How Europeans Evolved White Skin

Science Magazine ^ | 02/15/2018 | Ann Gibbons

[Crucial]

How Europeans evolved white skin

By Ann Gibbons

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI—Most of us think of Europe as the ancestral home of white people. But a new study shows that pale skin, as well as other traits such as tallness and the ability to digest milk as adults, arrived in most of the continent relatively recently. The work, presented here last week at the 84th annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, offers dramatic evidence of recent evolution in Europe and shows that most modern Europeans don’t look much like those of 8000 years ago.

The origins of Europeans have come into sharp focus in the past year as researchers have sequenced the genomes of ancient populations, rather than only a few individuals. By comparing key parts of the DNA across the genomes of 83 ancient individuals from archaeological sites throughout Europe, the international team of researchers reported earlier this year that Europeans today are a mix of the blending of at least three ancient populations of hunter-gatherers and farmers who moved into Europe in separate migrations over the past 8000 years. The study revealed that a massive migration of Yamnaya herders from the steppes north of the Black Sea may have brought Indo-European languages to Europe about 4500 years ago.

Now, a new study from the same team drills down further into that remarkable data to search for genes that were under strong natural selection—including traits so favorable that they spread rapidly throughout Europe in the past 8000 years. By comparing the ancient European genomes with those of recent ones from the 1000 Genomes Project, population geneticist Iain Mathieson, a postdoc in the Harvard University lab of population geneticist David Reich, found five genes associated with changes in diet and skin pigmentation that underwent strong natural selection.

[greatvikingone]

Noah had three sons. After the flood they parted ways - one went toward Asia, one to Africa, and one through the Middle East and into Europe - just about 4500 years ago...

[SunTzuWu]

Bookmark.

[Mr Radical]

I suspect syphilis was world-wide long before 1492. I once visited an archaeological dig where they were unearthing a Roman cemetery, the guide pointed to one grave and said, "This set of bones has shows clear signs of the disease [syphilis]."

Je suis Angles!

[Tallguy]

“NO one complains when I point out that some races are typically faster, stronger, and can jump high.”

At one time they did. Jimmy the Greek got fired from CBS Sports for making that observation.

[Paul R.]

Yup. My wife, as wonderful as she is, is from a warmer climate w/ year-round growing season, and on a very fundamental level does not understand why I plan and conserve the way I do. “God takes care of even the flowers and birds” doesn’t cut it in, say, Germany, esp. during a mini Ice Age.

[Mr Radical]

I’m at a loss to name an institution not corrupted by the Left.
It's deliberate, of course. Someone, somewhere must have a long list, and they are very patiently ticking them off that list. They scatter their seeds widely, but key was the MSM, followed by education. IMHO.

[CardCarryingMember.VastRightWC]

"... no more powerful force in the world than race hatred .."

I hate to say anything that makes me sound like a "conspiracy nut," but what the hey! This is FR after all! But anyhow ...

I feel that the current vitriolic outpouring of racial hatred from Blacks and, to a lesser degree from Hispanics, is deliberately instigated and egged on by white leftists, and that it's no coincidence it began in Obama's second term.

Democrats were ecstatic to see a leftist win the White House in 2008, just as in 1992. But the problem has always been in getting a leftist Prez re-elected 4 yrs later, because they will then have a record they must run on and defend, a record that invariably stinks to high heaven.

Both candidates won their first terms by winning the lion's share of the UAF's (unaffiliated voters) - the "center" of the electorate who have traditionally decided who wins the White House.

For Clinton, the snake oil peddled by the MSM that won him his first term was that he was a "New Democrat," a conservative Southern small-state governor who would rule from the center instead of the Left. For Obama, their snake oil was that all that pent-up White Guilt suffered by the Left and most of the center, could with a single election be banished forever. The "historic" election of a black man would finally, once and for all, drive a nail into the coffin of the divisive racical issue. White America could atone for the sins of their ancestors by elevating BHO to the Presidency. This was America's big chance to be a post-racial society.

The snake oil, different brands for different elections, worked as planned.

But with both WJC and BHO, the reality of how they governed in their first terms blew their covers, leaving them vulnerable for re-election, as the great middle-of-the-road voters turned against them.

November 1994 was Clinton's wakeup call, as The Center overwhelmingly revolted. To compensate, he had to move significantly towards the center for the next 2 years. That, plus a political war chest swamping that of Bob Dole's (much of it illegally obtained from foreign fatcats & rulers), plus Perot's repeat role of Spoiler, let him eke out a plurality in enough states, as the UAF's forgave him and once again gave him more votes than they did Dole.

But Obama's re-election was quite different. He never shifted towards the center during his first term. And the UAF's turned against him, and voted for Romney over him.

By all the time-honored political equations of US Presidential election history, Obama should have lost. But instead, something exceedingly rare happened: an incumbent who lost the UAF vote nevertheless eked out a victory.

Unheard of. So how did this happen? The major reason: Because blacks, who always overwhelmingly vote reflexively for Democrats, but who rarely turn out in large numbers, defied their traditional voting patterns for both elections. And in 2012, that edge was sufficient for the first time in recent memory to overcome a loss of the UAF voters.

I think the movers & shakers of the Dems, including their Sugar Daddies like Soros and Steyer and their ilk, realized that Obama's re-election was a fluke, made possible only by his race providing extremely high motivation to black voters. Looking to the post-Obama era, they saw no other viable black candidates to replace him on the ballot, and knew the black voter turnout would surely subside to its traditional anemic levels.

So once his re-election was over, they knew that to continue putting leftists into the WH, they had to continue ginning up the black vote, to find a way to keep that turnout high.

So here comes my Conspiracy Theory: I think they figured that pushing all the racial hatred buttons they had, as often & as hard as they could, would light a fire under black voters to keep their voter enthusiasm high.

That's why midway into Obama's 2nd term we saw big Leftist money - particularly from Soros groups - stoking the hatred in Ferguson MO, selling the "Hands Up" lie to blacks. And funding Black Lives Matter, to stoke hatred between blacks and cops, particularly white cops. ... To name just a few.

I believe this was all to increase black turnout in 2016.

Eventually, if they succeed in remaking America by importing millions of new voters in sufficient numbers to enough swing states (flipping Texas and Florida alone should suffice to create a permanent one-party nation), they'll have no need for Blacks any more, except to count on them to perpetually elect radical Left black congresswomen and men from urban areas. Once they're superfluous to White Leftist goals, expect the hundred-year-old anti-black Eugenics program to shift into high gear with a new abortion clinic in every urban neighborhood in America.

[CardCarryingMember.VastRightWC]

Well, from everything I've read, your guide was mistaken. Some bone damage in pre-1492 European graves that was initially attributed to syphilis, has instead been identified as being done by bacteria that are related to syphilis but which are nowhere near as lethal. As I understand it, these other related diseases attack only a few of the bones, whereas syphilis attacks EVERYthing, including even the skull's surfaces.

I've also been misled by archaeological tour guides, more than once. The biggest whopper I recall was an ethnic Mayan guide in the Yucatan claiming that the Mayans did not practice human sacrifice during their heyday, but rather only in a later era when the Aztecs conquered them and forced them to do so. Ha!

[Oratam]

. . . because white people resemble albino blacks.

[I want the USA back]

It’s not white. It’s OFF white. Reddish, orange, with a hint of burnt wood.

The main point of the article: “Most of us think of Europe as the ancestral home of white people”. We’re supposed to stop thinking that.

Point that it doesn’t make: Natural selection favored light skin in northern countries, but it also favored high intelligence, so as to survive in a harsh climate, unlike in Africa, where no intelligence is needed to survive. That intelligence led to the development of a civilization, unlike in Africa, where the only verneer of civilization that they have came from colonial Europeans.

[trebb]

As they evolved into societies where there could be special privileges, the privileged ones just started getting lighter....the rest is history.

[Aevery_Freeman]

So, "Coddle your children at your own risk" is the moral.

Is this what eventually leads to the fall of empires?

Very interesting point.

[Jim Noble]

Skin color, although the most visible, is the least significant attribute of race.

[euram]

Science, like almost everything else, has become so politicized, that it is hard to know what is true and what isn’t. Just look at the “settled science” of “Global Warming” as an example. Does anyone really think that it would be impossible to get a bunch of social justice warrior “scientists” to push the idea that white people were originally black people, thus advancing the idea that race is “just a social construct”?

[Alas Babylon!]

It’s all about the babies.

Given one trait over another in a stressful environment, can there be any adaptation that favors, even minutely, survival and successful mating and producing of offspring?

If so, that person’s genes have a more likely chance on surviving down the line.

Add up enough of these over time and you will have a distinct population of traits.

[Alas Babylon!]

I don't think they're saying there's no genetic evidence of immunities; just not ancient ones. Most of the DNA they examined was from BEFORE 2000 BC.

What happened after that? The rise of civilization. More people living in urban environments. The Eastern conquests of Alexander the Great meant contact between European and Indian diseases. Then the great Roman-Chinese Silk Road pushed Oriental diseases into Europe, and Occidental diseases into China.

How long did it take for some diseases to evolve, and other factors to accelerate them? Without rats, there wouldn't have been widespread bubonic plague outbreaks. What caused the growth of a massive population of rats? Grain storage, more rapid and larger means of transport. How does a bunch of rats make it onto a camel caravan, for example? Why did so many people live in an area prone to swarms of rats, and how did their cultural habits lead to an excess of fleas on humans? So you see, on just one major plague outbreak in the 14th century happened because of a variety of factors.

Spread of the Black Death in Europe in the 14th Century

[DungeonMaster]

American Association of Physical Anthropologists,

What a coven of witches.

[blam]

First Modern Britons Had 'Dark To Black' Skin, Cheddar Man DNA Analysis Reveals

[Wuli]

In as much as they have no such theory of how so many Asians developed pale skin, we can take this, and ONE theory that ONE ancient human sample found in Europe represented ALL “Europeans” back then, as an example of the continuation of the political denigration of “whiteness”.

[Crucial]

Uh...no