Posted on 03/06/2006 8:33:53 AM PST by presidio9
For those who are still considering the debate on whether men prefer blondes, a study may have provided proof in favour of the flaxen-haired, if only because they appeal to the "caveman" within. Academic researchers have discovered that women in northern Europe evolved with light hair and blue eyes at the end of the Ice Age to stand out from the crowd and lure men away from the far more common brunette.
Blond hair originated through genetic necessity at a time when there was a shortage of both food and males, leading to a high ratio of women competing for smaller numbers of potential partners, according to the study published this week in the academic journal, Evolution and Human Behaviour.
Until these shortages about 10,000 to 11,000 years ago, humans had uniformly dark hair and eyes.
The physical ardour required with hunting bison, reindeer and mammoths in some regions meant many male hunters died and left women with a shrinking pool of breeders.
Flaxen-haired women arose out of a rare mutation but increased in numbers because their chances of breeding turned out to be better.
Peter Frost, a Canadian anthropologist and author of the study, published under the aegis of St Andrews University in Fife, said hair colour became popular as a result of the "pressures of sexual selection on early European women."
Human hair and eye colour is unusually diverse in northern and eastern Europe ... [and their] origin over a short span of evolutionary time indicate some kind of selection. Sexual selection is particularly indicated because it is known to favour colour traits," he said.
He added that the environment skewed the sex ratio in favour of men "to leave more women than men unmated at any one time."
Such an imbalance, he said, would have increased the pressures of sexual selection on early European women, one possible outcome being an unusual complex of colour traits: hair and eye colour diversity and, possibly, extreme skin de-pigmentation.
There are at least seven different shades of blond hair in Europe and the question of how such a large variation developed in a relatively short period of time in a geographical region has always remained a mystery.
Dr Frost concluded that the lighter shades of blond hair evolved as a response to food shortages in areas where women could not collect food for themselves and were utterly reliant on the male hunters, as they were in some parts of northern Europe.
But while blondes may have had more fun at the dawn of time, researchers at City University in London last year found that modern men responded more positively to pictures of brunettes and redheaded women than to their blonde counterparts.
Experts said that as relations between men and women have evolved, men may have become more attracted by brains, represented in their psyche by brunettes, than the more physical charms of blond hair.
Peter Ayton, professor of psychology at City University, who led the research, said dark hair could now be more a potent symbol than blond.
"As the role of women has evolved, men's expectations of women have changed," Professor Ayton said. "They are looking for more intense, equal partnerships and appearance has a large role to play. It is even possible that certain hair colours can indicate wealth and experience."
Eskimos live almost exclusively on meat; the hunters are almost exclusively men; Eskimos are dark-haired.
You can get enough vitamin D from livers, especially carnivore livers, to poison yourself.
How about blond hair arose in people who were plant-eaters, limited in how much meat they could get, and needed to make their own vitamin D?
Mrs VS
But not for the high level of testosterone in the male of our species, we would have gone extinct eons ago. So with that in mind, why would these early northern European males have taken their pick when they could have taken the whole pack? It's just the nature of the male of our species.
Seems to me that this is proof of intelligent design more than evolution.
Asian hair is a completely different phsyical type than Caucasian. Its physically impossible for it to be blonde or red because it has pith. It is also a different cross-sectional shape which prevents it from naturally curling or being wavy - Asian hair is circular, Caucasian hair is somewhat bean shaped.
It hasn't but a slight correction...women BLEACH their hair blonde. Dye is for darker colors. :)
Pam Anderson certainly was - although I don't know the name of her plastic surgeon.
Shalom.
Actually, this particular article is either evidence of:
A terrible attempt to make a complex theory consumable by a mass audience or
A really stupid theory.
The way it is written up wouldn't get past an 8-year-old. But this is not from a scientific journal, so it is nothing to judge from.
Shalom.
But did these mutants have any clue as to WHY they were preferred?!
This statement is so completely scientifically irresponsible that there's no reason to read past it.
I need my sarcasm tags.
That's my point - I'm sure they DID take the whole pack - just blondes first!
When did that happen?
"If evolution happens as theorized, it is random accidental mutation that happened to be more helpful - NEVER a "design decision" to "create something" or change something...into something else."
In the 60's, my Comparative Anatomy prof derided the concept of an organism evolving to accomplish a specific purpose and called it "teleological reasoning". These days it seems to be accepted as a commonplace occurence (which makes evolution as the sole means of devolopment more conceivable).
Because the mutants had stars upon thars?
/Star-Bellied Sneetch reference
Must have been one hell of a mutation, since it affected hair color, hair shape, eye color, eye shape, skin color, skin response to sunlight, blood type (rh- is from these same northern regions).
Peter Frost, a Canadian anthropologist and author of the study, published under the aegis of St Andrews University in Fife, said hair colour became popular as a result of the "pressures of sexual selection on early European women."
Which doesn't explain why similar stresses didn't produce varying hari color among the Eskimos and Lapps and Siberians and Ainu.
Human hair and eye colour is unusually diverse in northern and eastern Europe ... [and their] origin over a short span of evolutionary time indicate some kind of selection. Sexual selection is particularly indicated because it is known to favour colour traits," he said.
Since we Northern Europeans are already diverse, why are our countries being flooded by tan skinned dark haired people in the name of "diversity", when what they really bring once fully integrated into our genetic pool is an overwhelming sameness?
But while blondes may have had more fun at the dawn of time, researchers at City University in London last year found that modern men responded more positively to pictures of brunettes and redheaded women than to their blonde counterparts.
Are the modern men being interviewed fellow light haired blondes, reds, and browns, in other words, Europeans, or do they include some of the swarthy Muslim and African hordes who have been brought into Europe, and who would be expected to prefer dark hair colors?
Do what I do. Carry them on a chain around your neck at all times.
I think they need to do a follow-up study on the development of women flirting and flipping their hair back for effect.
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