Posted on 02/26/2006 5:18:06 PM PST by mathprof
THE modern gentleman may prefer blondes. But new research has found that it was cavemen who were the first to be lured by flaxen locks.
According to the study, north European women evolved blonde hair and blue eyes at the end of the Ice Age to make them stand out from their rivals at a time of fierce competition for scarce males.
The study argues that blond hair originated in the region because of food shortages 10,000-11,000 years ago. Until then, humans had the dark brown hair and dark eyes that still dominate in the rest of the world. Almost the only sustenance in northern Europe came from roaming herds of mammoths, reindeer, bison and horses. Finding them required long, arduous hunting trips in which numerous males died, leading to a high ratio of surviving women to men.
Lighter hair colours, which started as rare mutations, became popular for breeding and numbers increased dramatically, according to the research, published under the aegis of the University of St Andrews.
“Human hair and eye colour are unusually diverse in northern and eastern Europe (and their) origin over a short span of evolutionary time indicates some kind of selection,” says the study by Peter Frost, a Canadian anthropologist. Frost adds that the high death rate among male hunters “increased the pressures of sexual selection on early European women, one possible outcome being an unusual complex of colour traits.”
Frost’s theory, to be published this week in Evolution and Human Behavior, the academic journal, was supported by Professor John Manning, a specialist in evolutionary psychology at the University of Central Lancashire. “Hair and eye colour tend to be uniform in many parts of the world, but in Europe there is a welter of variants,” he said. “The mate choice explanation now being put forward is, in my mind, close to being correct.”
Frost’s theory is also backed up by a separate scientific analysis of north European genes carried out at three Japanese universities, which has isolated the date of the genetic mutation that resulted in blond hair to about 11,000 years ago.
The hair colour gene MC1R has at least seven variants in Europe and the continent has an unusually wide range of hair and eye shades. In the rest of the world, dark hair and eyes are overwhelmingly dominant.
Just how such variety emerged over such a short period of time in one part of the world has long been a mystery. According to the new research, if the changes had occurred by the usual processes of evolution, they would have taken about 850,000 years. But modern humans, emigrating from Africa, reached Europe only 35,000-40,000 years ago.
Instead, Frost attributes the rapid evolution to how they gathered food. In Africa there was less dependence on animals and women were able to collect fruit for themselves. In Europe, by contrast, food gathering was almost exclusively a male hunter’s preserve. The retreating ice sheets left behind a landscape of fertile soil with plenty of grass and moss for herbivorous animals to eat, but few plants edible for humans. Women therefore took on jobs such as building shelters and making clothes while the men went on hunting trips, where the death rate was high.
The increase in competition for males led to rapid change as women struggled to evolve the most alluring qualities. Frost believes his theory is supported by studies which show blonde hair is an indicator for high oestrogen levels in women.
Jilly Cooper, 69, the author, described how in her blonde youth she had “certainly got more glances. I remember when I went to Majorca when I was 20, my bum was sore from getting pinched”.
However, Jodie Kidd, 27, the blonde model, disagrees with the theory: “I don’t think being blonde makes you more ripe for sexual activity. It’s much more to do with personality than what you look like. Beauty is much deeper than the colour of your hair.”
Film star blondes such as Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot, Sharon Stone and Scarlett Johansson are held up as ideals of feminine allure. However, the future of the blonde is uncertain.
A study by the World Health Organisation found that natural blonds are likely to be extinct within 200 years because there are too few people carrying the blond gene. According to the WHO study, the last natural blond is likely to be born in Finland during 2202.
"Blondes have all the fun"/GGG ping
Finding them required long, arduous hunting trips in which numerous males died, leading to a high ratio of surviving women to men.
So the women stayed at home? How chauvanistic.
This is an interesting theory.
Snort!
No blonde jokes.
I heard it was a neoteny thing.
I just couldn't resist :)
Sounds to me like Cavemen had all the fun :-)
Like cavemen of old, I have always been a sucker for a blonde.
The last picture of Jodie Kidd I saw, she looked like an underfed 11-year-old boy. Not that that would have anything to do with her mileage.
And they think the women were having fun??? How 'bout having all those Scandinavian babes fighting over you because MEN ARE SCARCE?!??? Think the men weren't having fun?????
LOL....certainly looks like that!! :)
Because I'm blonde, I don't have to think
I talk like a baby and I never pay for drinks
Don't have to worry about gettin' a man
If I keep this blonde and I keep these tan
'Cause I'm a blonde
Yeah, yeah, yeah
'Cause I'm a blonde
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I see people workin', it just makes me giggle
'Cause I don't have to work, I just have to jiggle
'Cause I'm blonde
B-L-O-N-D
'Cause I'm a blonde
Don't you wish you were me?
I never learned to read and I never learned to cook
Why should I bother when I look like I look?
I know lots of people are smarter than me
But I have this philosophy: "So what?"
'Cause I'm a blonde
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I see girls without dates and I feel so sorry for 'em
'Cause whenever I'm around, all the men ignore 'em
'Cause I'm blonde
Nyah, nyah, nyah
'Cause I'm a blonde
Nyah, nyah, nyah
They say to make it you need talent and ambition
Well, I got a TV show, and this was my audition:
Um, okay, what was it, okay, um, don't tell me, oh yeah, okay...
"Duck, Magnum, duck!"
'Cause I'm a blonde
Yeah, yeah, yeah
'Cause I'm a blonde
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I took an IQ test, and I flunked it, of course
I can't spell VW, but I got a Porsche
'Cause I'm a blonde
B-L-I-N-D
'Cause I'm a blonde
Don't you wish you were me?
I just want to say that being chosen as this month's Miss August is like a compliment I'll remember for as long as I can. Right now I'm a freshman in my fourth year at UCLA, but my goal is to become a veterinarian, 'cause I love children.
'Cause I'm a blonde
Yeah, yeah, yeah
'Cause we're a blonde
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Girls think I'm snotty, and maybe it's true
With my hair and body, you would be too
'Cause I'm a blonde
B-L-... I don't know!
'Cause I'm a blonde
Yeah, yeah, yeah
'Cause I'm a blonde
Yeah, yeah, yeah
'Cause I'm a blonde
Yeah, yeah, yeah!
" 'Cause I'm a Blonde"
by Julie Brown
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