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Why are Europeans White?
51–60 of 109 posts
Re: Why are Europeans White?
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm from small town called Liminka, it's next to Oulu in Finland. The sea freezes in the winter but that doesn't keep Liminka from being a legendary farming area because of high crop yield. It's just warm enough to have good crops in the summer. The crops are of course not nearly as good as in Germany, but you cant find similar area from the same latitude in Russia or Canada. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co…
I don't question that cereals are grown there, but I do question the hypothesis that the gulf stream is responsible for making cereals viable via warming the Baltic. The author may be spot on with his cereal theory, but I'm not convinced by the suggested mechanism. The nascent fluid dynamicist in me doesn't see how a sea with only one tight opening can exchange enough water for a significant thermal exchange, one whi…
I can't really say that I would have deep knowledge of this stuff. I do know however that Golf current does not come to the Baltic sea. It cannot, as it would just rise to water-level, no way to run through.
But usually wind and weather comes from west. So as golf current warms up the coast of Norway, some of that warmth comes here. It's a weather pattern, but I don't seem to find a good picture now, sorry. http://www.weatherwise.org/sebin/x/a/russian-inferno-photo6....
I remember from geography class that we are in this climate zone and it's called a Hadley cell. And inside that cell air circulates, but it cannot really break away. So kind of Golf course breaks into that cell from below. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadley_cell
EDIT: sorry, lost in translation, I meant a Ferrel cell http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_circulation#Ferrel_... Ans that's not very accurate as Finland seems to be in polar front.
Re: Why are Europeans White?
#53The UV map doesn't match the color skin distribution that well (there is a distribution map at the end). Natives all over America had reddish-brown skin instead of black, despite receiving similar amounts of UV to Africa. Maybe related to dense forests vs desert/savana?
I would guess it has more to do with time. People only reached the Americas relatively recently[1], from high latitude regions. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Settlement_of_the_Americas
People reached America before the blue eye gene prospered in Scandinavia.
Re: Why are Europeans White?
#54This is a hypothesis. IIRC, there is considerable variation in pigmentation in other parts of the world too. There isn't a direct mapping because other factors, like sexual selection (something not mentioned in the article), affect the phenotype of populations.
Re: Why are Europeans White?
#55we are all the colo(u)rs.
Re: Why are Europeans White?
#56"In fact, it happened after 13 KYA. Cave art from that time always shows normally pigmented people. Notice that in this painting from 13 KYA, the hunters are the same color as the deer."
Notice how the painting is monochrome. Maybe they just didn't have the artistic skill required?
Re: Why are Europeans White?
#57Uh, light skin, blue eyes and blonde hair is just 6000 year old?! Sounds really weird to get so common so quickly. This should already be well known, by the mutation speed of the relevant genes? What about an alternative hypothesis, like sexual evolution? Edit: From the wikipedia page, this theory seems to be quite recent. Interesting. (Sigh, I liked the idea of blonde neanderthals. :-) ) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki…
There's a theory that some Neanderthals had red hair, via a genetic mutation. That mutation is different to the one causing red hair in Homo Sapiens.
Wikipedia says that the gene mutation for human red hair could be from 20,000 to 100,000 years old.
Re: Why are Europeans White?
#58I smell BS. He suggests that these people around the coast gave up eating fish in favour of grains. I doubt it. Even today fish and shellfish feature heavily in the region's cuisine.
gave up eating fish in favour of grains
He did not say that at all.
He said that there was the well-documented introduction of a new (convenient and scalable) source of sustainable food, grains. But now the people there are no longer surviving on a Vitamin D-rich source. Thus, their skin adapts to accept the only other source of vitamin D, UV from sunlight.
Also, it is important to note the scale of the changes. He is talking purely about change relative to other Europeans at the time, not Equatorial or even North African skin tone direct to blonde and blue-eyed...
In my opinion, a little bit more historical evidence from Scandinvian food scientists and census data, especially in the last XX years of globalisation should indicate whether this hypothesis is consistent with food changes and other trends.
Re: Why are Europeans White?
#59Uh, light skin, blue eyes and blonde hair is just 6000 year old?! Sounds really weird to get so common so quickly. This should already be well known, by the mutation speed of the relevant genes? What about an alternative hypothesis, like sexual evolution? Edit: From the wikipedia page, this theory seems to be quite recent. Interesting. (Sigh, I liked the idea of blonde neanderthals. :-) ) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki…
Peter Frost has been writing about this for years. He comes down on the side of the sexual selection theory, so if you're interested in that, check him out. http://evoandproud.blogspot.com/2009/07/why-are-europeans-wh... http://evoandproud.blogspot.com/2010/04/puzzle-of-european-h...
Sexual selection theories often try to explain large waist big breast as a good competitive advantage for raising kids, a visible fertility trait, and forget that the most populous country has girls with neither...
Re: Why are Europeans White?
#60"Blonde hair and blue eyes were other infantile traits that were just swept along accidentally."
I felt this is a bit of a loose statement. I would think, like light skin, there would be a reason a recessive genes became so prevalent.
Edit: spelling