The History of the Red Haired Race

People with pale skin red/blonde hair are genetically less predisposed to developing such vitamin deficient conditions as ricketts in a northerly climate with less sunlight, or so I've read somewhere.

There was also a programme I saw a few years ago that undertook experiments that showed that darker skinned people are less able to cope with cold conditions than fair skinned people, being less able to perform at an optimum level. In our modern world of warm clothing, central heating, sun block and air conditioning these are less of a concern. No doubt even a few hundred years ago pale skinned europeans managed to survive extreme tropical temps as did black people in northern climes using protective clothing, regular supplies of food and heat etc but put a bunch of dark skinned hunter gatherers in a cold climate and their cave dwelling white counterparts in the savahhna with nothing more than what is around them and they are both operating with a severe disadvantage towards survival.

I don't think either is "better" than the other, simply an adaptation to different climates. .

anyway, as a redhead, I think the theories of redhair starting with neandertals or the vikings is probably correct, either way its just another variation, not a race or anything like that.

Originally posted by Trent
Ok but you failed to answer the only question I'm really interested in. If dark skin is superior to pale skin in all climate zones and all cases than why do people have pale skin?

There's 2 1/2 schools of thought on this:

1. Other beings came to our planet, experimented on long ago humans, splicing, dicing, splicing, and made offshoots... resulting in blue-eyed, blond hair, pale skinned humans. The sun hurt them so they moved to where the sun hurt them less.

2. Pale skin is a recessive trait in the genetics of dark-skinned humans. Sooner or later pale skinned kids are gonna squirt out. Like attracts like. Pale skinned will be more attracted to other pale skinned. The sun hurts them, they move to where it hurts them less.

1/2. Almost same as #1. Human scientists theirselves did the splicing, dicing, splicing, long ago. The result ending the same in the long run.

Do you think northern European/Asian people always had pale skin? If they didn't always have pale skin what cased the change if not environmental conditions?

Europeans came from Middle East. From IRAN, and those northern middle eastern countries. One day save some dough, travel there yourself and look at the people there. Majority have dark skin. But many (in the same families) have light skin, pale skin. If they go mate with other pale skins, and their kids mate with even more pale skins, and they move to where sun hurts less, then you get tribes of people who mostly have the recessive pale skinned genes.

Asians have dark skin. Some have pale skin (but even they will tan quicker than a European if you leave them in the sun long enough.). Majority of Asians have dark skin. Hell, look at the pics of the Asians hit by the tsunami hahhh.

You actually missed the point i was making with that article which was this quote.

Think about it for a minute: if you map the skin color of human ancestors around the world, you will find an undeniable correlation between skin pigmentation and geographic relationship with the equator. The only exception to this is the Eleusian or Eskimo populations who, of course, got plenty of vitamin D through the regular consumption of fish oils, and thus did not need a skin pigmentation adaptation in order to survive.




[edit on 1-1-2005 by Trent]

And that quote is destroyed by the fact that if you go travel to areas, countires, near and around the equator, and look at the people you will see dark skinned families with some pale skinned kids. Yeh blacks producing whites. Like the case with Mariah Carey who from a biological view is white while her older sister is biologically dark skinned.

And in American history, when black families would have pale skinned offspring smuggle the parents to freedom. The offspring would "pretend" they were white. (Biologically they were white.) The famous author
Frederick Douglas in his book Life of Frederick Douglass talks about how his dark skinned mother and dark skinned father had a pale skinned girl - one of his sisters. She got tired of always saying "I'm really black" and one day just "passed for white" for good. Because biologically, dark skinned people carry the recessive gene for pale skin. Black people can and do have white kids. That answers your question:

People have pale skin, which is a recessive gene, because people who have dark skin, which is a dominate gene, carry that recessive gene. So sooner or later they'll have pale skin kids. Those kids will hook up with other pale skin kids. They'll move away to where the sun doesn't fry them, burn then, kill them. They'll move away from the equator and quickly.

If your gonna ask "Why did/are dark skinned people carrying that recessive gene in the first place?" that could be subject for a new thread. That goes into where humans came from.

Originally posted by ubermunche
People with pale skin red/blonde hair are genetically less predisposed to developing such vitamin deficient conditions as ricketts in a northerly climate with less sunlight, or so I've read somewhere.

This is vs someone like a Zulu who is soo dark "they're purple". But someone like Charles Barkely, or Arsenio Hall, won't have any of these problems.


There was also a programme I saw a few years ago that undertook experiments that showed that darker skinned people are less able to cope with cold conditions than fair skinned people, being less able to perform at an optimum level.

Who conducted those experiments? "Whites" or "blacks"? How long ago did those experiements happen? In what country? It's just a few years ago that every "scientific" experiment was biased to showing dark skinned people were lower than pale skinned people. By "a few years ago" I'm saying millions of adults are alive who remember when it was normal to call dark skinned people the n---- word ALL the time.

In our modern world of warm clothing, central heating, sun block and air conditioning these are less of a concern.

It's still a major concern. Thousands of pale skinned people still die from skin cancer every year in bad proportion to dark skinned people. Millions of pale skinned people still get burned by the sun every year in bad proportion to dark skinned people.

No doubt even a few hundred years ago pale skinned europeans managed to survive extreme tropical temps as did black people in northern climes using protective clothing, regular supplies of food and heat etc but put a bunch of dark skinned hunter gatherers in a cold climate and their cave dwelling white counterparts in the savahhna with nothing more than what is around them and they are both operating with a severe disadvantage towards survival.

Your point is blown apart by the fact that dark skinned hunters gatherers had no reason to immediatly move from the equator area. The land is good. The food is good. The sun is good. The sun isn't killing them. Isn't burning their skin off. Why the ----- move to the far north where its colder, freezing, less food, and far harsher?

Their pale skinned offspring on the other hand needed to move further north away from the sun that was killing them.

Dark skinned hunter gatherer: "Man, the food here is good, the climate is good. I'm staying! Wow that sun feels nice. Ahhhhhh".

Pale skinned hunter gatherer: "Man you're right the food is good, the climate is good. I want to stay! AHHHHH my skin! AHHH its burning off! AHHHHHHH! I gotta get out of here AHHHHH! Oh man I wish I could stay AHHHH! My skin!" *runs off as far from the equator as he can until his skin stops burning from the sun.*
*Ends up in harsher climate, less food, but skin isn't burning off**STUCK living in northern, freezing, harsher, climate. No choice.*

Remember, a pale skin wouldn't even have time to make clothing to protect his skin. Sun burn is quick. And the more a pale skin gets burned, the more disabled they are! The time to cut the hide, measure it, fit it, sew it.
And yeah they might've even been ostracized by the dark skinned people who thought the pale skinned offspring had some horrible, gross, sickness. "Look at them! Their skin is burning off! Ickk! If they touch us our skin might start falling off! Ickk!"

Aaaaand.............
IF it were true dark skinned people can't perform in cold climates, what about the super-dark skinned adventurer who was one of the members of the first guys to the North and South poles?
What about dark skinned people today? Many live in Alaska, Canada, and northern Europe. You don't see them performing their jobs slowly, walking too slowly, talking too slowly, on and on.
What about those dark skinned Alaskin injuns? You don't see them performing too slowly. They'd be dead if they did. Since they were there for thousands of years.

[edit on 7-1-2005 by OpenSecret2012]

[edit on 7-1-2005 by OpenSecret2012]