Here’s a question I have never seen asked, much less answered: when did white people come into existence?
I don’t mean to be facetious. I just surmise that people originally started off dark, if humanity began in Africa. Animals that need sun protection either have hair or dark skin, and so do people. But as people move into areas in which there is less sunlight, not only do they need less protection but the melanin that protects them from overexposure to the sun may also prevent them from acquiring enough Vitamin D. It has even been suggested that the high incidence of asthma in black people living in the US may come from chronic prenatal Vitamin D deprivation. (Nice hypothesis but remains to be demonstrated conclusively.) So I’m wondering if unpigmented mutations were able to survive after our ancestors moved into northern Europe and northern Asia. Possible? Feel free to shoot this down, I’d like to hear alternative ideas.
“Here’s a question I have never seen asked, much less answered: when did white people come into existence?”
And as far as that goes I’d like to know why whites who go to live in Africa don’t become black again after a few generations. I think I can say the same thing about Jews who retire in Florida and maybe even ex-Nazis summering in Buenos Aires. Why don’t they darken, like double quick, and just stay that way?
But to answer your question I think whites first appeared when the potatoes named after them began to be cultivated and about the same time that whiskey was invented. No, excuse me, I somehow confused white people with the Irish. My bad.
I give up, when did they first appear? If it was during the last Ice Age then I wonder why the Indians and the Asians didn’t lighten up too so as to better camouflage themselves in the snow. That would make hunting mammoths a whole lot easier because then they couldn’t see you sneaking up on them across the tundra.
Speaking of which why don’t polar bears become grizzlies when they’re moved to live in the San Francisco zoo? Nevermind, I think I just answered my own question.
Okay, your turn...
Make it count.
Origin of white Europeans?
blam has posted several interesting articles on this subject which I read a while ago. The need for Vitamin D for the proper formation of bones and a pelvic girdle wide enough to facilitate healthy childbearing was paramount in adapting to cold climates. Melanin blocks the absorbtion of Vitamin D which makes dark skin useful in tropical climes. Think the very dark, Caucasian Dravidians in south India. Wearing clothing is a modern adaptation to protecting whites in the south from too much Vitamin D.
Interesting new discovery. Apparently some depression, especially the winter kind, may be related to insufficient Vitamin D. You can check out your depression by taking about 1,000 units of Vitamin D for a while and see if it makes a difference. If it does, then plan to up your use of Vitamin D or sun exposure as needed. Asians/Eskimos have responded to the Vitamin D problem by having oily skin. Vitamin D forms from skin oils being exposed to the sun. The more skin oil, the more Vitamin D. The Vitamin D is then absorbed into the body. If you have no skin oil or bathe after being in the sun, you won’t get the benefit. It is probably helpful to wait 4 to 6 hours before bathing to allow the Vitamin D to be absorbed. Question, does too much bathing lead to depression?
Scientist are conjecturing that Neanderthals were blue eyed redheads and that this trait is found in a lot of northern Britains/Scotch. I think my husband was one. Heavy bones, strong brow ridge, short legs, the right coloring, very sun sensitive, warrior temperment, Scotch/Viking ancestry. If so, this mutation probably occurred at least 100,000 years ago, or perhaps much earlier and enabled the possessors to survive in Ice Age conditions.
A chance mutation in Africans moving north, would finally have enabled them to compete with the Neanderthal in the closing millenia of the last Ice Age. Otherwise, even if they had traveled there, the women would not have reproduced very effectively because of poor pelvic structure. Scandinavians eating whole sardines and herring would have gotten enough Vitamin D in their diet, without the need for good skin absorbtion. This would also have been true for any African migrant coastal dwellers with that kind of diet, as well as Eskimos.