format_quote Originally Posted by
Muslim World 12
Really? . . . .didnt know that :-\
Not only did red hair and blue eyes occur in Black people before it did in Caucasians so did white skin. The white race and especially caucasians with red hair and/or blue eyes is a very recent development among man kind. there is no evidence of a white race existing more than 41,000 years ago. All evidence indicates they came from Persians (Iranians) (Iran is the origin of the word Aryan) and from parts of India. The concept of a Caucasian race or Varietas Caucasia was developed around 1800 by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, a German scientist and early anthropologist.
Several accounts by Greek writers mention redheaded people. A fragment by the Greek poet Xenophanes describes the Thracians as blue-eyed and red haired. The Greek historian Herodotus described the "Budini" (probably Udmurts and Permyak located on the Volga in what is modern-day Russia) as being predominantly redheaded. The Greek historian Dio Cassius described Boudica, the famous Celtic Queen of the Iceni, to be "tall and terrifying in appearance... a great mass of red hair... over her shoulders." Also, several mythological characters from Homer's Iliad, (themselves purportedly Greek) are described as being "red-haired" including Menelaus and Achilles.
The Roman author Tacitus commented on the "red hair and large limbs of the inhabitants of Caledonia (Scotland)",[5] which he connected with some red haired Gaulish tribes of Germanic and Belgic relation.
Red hair has also been found in Asia, notably among the Tocharians who occupied the northwesternmost province of what is modern-day China. Many of the 2nd millennium BC Caucasian Tarim mummies in China have been found with red and blonde hair
Red hair in Caucasians is no more than 100,000 years old. Most probably the first red hired Caucasians came about within the past 20,000 years.
Origins
Red hair is the rarest natural hair colour in humans. The pale skin associated with red hair may have been advantageous in far-northern climates where sunlight is scarce. Studies by Bodmer and Cavalli-Sforza (1976) hypothesized that lighter skin pigmentation prevents rickets in colder latitudes by encouraging higher levels of Vitamin D production and also allows the individual to retain heat better than someone with darker skin.[21] Rees (2004) suggested that the vividness and rarity of red hair may lead to its becoming desirable in a partner and therefore it could become more common through sexual selection.[22]
Harding et al. (2000) proposed that red hair was not the result of positive selection but rather occurs due to a lack of negative selection. In Africa, for example, red hair is selected against because high levels of sun would be harmful to fair skin. However, in Northern Europe this does not happen, so redheads come about through genetic drift.[18]
Estimates on the original occurrence of the currently active gene for red hair vary from 20,000 to 100,000 years ago.[23][24]
A DNA study has concluded that some Neanderthals also had red hair, although the mutation responsible for this differs from that which causes red hair in modern humans.[25]
Extinction
See also: Disappearing blonde gene
A 2007 report in The Courier-Mail, which cited the National Geographic magazine and unnamed "genetic scientists", said that red hair is likely to die out in the near future.[26] Other blogs and news sources ran similar stories that attributed the research to the magazine or the "Oxford Hair Foundation". However, a HowStuffWorks article says that the foundation was funded by hair-dye maker Procter & Gamble, and that other experts had dismissed the research as either lacking in evidence or simply bogus. The National Geographic article in fact states "while redheads may decline, the potential for red isn't going away".[27]
Red hair is caused by a relatively rare recessive gene, the expression of which can skip generations. It is not likely to disappear at any time in the foreseeable future.[27]
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