some 30,000 Korean members, view Jang Sunnyong, an Arab or ]n who married a Korean female, as their ancestor.<ref name=Grayson>{{citation|title=Korea: A Religious History|first=James Huntley|last=Grayson|publisher=]|year=2002|isbn=070071605X|page=195}}</ref> Another clan, Gyeongju Seol, claiming at least 2,000 members in Korea, view a Central Asian (probably an ]) named Seol Son as their ancestor.<ref name="Baker">{{cite journal|last=Baker|first=Don|title=Islam Struggles for a Toehold in Korea |journal=Harvard Asia Quarterly|date=Winter 2006|url=http://www.asiaquarterly.com/content/view/167/|accessdate=2007-04-23}}</ref><ref name="Goryeo2">{{cite web|url=http://www.rootsinfo.co.kr/name/n06/n060213.html|work=Rootsinfo.co.kr (Korean language)|title=덕수장씨|accessdate=2006-03-20}}</ref>

International marriages now make up 13% of all ]. Most of these marriages are unions between a ] male and a foreign female<ref>{{cite web|url=http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=7918|title=Korea Greets New Era of Multiculturalism|last=Hae-in|first=Shin |date=2006-08-03|publisher=The Korea Herald|accessdate=2008-07-15}}</ref> usually from ], ], ], the ], ], ], ], and ]. On the other hand, Korean females have married foreign males from Japan, China, the United States, ], ], Philippines, and ]. Between 1990 and 2005, there have been 159,942 Korean males and 80,813 Korean females married to foreigners.<ref>{{citation|last=Lee|first=Hye-Kyung|title=International marriage and the state in South Korea: focusing on governmental policy|journal=Citizenship Studies|volume=12|issue=1|date=February 2008|pages=107–23|doi=10.1080/13621020701794240}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Hye-Kyung Lee|title=“International Marriage and the State in South Korea”|publisher=]|url=http://www.cct.go.kr/data/acf2006/multi/multi_0303_Hye%20Kyung%20Lee.pdf|accessdate=2008-12-22}}</ref>

] is among the world's most ethnically homogeneous nations.<ref></ref> Koreans have traditionally valued an "unmixed blood" as the most important feature of Korean identity. The term "Kosian", referring to someone who has a Korean father and a non-Korean mother, is considered offensive by some who prefer to identify themselves or their children as Korean.<ref>{{Dead link|date=November 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.naver.com/news/read.php?mode=LSS2D&office_id=079&article_id=0000076691&section_id=102&section_id2=257&menu_id=102 |title=" '???'(Kosian) ?? ??! (Do not use Kosian)"|work=Naver news (Korean language) February 23 2006|accessdate=2006-03-04}} See English-language reaction on </ref> Moreover, the Korean office of ] has claimed that the word "Kosian" represents racial discrimination.<ref>"{{Dead link|date=November 2008}}," AMNESTY Internation South Korea Section, 2006, 07.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200602/kt2006020917515310510.htm|title=Ward's Win Brings 'Race' to the Fore|work=Korea Times February 9 2006|accessdate=2006-03-04}}{{Dead link|date=November 2008}}</ref> Kosian children, like those of other mixed-race backgrounds in Korea, often face ].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://english.yna.co.kr/Engnews/20060212/480100000020060212100027E2.html|title=For mixed-race children in Korea, happiness is too far away|work=Yonhap News|accessdate=2006-03-04}}</ref> There are an estimated 35,000 mixed-raced South Koreans, most of them half Caucasian, according to the Pearl Buck Foundation. Discrimination is far worse against those who have ] fathers.<ref>, Los Angeles Times, February 13, 2006</ref>

====Malaysia and Singapore====
In West ] and ], the majority of inter-ethnic marriages are between ] and ]. The offspring of such marriages are informally known as "]", though the Malaysian government only classifies them by their father's ethnicity. As the majority of these intermarriages usually involve an Indian groom and Chinese bride, the majority of Chindians in Malaysia are usually classified as "]" by the Malaysian government. As for the ], who are predominantly ], legal restrictions in Malaysia make it uncommon for them to intermarry with either the Indians, who are predominantly ], or the Chinese, who are predominantly ] and ].<ref>{{citation |last=Daniels |first=Timothy P. |year=2005 |title=Building Cultural Nationalism in Malaysia |publisher=] |isbn=0415949718 |page=189 }}</ref>

It is common for ] and Malaysia to take local Malay wives, due to a common ]ic faith.<ref name=Arab-Malays/> The ] people, in Singapore and the ] state of Malaysia, are a ] with considerable Malay descent, which was due to the first Tamil settlers taking local wives, since they did not bring along any of their own women with them. According to government statistics, the population of Singapore as of September 2007 was 4.68 million, of whom ] people, including ]s and ], formed 2.4%.

====Myanmar / Burma====
] are the descendants of ], ], ], ], ], ], ] and ] who settled and intermarried with the local ] population and other ] such as the ], ], ], and ].<ref>{{Cite book| publisher = Harrassowitz| isbn = 3447013575| last = Yegar| first = Moshe| title = The Muslims of Burma: a Study of a Minority Group| location = Wiesbaden| series = Schriftenreihe des Südasien-Instituts der Universität Heidelberg| year = 1972| oclc = 185556301| ref = CITEREFYegar1972| page = 6}}</ref><ref name="Lay1973">{{Cite journal| pages = 109–11| last = Lay| first = Pathi U Ko| title = Twentieth Anniversary Special Edition of Islam Damma Beikman| journal = Myanmar Pyi and Islamic religion| year = 1973}}</ref>

The oldest Muslim group in ] (Myanmar) are the ], who are mostly descended from Bengalis who intermarried with the native females in the ] after the 7th century. When Burma was ruled by the ]n administration, millions of ], mostly Muslim, migrated there. The mixed descendants of Indian males and local Burmese females are called "Zerbadees", often in a prejorative sense implying mixed race. The ], a group of ] descended from ]ns and ]ns, migrated from China and also intermarried with local Burmese females.<ref name=Myanmar>{{citation|title=Muslim Communities in Myanmar|publisher=ColorQ World|url=http://www.colorq.org/MeltingPot/article.aspx?d=Asia&x=BurmeseMuslims|accessdate=2008-12-24}}</ref>

In addition, Burma has an estimated 52,000 ], descended from ] and Burmese people. Anglo-Burmese people frequently intermarried with ] immigrants, who eventually assimilated into the Anglo-Burmese community.

====Philippines====
], of mixed ] and ] ancestry, performing at a 2001 ] show.]]
], admixture has been an ever present and pervading phenomenon in the Philippines. The ] was originally settled by ] peoples called ] which now form the country's aboriginal community. Admixture occurred between this earlier group and the mainstream ] population.<ref name=stanford>http://hpgl.stanford.edu/publications/CB_2002_p1-18.pdf</ref>

There has been ] and influence in the ] since the precolonial era. The impact of ] on the Philippines profoundly affected the culture of the Filipinos. About 25% of the words in the ] are ] terms and about 5% of the country's population possess Indian ancestry from antiquity.<ref name=precolonial>http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Pool/1644/precolonial.html</ref> A considerable number of the population in the town of ], are descended from ] soldiers who mutinied against the ] when the British briefly occupied the Philippines in 1762 to 1763. These Indian soldiers called ] settled in town and intermarried with native females. The Sepoy ancestry of Cainta is very visible today, particularly in Barrio Dayap near Brgy. Sto Nino. Their unique physical characteristics make them distinct from the average Filipinos.

There has been a ] presence in the ] since the ninth century. However, Large-scale migrations of Chinese to the Philippines only started during the Spanish colonial era, when the world market was opened to the Philippines. It is estimated that among ], 10%-20% have some Chinese ancestry and 1.5% are "full-blooded" Chinese.<ref name=ocac>http://www.ocac.gov.tw/english/public/public.asp?selno=1163&no=1163&level=B</ref>

According to the American ] Dr. H. Otley Beyer, the ancestry of ] is 2% ]. This dates back to when Arab traders intermarried with the local ] and Filipina female populations during the ].<ref name=Arab-Malays/> Major Arab migration to the Philippines coincided with the spread of ]. Filipino-Muslim royal families from the ] and the ] claim Arab descent even going as far as claiming direct lineage from the prophet Mohammad.<ref>http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Tagalog/Modules/Modules/MuslimMindanao/historical_timeline_of_the_royal.htm</ref> Such intermarriage mostly took place around the ] island area, but the arrival of ] ] to the ] abruptly halted the spread of ] further north into the Philippines. Intermarriage with ] later became more prevalent after the ] was colonized by the ].

When the Spanish colonized the Philippines, a significant portion of the Filipino population mixed with the Spanish. When the ] took the Philippines from Spain during the ], much intermixing of Americans, both ] and ], took place on the island of ] where the USA had a Naval Base and Air Force Base even after the USA gave the Philippines independence after ]. The descendants of Filipinos and Europeans are today known as ]s, following the term used in other former Spanish colonies. Much mixing with the ] also took place due to the ]s of Filipina women during World War II. Today there is an increasing number of Japanese men marrying Filipina woman and fathering children by them whose family remain behind in the Philippines and are financially supported by their Japanese fathers who make regular visits to the Philippines. Today mixed-race marriages have a mixed reaction in the Philippines, most urban centers like Manila and Cebu are more willing to accept interracial marriages than rural areas, plus there is more approval if the Filipina marries out than a Filipino male.

===Europe===
====France====
During ], there were 135,000 soldiers from ],<ref name=Enloe>{{citation|title=Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women's Lives|first=Cynthia H.|last=Enloe|publisher=]|year=2000|isbn=0520220714|page=61}}</ref> a large number of soldiers from French ],<ref name="Greenhut 71–74">{{citation|title=Race, Sex, and War: The Impact of Race and Sex on Morale and Health Services for the Indian Corps on the Western Front, 1914|first=Jeffrey|last=Greenhut|journal=Military Affairs|volume=45|issue=2|date=April 1981|publisher=]|pages=71–74|doi=10.2307/1986964}}</ref> and 20,000 labourers from ],<ref>{{citation|title=Battle Colors: Race, Sex, and Colonial Soldiery in World War I|first=Philippa|last=Levine|journal=Journal of Women's History|volume=9|year=1998}}</ref> who served in ]. Much of the ] male population had gone to war, leaving behind a surplus of French females,<ref>{{citation|title=Race, Sex, and War: The Impact of Race and Sex on Morale and Health Services for the Indian Corps on the Western Front, 1914|first=Jeffrey|last=Greenhut|journal=Military Affairs|volume=45|issue=2|date=April 1981|publisher=]|pages=71–74 |doi=10.2307/1986964}}</ref> many of whom formed interracial relationships with non-white soldiers{{Citation needed|date=July 2009}}, mainly ]<ref>{{citation|title=Personal Perspectives: World War I|first=Timothy C.|last=Dowling|publisher=]|year=2006|isbn=1851095659|pages=35–6}}{{Request quotation|date=July 2009}}</ref><ref name=Omissi>{{citation|title=Europe Through Indian Eyes: Indian Soldiers Encounter England and France, 1914–1918|first=David|last=Omissi|journal=]|year=2007|volume=CXXII|issue=496|publisher=]|doi=10.1093/ehr/cem004|pages=371–96}}{{Request quotation|date=July 2009}}</ref> and North African.<ref name=Enloe/> British and French authorities allowed foreign ] soldiers to intermarry with local French females on the basis of ], which allows marriage between Muslim males and ] and ]ish females. On the other hand, ] soldiers in France were restricted from intermarriage on the basis of the ].<ref name=Omissi/>

While the French were not as concerned about interracial relationships, the ] made attempts to prevent their Indian troops from engaging in such relationships with ] females, by implementing curfews and preventing female nurses from servicing wounded Indian troops in British hospitals.<ref name="Greenhut 71–74"/> On the other hand, French hospitals had no problem with having female nurses servicing wounded Indian and North African soldiers, though contacts with ] labourers and soldiers were more severely restricted by both British and French authorities.<ref name=Enloe/><ref>{{citation|first=Lucy|last=Bland|title=White Women and Men of Colour: Miscegenation Fears in Britain after the Great War|journal=Gender & History|volume=17|issue=1|date=April 2005|pages=29–61 |doi=10.1111/j.0953-5233.2005.00371.x}}</ref>

====Iberian Peninsula====
]'' (12th century) was an ] about an ] female and a foreign ] male.]]

In ], the ] was frequently invaded by foreigners who intermarried with the native population. One of the earliest foreign groups to arrive to the region were the ] ] who intermarried with the ] ] in ]. They were later followed by the ] ]ns and ] and the Indo-European ] who intermarried with the ] during ]. They were in turn followed by the ] ], ] and ] and the ] ] and ] who also intermarried with the local population in ] during ]. In the 6th century, the region was reconquered by the ] (Eastern ]), when ] also settled there, before the region was lost again to the ] less than a century later.

After the ] in the 8th century, the ] of ] was established in the ]. Due to ] allowing a ] male to marry ] and ]ish females, it became common for ] and ] males from ] to intermarry with the local Germanic, ] and Iberian females of ].<ref>], ''''</ref><ref>] (1992), ''Golden Age of the Moor'', ], ISBN 1560005815</ref> The offspring of such marriages were known as '']'' or ''Muwallad'', an ] term still used in the modern ] to refer to people with Arab fathers and ] mothers.<ref>Kees Versteegh, et al. Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, BRILL, 2006.</ref> This term was also the origin for the ] word '']''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mgar.net/var/esclavos3.htm|title=La esclavitud en Huelva y Palos (1570-1587)|last=Izquierdo Labrado|first=Julio|language=Spanish|accessdate=2008-07-14}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.syriatoday.ca/salloum-arab-lan.htm|title=The impact of the Arabic language and culture on English and other European languages|last=Salloum|first=Habeeb |publisher=The Honorary Consulate of Syria|accessdate=2008-07-14}}</ref> In addition, many ''Muladi'' were also descended from '']'' (]) slaves taken from ] via the ].

By the 11th or 12th century, the Muslim population of Al-Andalus had merged into a homogeneous group of people known as the "]". After the ], which was completed in 1492, most of the Moors were forced to either flee to ] or ]. The ones who converted to Christianity were known as ]es, and they were often persecuted by the ] on the basis of the '']'' ("Cleanliness of blood") or "]" doctrine, under which anti-miscegenation laws were implemented in ].<ref>] (1983), ''Aristocrats'', p. 67, ]</ref>

Anyone whose ancestors had miscegenated with the Moors or ]s were persecuted by the Inquisition. The claim to universal '']'' (lowest nobility) of the ] was justified by erudites like Manuel de Larramendi (1690-1766)<ref name="Larramendi">], ''Corografía de la muy noble y muy leal provincia de Guipúzcoa'', Bilbao, 1986, facsimile edition of that from Editorial ], Buenos Aires, 1950. (Also published by Tellechea Idígoras, San Sebastián, 1969. Quoted in '''', by Jon Arrieta Alberdi, ''Anales 1997-1998'', Real Sociedad Económica Valenciana de Amigos del País</ref> because the Arab invasion hadn't reached the Basque territories, so it was believed that Basques had maintained their original purity, while the rest of Spain was suspect of miscegenation. In fact, the Arab invasion also reached the Basque country and there had been a significant Jewish minority in Navarre, but the hidalguía helped many Basques to official positions in the administration.<ref name="Auñamendi"> in the Spanish-language ]</ref>. In December 2008, an important genetic study revealed that the religious conversions of Jews and Muslims have had a profound impact on the population of the Iberian Peninsula. This study indicated a Sephardic Jewish mean admixture of about 20% and a North African admixture of about 11%<ref>
"Mean North African admixture is 10.6%, with wide geographical variation, ranging from zero in Gascony to 21.7% in Northwest Castile. Mean Sephardic Jewish admixture is 19.8%, varying from zero in Minorca to 36.3% in South Portugal (the value in Asturias is unlikely to be reliable, because of small sample size), , Adams et al. 2008</ref><ref>"The study shows that religious conversions and the subsequent marriages between people of different lineage had a relevant impact on modern populations both in Spain, especially in the Balearic Islands, and in Portugal", , Elena Bosch, 2008</ref>. However, the findings contradict previous studies, and many in the field find the conclusions questionable.

====Italian Peninsula====
] and ]", a painting by Alexandre-Marie Colin in 1829]]

As was the case in other regions ], it was acceptable in ] for a ] male to marry ] and ]ish females in ] between the 8th and 11th centuries. In this case, most intermarriages were between ] and ] males from ] and the local ], ] and ] females of ] and ]. Such intermarriages were particularly common in the ], where one writer visiting the place in the 970s expressed shock at how common it was in rural areas.<ref>{{citation|last=Emma Blake|contribution=The Familiar Honeycomb: Byzantine Era Reuse of Sicily's Prehistoric Rock-Cut Tombs|editor-last=Ruth M. Van Dyke|editor-first=Susan E. Alcock|title=Archaeologies of Memory|publisher=]|isbn=9780470774304|doi=10.1002/9780470774304.ch10|year=2008|pages=201}}</ref> After the ], all Muslim citizens (whether foreign, native or mixed) of the ] were known as "]". After a brief period of ] had flourished under the reign of ], later rulers had forced the Moors to either ] or be expelled from the kingdom.

In ], Italians from neighbouring Sicily and ] intermarried with the local inhabitants,<ref>, last visited August 5, 2007</ref> who were descended from ]ns, ], ] and ]. The ] are descended from such unions, and the ] is descended from ].

In the ] in ], it was common for foreign Arab and Berber traders, known to Europeans as the "Moors", to take local ] wives. This became a subject matter in several ] plays, most notably '']'', involving an inter-ethnic relationship between a Moorish ] and his Venetian wife ], based on ]'s "Un Capitano Moro" which was itself inspired by an actual incident that occurred in Venice around 1508.<ref name="4trag">Shakespeare, William. ''Four Tragedies: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth''. Bantam Books, 1988.</ref> At times, the ] city-states also played an active role in the ], where Moorish and Italian traders occasionally exchanged slaves. ]'s mother Caterina, for example, was most likely a slave from the ].<ref>According to Alessandro Vezzosi, Head of the Leonardo Museum in Vinci, there is evidence that Piero owned a Middle Eastern slave called Caterina who gave birth to a boy called Leonardo. That Leonardo had Middle Eastern blood is supported by the reconstruction of a fingerprint as reported by Marta Falconi, Associated Press Writer, "" December 12, 2001</ref><ref>{{citation | url = http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/01/AR2006120100961_pf.html | title = Experts Reconstruct Leonardo Fingerprint | publisher = The Associated Press | accessdate = 2007-12-14 }}</ref>

During ], France's ] troops known as ]s committed ]s in Italy after the ]<ref> </ref> and in ]. In Italy, victims of the mass ] committed after the Battle of Monte Cassino by Goumiers are known as '']''. According to Italian sources, more than 7,000 Italian civilians, including women and children, were raped by Goumiers.<ref>{{cite web|title=1952: Il caso delle “marocchinate” al Parlamento|url=http://www.cassino2000.com/cdsc/studi/archivio/n07/n07p09.html|accessdate=2008-11-22}}</ref>

] with ], by German painter Anton Hickel (1780).]]

====Southeastern and Eastern Europe====
] explored and eventually settled in territories in ]-dominated areas of ]. By 950 AD, these settlements were largely Slavicized through intermarriage with the local population. Eastern Europe was also an important source for the ] at the time, when '']'' (Slavic) slaves were taken to the ], where the women and girls often served in ]s, some of whom married their ] masters. When the ] annexed much of Eastern Europe in the 13th century, the ] also intermarried with the local population and often engaged in ] during the ].

In the 11th century, the ] territory of ] was conquered by the ], who came from ] in ]. Their ] descendants went on to annex the ] and much of ] in the 15th and 16th centuries. Due to ] allowing a ] male to marry ] and ]ish females, it was common in the ] for Turkish males to intermarry with European females. For example, various ]s of the ] often had ] ('']''), ] ('']''), ], ] and ] wives. Some of these European wives exerted great influence upon the empire as '']'' ("Mother-Sultan"), some famous examples including ], a Slavic ] slave who later became ]'s favourite wife, and ], wife of ] and sister of French Empress ]. Due to the common occurrence of such intermarriages in the Ottoman Empire, they have had a significant impact on the ethnic makeup of the modern ] population in ], which now differs to that of the ] population in Central Asia.<ref>{{citation|title=The Ottoman Empire, 1700-1922|last=]|]|year=2000|isbn=0521633281|page=2|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=New York}}</ref>

The degree of miscegenation is very high in the former ]. Low levels of mixed ancestry are, in some areas (especially urban), almost universal, and generally go entirely ignored and unnoticed unless persons wish to identify themselves with ethnic minorities. Highly visible divergence from the local ethnic majority is also treated differently, depending on whether the individual identifies with the local culture or not. In modern times, attitudes towards miscegenation in the former Soviet Union vary greatly, depending on the race and gender of each partner. For example, unions between white/Slavic males and Asian/Oriental or Turkic women are almost universally tolerated, and their children are generally identified and treated as members of the local ethnic majority. However, unions between Slavic women and visibly non-Slavic men may meet varying degrees of discrimination, from light to none for Asian men (depending also on origin, whether they are immigrants or were born in the Soviet Union, and where in the Soviet Union they were born), to some hostility for Turkic men (although much of this is against their real or perceived Muslim faith) and Jews, and quite high intolerance towards those who marry blacks or have children with them (young African-Russians in ] are often scornfully called 'Children of the Olympics', under the assumption that they were conceived by visiting tourists during the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games). The situation is also highly affected by self-identification, since many people of Asian or Turkic blood have assimilated to the point where they identify themselves as ]/]/etc., and are socially accepted as such.

====United Kingdom====
{{Original research|section|date=July 2009}}
{{See also|British Mixed-Race}}
] has a fairly long history of inter-ethnic marriage among the various ]an populations that inhabited the island, including the ], ], ] and ] peoples. Intermarriage with non-European populations began in the late 15th century, with the arrival of the ], who have ] origins. The Romani in Britain intermarried with the local population and became known as the ]. In India, the British ] encouraged marriages between European soldiers and Indian women. The offspring of these mixed marriages between the British and Indians were known as ]s.<ref></ref> Indian wives sometimes accompanied their husbands back to Britain.<ref></ref>

Intermarriage was common in ] since the 17th century, when the British ] began bringing over thousands of ] scholars, '']s'' and workers (mostly ] and/or ]) to Britain, most of whom married and cohabited with local ] women and girls{{Citation needed|date=July 2009}}, due to the lack of Indian women in Britain at the time.<ref></ref><ref>, P.L.A. Monthly December 1957</ref> This later became an issue, as a magistrate of the ] area in 1817 expressed disgust at how the local ] women and girls there were marrying and cohabiting almost exclusively with foreign ] ''lascars''.<ref></ref> Nevertheless, 'mixed' marriages were generally accepted in British society at the time{{Citation needed|date=July 2009}}, with no legal restrictions against inter-ethnic marriage. In addition to inter-ethnic marriage and cohabitation, inter-ethnic ] was also common at the time, when ]n ''lascar'' seamen would frequently visit local ] prostitutes{{Citation needed|date=July 2009}}, especially in the ] area where ] and ] sex workers specialized in entertaining ] seamen, due to the clients in the area consisting almost entirely of foreign South Asian ''lascars'', in addition to smaller numbers of ], ], ] and ] seamen.<ref name=Fisher>{{citation|title=Counterflows to Colonialism: Indian Traveller and Settler in Britain 1600-1857|first=Michael Herbert|last=Fisher|year=2006|publisher=Orient Blackswan|isbn=8178241544|pages=106, 111–6, 119–20, 129–35, 140–2, 154–8, 160–8, 172, 181}}{{Request quotation|date=July 2009}}</ref><ref>{{citation|title=Working across the Seas: Indian Maritime Labourers in India, Britain, and in Between, 1600–1857|first=Michael Herbert|last=Fisher|year=2006|journal=]|volume=51|pages=21–45|doi=10.1017/S0020859006002604}}</ref><ref>{{citation|title=The Infidel Within: The History of Muslims in Britain, 1800 to the Present|first=Humayun|last=Ansari|year=2004|publisher=C. Hurst & Co. Publishers|isbn=1850656851|page=58}}</ref> Frequent intermarriage and cohabitation led to the breeding of “]” ] (]) children in Britain, which challenged the British elite efforts to "define them using simple dichotomies of British versus Indian, ruler versus ruled." By the mid-19th century, there were more than 40,000 Indian seamen, diplomats, scholars, soldiers, officials, tourists, businessmen and students arriving to Britain.<ref name=Fisher-2007>{{citation|title=Excluding and Including "Natives of India": Early-Nineteenth-Century British-Indian Race Relations in Britain|first=Michael H.|last=Fisher|journal=Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East|volume=27|issue=2|year=2007|pages=303–314 |doi=10.1215/1089201x-2007-007}}</ref> By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there were around 70,000 South Asian visitors in Britain,<ref>{{cite web|author=Radhakrishnan Nayar|title=The lascars' lot|publisher='']''|date=January 5, 2003|url=http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/lr/2003/01/05/stories/2003010500200300.htm|accessdate=2009-01-16}}</ref> 51,616 of whom were ''lascar'' seamen (when ] began).<ref>{{citation|title=The Infidel Within: The History of Muslims in Britain, 1800 to the Present|first=Humayun|last=Ansari|year=2004|publisher=C. Hurst & Co. Publishers|isbn=1850656851|page=37}}</ref>

Following World War I, there was a large surplus of females in Britain,<ref>{{citation|title=The Infidel Within: The History of Muslims in Britain, 1800 to the Present|first=Humayun|last=Ansari|year=2004|publisher=C. Hurst & Co. Publishers|isbn=1850656851|page=94}}</ref> and there were increasing numbers of seamen arriving from the ], ], ] and ]. This led to increased intermarriage and cohabitation with local ] females, which raised concerns over miscegenation and led to several ]s at the time<ref>{{citation|first=Lucy|last=Bland|title=White Women and Men of Colour: Miscegenation Fears in Britain after the Great War|journal=Gender & History|volume=17|issue=1|date=April 2005|pages=29–61|doi=10.1111/j.0953-5233.2005.00371.x}}</ref>. By ], any form of intimate relationship between a white woman and non-white man was often considered offensive.<ref>{{citation|title=The Infidel Within: The History of Muslims in Britain, 1800 to the Present|first=Humayun|last=Ansari|year=2004|publisher=C. Hurst & Co. Publishers|isbn=1850656851|pages=93–4}}</ref>

Concerns were repeatedly voiced regarding white adolescent girls forming relationships with ] men, including South Asian seamen in the 1920s,<ref name=Jackson>{{citation|title=Women Police: Gender, Welfare and Surveillance in the Twentieth Century|first=Louise Ainsley|last=Jackson|publisher=]|year=2006|isbn=0719073901|page=154}}</ref> Muslim immigrants in the 1920s to 1940s,<ref>{{citation|title=The Infidel Within: The History of Muslims in Britain, 1800 to the Present|first=Humayun|last=Ansari|year=2004|publisher=C. Hurst & Co. Publishers|isbn=1850656851|page=93}}</ref> ] ] during World War II, ] and ] cafe owners in the 1940s to 1950s, Caribbean immigrants in the 1950s to 1960s, and South Asian immigrants in the 1960s.

Inter-ethnic relationships have become increasingly accepted over the last several decades. As of 2001, 2% of all marriages in Britain are inter-ethnic. Despite having a much lower non-white population (9%), mixed marriages in the United Kingdom are as common as in the ], though America has much less specific definitions of race (four racial definitions as opposed to the United Kingdom's 86).<ref name="Natstats">{{cite web|url=http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=1090|title=Inter-Ethnic Marriage: 2% of all Marriages are Inter-Ethnic|date=2005-03-21|publisher=National Statistics|accessdate=2008-07-15}}</ref> As of 2005, it is estimated that nearly half of British-born African-Caribbean males, a third of British-born African-Caribbean females, and a fifth of ] and ] males, have white partners.<ref>{{citation|first=Lucy|last=Bland|title=White Women and Men of Colour: Miscegenation Fears in Britain after the Great War|journal=Gender & History|volume=17|issue=1|date=April 2005|pages=29–61 |doi=10.1111/j.0953-5233.2005.00371.x}}</ref> As of 2009, one in 10 children in the UK lives in a mixed-race family and two out of five ] women have partners of a different race.<ref>, The Observer, January 18, 2009</ref>

===Middle East===
====Western Asia====
], c. 1884]]

Inter-ethnic ] was common during the ] throughout the ] and ], when women and girls captured from non-Arab lands often ended up as sexual slaves in the ]s of the ].<ref>, ]</ref> Most of these slaves came from places such as ] (mainly '']''), the ] (mainly ]),<ref>] 1856]</ref> ] (mainly ]), and ] and ] (mainly '']'').<ref></ref> The ]s also captured 1.25 million slaves from ] and ] between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.<ref></ref><ref>Davis, Robert. ''Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast and Italy, 1500-1800''. Based on "records for 27,233 voyages that set out to obtain slaves for the Americas". Stephen Behrendt, "Transatlantic Slave Trade", ''Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience'' (New York: Basic Civitas Books, 1999), ISBN 0-465-00071-1.</ref> It was also common for ], ] and ] to frequently intermarry with local females in the lands they conquered or traded with, in various different parts of Africa, Asia (see ] section) and Europe (see ] section).

The medieval West-Asian world was repeatedly invaded by ]ans (]) and ] (]) which led to opportunities for interracial relationships between ]an, ] and other Central Asian soldiers with local women. Besides several Europeans, Africans, South Asians and Central Asians worked as mercenaries and traders in the area, many of them converting to Islam and marrying moslem women.

Inter-ethnic relationships were generally accepted in West Asian society and was a fairly common theme in medieval ] and ]. For example, the ] poet ], who himself had intermarried with his ] slave girl, wrote ''The Seven Beauties'' (1196). Its ] involves a ] prince intermarrying with seven foreign princesses, including ], ], ], ]ian, ]ian, ] and ] princesses. ''

]'', a 12th-century Arabic tale from ], was a love story involving an ] girl and a ] man. The '']'' tale of "]" involves a ]i man's relationship with foreign slave girls, four of which are ], ], ] and ].<ref>{{citation|title=The Arabian Nights Encyclopedia|last=Ulrich Marzolph, Richard van Leeuwen|first=Hassan Wassouf|publisher=]|year=2004|isbn=1576072045|pages=289–90}}</ref>

Another ''One Thousand and One Nights'' tale, "]", involves the ], Qamar al-Aqmar, rescuing his lover, the Princess of ], from the ] who also wishes to marry her.<ref>{{citation|title=The Arabian Nights Encyclopedia|last=Ulrich Marzolph, Richard van Leeuwen|first=Hassan Wassouf|publisher=]|year=2004|isbn=1576072045|pages=172–4}}</ref>

====Israel====
{{See also|Who is a Jew?}}

The modern ] was established as a ] for the ] people. In this context, being a Jew can be defined either by religious adherence, or the sense of a common ], which makes the definition of Jewish an ] concept. This is further confused by the rule in ] (Jewish religious law) that Jewish status is inherited, but from the mother only. Thus the child of a Jewish woman is born a Jew, regardless of whether mother or child adheres to the Jewish religion, or whether the father is a Jew, but the child of a non-Jewish woman is not born a Jew, unless she has formally converted to Judaism first. Traditional Orthodox Jews oppose such intermarriage between Jews (maternal Jews and gentile converts to Judaism) to non-Jews (gentiles and paternal "Jews").

Jewish miscegenation thus has two forms: marriage between Jew and non-Jew, and marriage between Jews of different races. It should be noted, while Jews may be of different races, genetic studies have proven that most Jews originate from a common ancestral Israelite population.<ref>(M.F. Hammer, Proc. Nat'l Academy of Science, ] ])</ref>

In Israel, all marriages must be performed by religious celebrants. ] does not exist in Israel, although it is legally recognized if it is performed abroad. Rules governing marriage are based on strict religious guidelines of each religion. By Israeli law, authority over all issues related to Judaism in Israel, including marriage, falls under the Orthodox ]. ] is the only form of Judaism recognized by the state, and marriages performed by non-Orthodox Rabbis in Israel are not recognized (although they are recognized if performed abroad). ''Halakha'' prohibits marriage of Jews to non-Jews. The Rabbinate in Israel will not perform a marriage between a ''halakhic'' Jew (one born of a Jewish mother or Jewish by conversion) to a non-Jew or to a "non-''halakhic'' Jew", even if the non-''halakhic'' Jew is considered a Jew under Israeli civil law, such as a person of Jewish paternal descent. This is regardless of whether the ''halakhic'' Jew is Orthodox. <ref name="susser">Susser, Susan, M. (March, 2004) ''Jewish Currents'' Accessed ],]</ref>
Multi-faith couples must get married outside of Israel to avoid this ], most often in ].
<ref name="Cohen">Barkat, Amiram. (],]) ''Haaretz'' Accessed ],] </ref><ref>Maoz, Asher. (December. 1997) ''The International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists'' No. 15. Accessed ],].</ref>

Israeli law concerns itself with miscegenation based on ethnicity and religion, not miscegenation based on race. Therefore, there are no restrictions on interracial marriages between Jews of different ], or between other co-religionists of different races, although social stigma may still exist.

The only other option in Israel for the marriage of a Jew to a non-Jew, or for that matter, a ] to a non-Christian or a ] to a non-Muslim, is for one partner to convert formally to the other's religion. A non-''halakhic''
Jew who wishes to marry a ''halakhic'' Jew must also convert formally to Judaism.

According to a '']'' article "Justice Ministry drafts civil marriage law for ‘refuseniks’"<ref>Azoulay, Yuval. (],]) ''Haaretz'' Accessed ],].</ref> 300,000 people are affected by these marriage restrictions.

===Portuguese colonies===
According to ], a Brazilian sociologist, miscegenation was commonplace in the ], and was even supported by the court as a way to boost low populations and guarantee a successful and cohesive settlement. Thus, settlers often released ]s to become their wives. The children were guaranteed full ], provided the parents were married. Some former Portuguese colonies have large ] populations, for instance, ], ], ], ] and ]. In the case of Brazil, the influential "Indianist" novels of ] (], ], and ]) perhaps went farther than in the other colonies, advocating miscegenation in order to create a truly Brazilian race<ref>Sá, Lúcia. Rain Forest Literatures: Amazonian Texts and Latin American Culture. Minneapolis, MN: U of Minnesota Press, 2004. ISBN 9780816643257</ref>. Mixed marriages between ] and locals in former ] were very common in all Portuguese colonies. Miscegenation was still common in ] until the independence of the former Portuguese colonies in the mid-1970s.

===United States===
{{See also|Race in the United States }}
<!-- Commented out: ]'', ] and ] became the historically most prominent interracial couple in the US through their legal struggle.{{deletable image-caption|Monday, 6 July 2009}}]] -->
] is a product of an interracial relationship between a white Kansan mother and a Kenyan immigrant father.]]

Historically, "race mixing" between ] and ] people was taboo in the United States (see also ]). In the past, the taboo centered more on white-black marriages than on sexual relations between whites and blacks, because most white Americans refused to accept African-Americans as social equals.

The taboo among American whites surrounding white-black intermarriage can be seen as a historical consequence of the oppression and ] of African-Americans<ref>{{cite journal|last=Yancey|first=George|date=22 March 2007|title=Experiencing Racism: Differences in the Experiences of Whites Married to Blacks and Non-Black Racial Minorities|journal=Journal of Comparative Family Studies|publisher=University of Calgary: Social Sciences|volume=38|issue=2|pages=197–213|accessdate=2008-07-13}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Fredrickson|first=George M.|month=March | year=2005|title=Mulattoes and métis. Attitudes toward miscegenation in the United States and France since the seventeenth century|journal=International Social Science Journal|publisher=Blackwell Publishing|volume=57|issue=183|pages=103–112|url=http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bpl/issj/2005/00000057/00000183/art00009|doi=10.1111/j.0020-8701.2005.00534.x|accessdate=2008-07-13}}</ref>. In many U.S. states interracial marriage was already illegal when the term miscegenation was invented in 1863. The first laws banning interracial marriage were introduced in the late seventeenth century in the slave-holding colonies of Virginia (1691) and Maryland (1692). Later these laws also spread to colonies and states where slavery did not exist.

It has also been argued that the first laws banning interracial marriage were a response by the planter elite to the problems they were facing due to the socio-economic dynamics of the plantation system in the Southern colonies. The bans in Virginia and Maryland were established at a time when slavery was not yet fully institutionalized. At the time, most forced laborers on the plantations were ], and they were mostly white. Some historians have suggested that the at-the-time unprecedented laws banning interracial marriage were originally invented by planters as a ] tactic after the uprising of servants in ]. According to this theory, the ban on interracial marriage was issued to split up the racially mixed, increasingly mixed-race labour force into whites, who were given their freedom, and blacks, who were later treated as slaves rather than as indentured servants. By forbidding interracial marriage, it became possible to keep these two new groups separated and prevent a new rebellion.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://backintyme.com/essays/?p=22|title=Why Did Virginia’s Rulers Invent a Color Line?|last=Sweet|first=Frank. W.|date=2006-11-01|work=Essays on the Color Line and the One-Drop Rule|publisher=Backintyme Essays|accessdate=2008-07-13}}</ref>

A sizable number of indentured servants in the ]n colonies were also brought over from the ] by the ] in the 17th and 18th centuries, when they faced similar treatment to other non-whites who intermarried in America. For example, a ] daughter born to an ] father and ] mother in ] in 1680 was classified as a "]" and sold into slavery. Anti-miscegenation laws there continued into the early 20th century. For example, the ] revolutionary ]'s white American wife, Mary K. Das, was stripped of her American citizenship for her marriage to an "] ineligible for citizenship."<ref>{{cite web|author=Francis C. Assisi|title=Indian-American Scholar Susan Koshy Probes Interracial Sex|year=2005|publisher=INDOlink|url=http://www.indolink.com/displayArticleS.php?id=111605054006|accessdate=2009-01-02}}</ref> In 1918, there was considerable controversy in ] when an Indian farmer B. K. Singh married the sixteen year-old daughter of one of his white tenants.<ref>{{cite web|title=Echoes of Freedom: South Asian Pioneers in California, 1899-1965 - Chapter 9: Home Life|publisher=]|url=http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/SSEAL/echoes/chapter9/chapter9.html|accessdate=2009-01-08}}</ref>

During and after slavery, most American whites regarded interracial marriage between whites and blacks as taboo. However, during slavery many white American men and women did conceive children with black partners. These children automatically became slaves if the mother was a slave or were born free if the mother was free, as slavery was ]. Some children were freed by their slave-holding fathers or bought to be emancipated if the father was not the owner. Many children of these unions formed enclaves under names such as ] and ], etc. Most mixed-raced descendants merged into the African-American ethnic group during ], while over the centuries a minority of mixed-raced Americans passed and became white, and others exist to this day in small mixed enclaves of ]s such as the ]s, ], ], etc. Genetic research suggests that a considerable minority of white Americans (estimated at 1/3 of the population by some geneticists such as Mark Shriver) has some distant African-American ancestry, and that the majority of black Americans have some European ancestry. Some claim marriage records show that in 60% of American white-black intermarriages, the woman is white.
After the Civil War and the ] of slavery in 1865, the intermarriage of white and black Americans continued to be taboo, especially but not only in the former slave states. The Motion Picture ] of 1930, also known as ], explicitly stated that the depiction of ''"miscegenation... is forbidden."''
One important strategy intended to discourage the marriage of white Americans and Americans of partly African descent was the promulgation of the ], which held that any person with any known African ancestry, however remote, must be regarded as "black". This definition of blackness was encoded in the anti-miscegenation laws of various U.S. states, such as Virginia's ].

Accusations of support for miscegenation were commonly made by slavery defenders against Abolitionists before the Civil War. After the War, similar charges were used by white ] against advocates of equal rights for African Americans. They were said to be secretly plotting the destruction of the white race through miscegenation. In the 1950s, segregationists alleged a ] plot funded by the ] with that goal. In 1957, segregationists cite the ] hoax '']'' as evidence for these bogus claims.

In 1958, the ] preacher ], at the time a defender of segregation, in a sermon railed against integration, warning that it would lead to miscegenation, which would "destroy our race eventually."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070528/blumenthal|title=Agent of Intolerance|last=Blumenthal|first=Max|date=2007-05-16|work=Religion|publisher=The Nation|accessdate=2008-07-13}}</ref>. Even later, in 1973, President Richard Nixon went so far as to suggest the children of an inter-racial couple should be aborted in saying that, "There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white." <ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/us/politics/24nixon.html}}</ref>

Asians were also specifically included in some state laws. California continued to ban asian/white marraiges until 1948 until the ] decision, and other US states banned Asians from marrying whites until 1967.

In the United States, segregationists and ] groups have claimed that several verses in the ]<ref name="bibletools">{{cite web|url=http://bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Topical.show/RTD/Nave/ID/3419/Miscegenation.htm|title=Miscegenation|work=Nave's Topical Bible|publisher=Bible Tools|accessdate=2008-07-13}}</ref>, for example the story of ] and the so-called "]", should be understood as referring to miscegenation and that these verses expressly forbid it. Most theologians read these verses as forbidding inter-religious marriage, rather than inter-racial marriage<ref name="biblestudy">{{cite web|url=http://www.biblestudy.org/basicart/interace.html|title="Does the Bible Forbid Interracial Dating and Marriage?|last=Webster|first=Wesley|publisher=Bible Study|accessdate=2008-07-13}}</ref>.

However miscegenation has become increasingly accepted in the United States since the Civil Rights movement and up to the present day.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.umich.edu/news/index.html?Releases/2000/Mar00/r032300a|title=Intimate Relationships Between Races More Common Than Thought|last=Swanbrow|first=Diane|date=2000-03-23|publisher=University of Michigan|accessdate=2008-07-15}}</ref> In the 1997 poll, nearly two-thirds (64%) of black, Hispanic, or Asian teens, who had ever dated and who attended schools with students of more than one race, said they had dated someone who was white.<ref>. Population Reference Bureau. June 2005.</ref> A Gallup Poll on interracial dating in June 2006 found that 95% of 18- to 29-year-olds approve of blacks and whites dating. About 60% of that age group said they have dated someone of a different race.<ref>. USATODAY.com. 2/8/2006.</ref> The black-white marriages increased from 65,000 in 1970 to 422,000 in 2005, according to Census Bureau figures.<ref>. Msnbc.com. April 15, 2007.</ref>

The most notable American of mixed race is the current ], ], who is the product of a "mixed" marriage between a black father and white mother.

==Demographics of ethnoracial admixture==
===U.S.===

According to the U.S. ], in 2000 there were 1,432,908 Hispanic Origin-white marriages.<ref> U.S. Census. Accessed ],]. In terms of the U.S. census, ''Hispanic origin'' supersedes race. Asians who identify ''Hispanic origin'' are not, therefore, including in figures on Asian-black marriage or Asian-white marriage. See the chart for specific breakdown of race within Hispanic origin.</ref>, 504,119 Asian-white marriages, 287,576 black-white marriages, 97,822 Hispanic Origin-black marriages, 40,317 Asian-Hispanic Origin<ref>By the U.S. federal government census, persons of Hispanic origin may be any race. See New York State Demographic Data Terms. Accessed ],].</ref> marriages, and 31,271 Asian-black marriages.

===Brazil===
{{See also|Ethnic groups in Brazil}}

] Brazilians make up ], 79.782 million people, and they live in all regions of ]. Multiracial Brazilians are mainly people of mixed ]an, ]n (]) and ] ancestry.

==Genetic studies of racial admixture==
Miscegenation between two populations reduces the genetic distance between the populations. During the ] which began in the early 15th century, European explorers sailed all across the globe reaching all the major continents. In the process they came into contact with many populations that had been isolated for thousands of years. It is generally accepted that the ]s were the most isolated group on the planet. They were driven to extinction by European explorers, however a number of their descendants survive today as a result of ] with Europeans. This is an example of how modern migrations have begun to reduce the genetic divergence of the human race.

The ] composition of the ] has not changed significantly since the age of discovery. However, the ] demographics were radically changed within a short time following the voyage of ]. The colonization of Americas brought Native Americans into contact with the distant populations of Europe, Africa and Asia. As a result many countries in the Americas have significant and complex ] populations. Furthermore many who identify themselves by only one race still have multiracial ancestry.

===Admixture in the United States===

{| class="wikitable" style="float:right; margin-right:0; margin-left:1em"
|+ Admixture in European-American population
! % European Admixture || Frequency
|-
| 90–100 || 68%
|-
| 80–89.9 || 22%
|-
| 70–79.9 || 8%
|-
| 60–69.9 || < 1%
|-
| 50–59.9 || < 1%
|-
| 40–49.9 || < 1%
|-
| 0–39.9 || 0
|}

Some claim the vast majority of African-Americans possess varying degrees of European admixture (the average Black American is 20% European) although studies suggest the Native American admixture in Black Americans is highly exaggerated; some estimates put average African-American possession of European admixture at 25% with figures as high as 50% in the Northeast and less than 10% in the south. A recent study by Mark D. Shriver of a European-American sample found that the average admixture in the white population is 0.7% African and 3.2% Native American. However, 70% of the sample had no African admixture. The other 30% had African admixture ranging from 2% to 20% with an average of 2.3%. By extrapolating these figures to the whole population some scholars suggest that up to 74 million European-Americans may have African admixture in the same range (2-20%).

Dr Mark Shriver, the team leader of the study, found that he had 11% West African ancestry though he identifies as white. Studies based on skin reflectance have shown the color line in the US applied selective pressure on genes that code for skin color but did not apply any selective pressure on other invisible African genes. Since there are an estimated 6 genetic loci involved in skin color determination it is possible for someone to have 15-20% African admixture and not possess any of alleles that code for dark skin. This is the basis of the ] phenomena. Thus African admixture amongst white Americans can increase without any significant change in skin tone. Conversely amongst African-Americans, an amount of African Admixture is directly correlated with darker skin since no selective pressure is applied; as a result, African-Americans may have a much wider range of African admixture (>0-100%), whereas European-Americans have a lower range (2-20%). A small overlap exists so that it is possible that someone who identifies themself as ] may have more African admixture than a person who identifies themself as ]<ref>{{cite book|last=Sweet|first=Frank W. |title=Legal History of the Color Line: The Notion of Invisible Blackness|publisher=Backintyme Publishing|date=2005-07-31|pages=542|isbn=0939479230 |url=http://backintyme.com/ad230.php|accessdate=2008-07-13}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://backintyme.com/essays/?p=5|title=Afro-European Genetic Admixture in the United States|last=Sweet|first=Frank W.|date=2004-06-08|work=Essays on the Color Line and the One-Drop Rule|publisher=Backintyme Essays|accessdate=2008-07-13}}</ref>.

A statistical analysis done in 1958 using historical census data and historical data on immigration and birth rates, concluded that 21 percent of the white population had black ancestors. The growth in the white population could not be attributed to births in the white population and immigration from Europe alone, but had received significant contribution from the African American population as well<ref>{{cite journal|last=Stuckert|first=Robert P.|month=May | year=1908|title=African Ancestry of the White American Population|journal=The Ohio Journal of Science|volume=58|issue=3|pages=155|url=https://kb.osu.edu/dspace/bitstream/1811/4532/1/V58N03_155.pdf|format=PDF|accessdate=2008-07-13}}</ref>.
The author states in 1958:

{{quote|The data presented in this study indicate that the popular belief in the non-African background of white persons is invalid. Over twenty-eight million white persons are descendants of persons of African origin. Furthermore, the majority of the persons with African ancestry are classified as white.}}

In the United States intermarriage among Filipinos with other races is common. They have the largest number of interracial marriages among Asian immigrant groups, as documented in California.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.asian-nation.org/interracial.shtml
|title=Interracial Dating & Marriage
|publisher=asian-nation.org
|accessdate=2007-08-30}}</ref> It is also noted that 21.8% of Filipino Americans are of mixed blood, second among Asian Americans, and is the fastest growing.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.asian-nation.org/multiracial.shtml
|title=Multiracial / Hapa Asian Americans
|publisher=asian-nation.org
|accessdate=2007-08-30}}</ref>

===Admixture in Latin America===
====Background====
Prior to the ]an conquest of the ] the demographics of ] was naturally 100% ]. Today those who identify themselves as Native Americans are small minorities in many countries. For example the CIA lists ]'s ], ] ], and ] is 0%.<ref></ref>

The early conquest of Latin America was primarily carried out by male soldiers and sailors from ] and ]. Since they carried very few European women on their journeys the new settlers married and fathered children with Amerindian women and also with women imported from Africa. This process of miscegenation was even encouraged by the ] and it led to the system of stratification known as the ]. This system had Europeans (mainly ] and ]) at the top of the hierarchy followed by those of ]. Unmixed Blacks and Native Americans were at the bottom. A philosophy of whitening emerged in which Amerindian and African culture was stigmatized in favor of European values. Many Amerindian languages were lost as mixed race offspring adopted ] and ] as their first languages. Only towards the end of the 19th Century and beginning of the twentieth century did large numbers of Europeans begin to migrate to ] and consequently altering its ].

In addition many ] were shipped to regions all over the Americas and were present in many of the early voyages of the ]s. ] has the largest population of African descendants outside ]. Other countries such as ], ], ], ], ], ], ], and ] still have sizeable populations identified as ]. However countries such as ] and ] do not have a visible African presence today. Census information from the early 19th century shows that people categorized as Black made up to 30% of the population, or around 400,000 people<ref>{{cite journal|last=Fejerman|first=L.|coauthors=Carnese F. R., Goicoechea A. S., Avena S. A., Dejean C. B., Ward R. H.|month=September | year=2005|title=African ancestry of the population of Buenos Aires|journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology|volume=128|issue=1|pages=164–70|url=http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15714513&dopt=Citation|pmid=15714513|accessdate=2008-07-13|doi=10.1002/ajpa.20083}}</ref>. Though almost completely absent today, their contribution to Argentine culture is significant include the ], the ] and the ], words of ] origin<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/argentina.html|title=Blacks in Argentina: Disappearing Acts|last=Aidi|first=Hisham|date=2002-04-02|work=History Notes|publisher=The Global African Community|accessdate=2008-07-13}}</ref>.

{| class="wikitable" style="float: right;"
|-
! colspan="4" | Demographics of Brazil from 1835 to 2000<ref name="skidmore">{{cite journal|first=Thomas E. |last=Skidmore |title=Fact and Myth: Discovering a Racial Problem in Brazil|journal=Working Paper|volume=173|url=http://www.nd.edu/~kellogg/publications/workingpapers/WPS/173.pdf|format=PDF|month=April | year=1992}}</ref>
|-
! Year!! White !! Brown!! Black
|-
| 1835
| 24.4% || 18.2%||51.4%
|-
| 2000
| 53.7% ||38.5%||6.2%
|-
|}
The ideology of whitening encouraged non whites to seek white or lighter skinned partners. This dilution of non-white admixture would be beneficial to their offspring as they would face less stigmatization and find it easier to assimilate into mainstream society. After successive generations of European gene flow, non-white admixture levels would drop below levels at which skin color or physical appearance is not affected thus allowing individuals to identify as white. In many regions, the native and black populations were simply overwhelmed by a succession of waves of European immigration.

Historians and scientists are thus interested in tracing the fate of Native Americans and Africans from the past to the future. The questions remain about what proportion of these populations simply died out and what proportion still has descendants alive today including those who do not racially identify themselves as their ancestors would have. Admixture testing has thus become a useful objective tool in shedding light on the demographic history of Latin America.

====Recent studies====
Unlike in the United States there were no anti-miscegenation policies in Latin America. Though still a racially stratified society there were no significant barriers to gene flow between the three populations. As a result admixture profiles are a reflection of the colonial populations of Africans, Europeans and Amerindians. The pattern is also sex biased in that the African and Amerindian maternal lines are found in significantly higher proportions than African or Amerindian Y chromosomal lines. This is an indication that the primary mating pattern was that of European males with Amerindian or African females. According to the study more than half the white populations of the Latin American countries studied have some degree of either native American or African admixture (] or ]). In countries such as Chile and Colombia almost the entire white population was shown to have some non-white admixture<ref>{{cite journal|last=Martínez Marignac|first=Verónica L.|coauthors=Bianchi Néstor O., Bertoni Bernardo, Parra Esteban J.|month=August | year=2004|title=Characterization of Admixture in an Urban Sample from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Using Uniparentally and Biparentally Inherited Genetic Markers|journal=Human Biology|publisher=Wayne State University Press|volume=76|issue=4|pages=543–57|url=http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/human_biology/v076/76.4marignac.html|accessdate=2008-07-13|doi=10.1353/hub.2004.0058}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Gonçalves|first=V. F.|coauthors=Prosdocimi F., Santos L. S., Ortega J. M., Pena S. D. J.|date=2007-05-09|title=Sex-biased gene flow in African Americans but not in American Caucasians |journal=Genetics and Molecular Research|volume=6|issue=2|pages=256–61|issn=16765680|url=http://www.funpecrp.com.br/gmr/year2007/vol2-6/gmr0330_full_text.htm|accessdate=2008-07-13}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Alves-Silva|first=Juliana |coauthors=da Silva Santos, Magda; Guimarães, Pedro E. M.; Ferreira, Alessandro C. S.; Bandelt, Hans-Jürgen; Pena, Sérgio D. J.; Ferreira Prad, Vania|month=August | year=2000 |title=The Ancestry of Brazilian mtDNA Lineages|journal=The American Journal of Human Genetics|volume=67|issue=2|pages=444–61|url=http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1287189|pmid=PMC1287189|accessdate=2008-07-13|doi=10.1086/303004}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Salzano|first=Francisco M. |coauthors=Cátira Bortolini, Maria |title=The Evolution and Genetics of Latin American Populations|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|year=2002|series=Cambridge Studies in Biological and Evolutionary Anthropology|volume=28|pages=512|isbn=0521652758|accessdate=2008-07-13}}</ref>. Following the dispersal of Humans from Africa 50,000 - 70,000 years ago South America was the last continent to be occupied by humans. Thus the largest geographic distance between continents is between Africa and South America. Since genetic distance increases with geographic distance the two most genetically divergent groups are Africans and Native Americans based on distance. The arrival of Africans in Brazil and subsequent mixing with native South Americans entails the creation of intermediate populations, such as the ] or ] between the two divergent groups.

===Admixture in the Philippines===
], admixture has been an ever present and pervading phenomenon in the Philippines. The Philippines was originally settled by ] peoples called ] which now form the country's aboriginal community. Admixture occurred between this earlier group and the mainstream ] population.<ref name=stanford/>

There has been ] to and influence in the Philippines since the precolonial era. About 25% of the words in the Tagalog language are Sanskrit terms and about 5% of the country's population possess ]n ancestry from antiquity.<ref name=precolonial/> There has been a ] presence in the ] since the ninth century. However, large-scale migrations of Chinese to the Philippines only started during the Spanish colonial era, when the world market was opened to the Philippines. It is estimated that among ], 10%-20% have some Chinese ancestry and 1.5% are "full-blooded" Chinese.<ref name=ocac/>

According to the American ] Dr. H. Otley Beyer, the ancestry of ] is 2% ]. This dates back to when Arab traders intermarried with the local ] and Filipina female populations during the ].<ref name=Arab-Malays/> A recent genetic study by ] indicates that at least 3.6% of the population are ] or of part European descent from both ] and ] colonization. <ref></ref>

===Admixture among the Romani people===
Genetic evidence has shown that the ] ("]") originated from the ] and mixed with the local populations in ], the ], and ]. In the 1990s, it was discovered that Romani populations carried large frequencies of particular ]s (inherited paternally) that otherwise exist only in populations from ], in addition to fairly significant frequencies of particular ] (inherited maternally) that is rare outside South Asia.

47.3% of Roma men carry Y chromosomes of ] which is rare outside of the Indian subcontinent.<ref name="kalaydjieva">{{cite journal
|doi=10.1002/bies.20287
|title=A Newly Discovered Founder Population: The Roma/Gypsies
|author=Kalaydjieva, L. |coauthors=Morar, B.; Chaix, R. and Tang, H.
|journal=BioEssays |volume=27 |year=2005 |pages=1084–1094
}}</ref> Mitochondrial ], most common in Indian subjects and rare outside Southern Asia, accounts for nearly 30% of Roma people.<ref name="kalaydjieva"/> A more detailed study of ] shows this to be of the M5 lineage, which is specific to ].<ref>{{cite journal
|doi= 10.1111/j.1529-8817.2005.00222.x
|title=Mitochondrial DNA Diversity in the Polish Roma
|author=Malyarchuk, B.A.; Grzybowski, T.; Derenko, M.V.; Czarny, J. and Miscicka-Slivvka, D. (2006)
|journal=Annals of Human Genetics|volume=70|pages=195–206
|year=2006
}}</ref> Moreover, a form of the inherited disorder ] is found in Romani subjects. This form of the disorder, caused by the 1267delG mutation, is otherwise only known in subjects of Indian ancestry. This is considered to be the best evidence of the Indian ancestry of the Romanies.<ref name="Bharti_Morar">{{Citation |title=Mutation history of the Roma-Gypsies |url=http://lib.bioinfo.pl/pmid:15322984 |accessdate=2008-06-16}}</ref>

The Roma have been described as "a conglomerate of genetically isolated founder populations",<ref name="Luba_Kalaydjieva">{{cite journal |title=Genetic studies of the Roma (Gypsies): A review |url=http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2350/2/5 |accessdate=2008-06-16 |doi=10.1186/1471-2350-2-5 |year=2001 |last=Kalaydjieva |first=Luba |journal=BMC Medical Genetics |volume=2 |pages=5 }}</ref> while a number of common Mendelian disorders among Romanies from all over Europe indicates "a common origin and founder effect".<ref name ="Luba_Kalaydjieva"/> See also this table: <ref>http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2350/2/5/figure/F4</ref>

A study from 2001 by Gresham et al. suggests "a limited number of related founders, compatible with a small group of migrants splitting from a distinct caste or tribal group".<ref name="David Gresham">{{Citation |title=Origins and Divergence of the Roma (Gypsies) |url=http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1235543 |accessdate=2008-06-16 |pmid=11704928 |journal=American Journal of Human Genetics |issue=6 |volume=69 |pages=1314 |year=2001 |month=Dec |day=01 }}</ref> Also the study pointed out that "genetic drift and different levels and sources of admixture, appear to have played a role in the subsequent differentiation of populations".<ref name="David_Gresham"/> The same study found that "a single lineage ... found across Romani populations, accounts for almost one-third of Romani males. A similar preservation of a highly resolved male lineage has been reported elsewhere only for Jewish priests".<ref name="David_Gresham"/> See also the ].

A 2004 study by Morar et al. concluded that the Roma are "a founder population of common origins that has subsequently split into multiple socially divergent and geographically dispersed Gypsy groups".<ref name="Bharti_Morar"/> The same study revealed that this population "was founded approximately 32–40 generations ago, with secondary and tertiary founder events occurring approximately 16–25 generations ago".<ref name="Bharti_Morar"/>

==See also==
{{too many see alsos}}

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==Notes and references==
{{reflist|2}}

==Other sources==
* {{cite book |author=Cavanaugh-O'Keefe, John. |title=The Roots of Racism and Abortion: An Exploration of Eugenics |publisher=Xlibris Corporation |date=2000-10-23 |url=http://www.eugenics-watch.com/roots/index.html|isbn=0738830895|pages=268}} See esp.
* {{cite book|author=Croly, David Goodman|title=Miscegenation, The Theory of the Blending of the Races, Applied to the American White Man and Negro|location=New York|isbn=0738830895|publisher=H. Dexter, Hamilton & Co|year=1864}}
* {{cite book|author=Hodes, Martha, ed. "Miscegenation"|title=Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History|location=New York, Boston|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company|year=1998|isbn=0-395-67173-6}}
* {{cite journal|last=Kaplan|first=Sidney|month=July | year=1949|title=The Miscegenation Issue in the Election of 1864|journal=The Journal of Negro History|publisher=Association for the Study of African American Life and History|volume=34|issue=3|pages=274–434|accessdate=2008-07-14|doi=10.2307/2715904}}
* {{cite book|author=Lemire, Elise|title="Miscegenation": Making Race in America|location=Philadelphia|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|month=July | year=2002|isbn=0-812-23664-5}}
* {{cite journal |last=Novkov |first=Julie |title=Racial Constructions: The Legal Regulation of Miscegenation in Alabama, 1890-1934 |journal=Law and History Review |issue=2 |pages=225–277 |volume=20|date=Summer 2002 |accessdate=2007-06-28 |url=http://academic.udayton.edu/race/04needs/sex04.htm |doi=10.2307/744035}}
* {{cite news |last=Pascoe |first=Peggy |title=Why the Ugly Rhetoric Against Gay Marriage Is Familiar to this Historian of Miscegenation |publisher=George Mason University's History News Network |date=2004-04-19 |url=http://hnn.us/articles/4708.html |accessdate=2008-07-14}}
* {{cite book|last=Rosenthal|first=Debra J.|title=Race Mixture in Nineteenth-Century U.S and Spanish-American Fiction|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|year=2004|isbn=0-807-85564-2|url=http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=i_8kSPDFVGEC&dq=Race+Mixture+in+Nineteenth-Century+U.S+and+Spanish-American+Fiction&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=IZNVNGH5E1&sig=Pu0vBoIfR9wNrLkV2h-OKgWStZI&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result}}
* {{cite book|title=Interracialism: Black-White Intermarriage in American History, Literature, and Law|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|date=2000-10-19|edition=Sollors, Werner|isbn=0195128567|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6524/is_200110/ai_n25878127|accessdate=2008-07-14|author=ed. by Werner Sollors}}

==External links==
* Issues on the About.com Website.
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{{Sexual ethics}}

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Revision as of 01:04, 1 August 2009