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Im no expert on the subject and what you say makes sense but I am sure I heard (on the TV programme the Incredible Human journey - Alice Roberts) that pale skin was a genetic mutation - Im guessing that the same could be said of hair/eye colour??
Yes that's correct. They are all genetic mutations.
Why not? What's someone going to do with it that could actually harm me in any way?
Nothing, if you're comfortable with it. But every picture leaves an internet testament. I won't relinquish my anonymity, as it would leave me with less freedom. Maybe not at the moment, but pinpointing my name to nicknames could damage my opportunities to get a government job, for instance.
But coming from a male aged 30, you look really really good, so no harm revealing that kind of face.
Nothing, if you're comfortable with it. But every picture leaves an internet testament. I won't relinquish my anonymity, as it would leave me with less freedom. Maybe not at the moment, but pinpointing my name to nicknames could damage my opportunities to get a government job, for instance.
But coming from a male aged 30, you look really really good, so no harm revealing that kind of face.
There are albinos in Africa, people notice they are different and when the sunshine hurts their skin, their parents keep them out of the sunshine. But such mutations are very rare, people with such mutations don't just pop up all the time and drop like flies just because they happen to be in the wrong location.
Skin color is a different story anyway. With eye color sunlight is way less important. People here in the South run around with sunglasses as well in the summer as the light is very strong, no matter whether they have blue or brown eyes.
Here in Portugal there are a lot of people with light eyes, but interestingly many more in the north, which happens to be where Germanic tribes settled and had their short-lived mini kingdoms many centuries ago. And of course they did not disappear just like that when those kingdoms ended, they just got absorbed in the general local population over time.
Up north, land of the extinct kingdom of Suevia crushed and conquered by Visigoths, weather is rainy, always covered and luminosity is low during winter...
The land is home of Ancient Braccarans, and their capital, Braccara Augusta, the former capital of the Roman province of Gallecia. Braccarans are known in Europe because they invented pants (bragas).
Braccarans were practically the same that ancient Suevians, R1b and Celts. Suevians, also known as German gypsies, were Celts that were only slightly Germanized.
So you must forget all the history you were taught. Since the invasion of R1b and R1a from the Caucasus and beyond and the brutal annihilation of "Europeans", comparable to the conquest of North America by the English that physically removed the native population, we are all practically the same people with very slight variations caused by epigenetics, by weather, food, environment, or the insignificant contribution of previous Europeans that were cornered and almost exterminated, Europeans only survived in Greece and northern Scandinavia.
So, I'm sorry to inform you that the closest people to ancient R1b are Kurds...so, we are all Turks in a way. I know, if you remove poetry from history you won't have nationalists, and ethnic nationalism is like when you f.a.r.t, it does not bother you but annoys others.
So when you see a Döner Kebab in your country, say hello.
That is nonsense, the climate in northern Portugal is not that much different from other regions of the country. There is more rain, but that has little impact on how people look. After all, up until recently West Africa was covered by rain forest, still people there are black. When you look at Tras-os-Montes, that is a rather sunny and dry region, similar to the Alentejo, yet people there look like their neighbors to the West, i.e. where it is rainier. And why? Because they are genetically close.
People in northern Portugal look different because they are historically and genetically different from those in the south. Of course there have been migrations and thus mixing across the country (my neighbor for instance is from Viseu and married a local Alentejano). It is not just hair or eye color, but also stature, head shape, physiognomy etc. Anyone who is not blinded by some agenda can see that as they travel the country. Whether ancient intruders were Germanic or Celtic is irrelevant genetically speaking. They were intruders different from locals, that is what matters. After all, Iberia was already settled before the Celts. However, like all of Europe, it was sparsely populated, it is not like today when there are people almost everywhere. It was like in the rural Alentejo today, thus there was enough space for everyone, there was no genocide. Actually, modern humans even lived alongside Neanderthals in Iberia for quite some time, which was no problem as there was enough space for everyone.
Europe is like an appendix, the entrance is on the east, so of course the settlement of Europe has always happened via the east, it was always people from the Middle East, Russia, etc. that moved into Europe in waves. But it was not one people, but different kinds of people at different times and in different places, which is reflected by the different genetic distribution across Europe. Even those haplogroup statistics are usually based on countries, but when you look closer, you can see big differences within countries as well. People in Galicia are genetically different from those in Andalusia for instance.
So, regarding this thread, no, we are definitely not all the same across Europe and depending on the region many people do not have any recessive light-eye genes.
There is a key difference within Europe: In some regions of Europe most people are born with light eyes, even if those turn into brown eyes as the child grows up. In other regions of Europe people are already born with brown eyes. I think those are the ones that don't have any recessive genes for light eyes.
It is also interesting to know that there are many people with green eyes in Iran and neighboring places, and even the region where the first person with blue eyes came from is a pretty sunny region, compared to most of Europe.
In other words, I don't think eye color has anything to do with sunshine, it is not an adaptation to sunlight, but merely the result of a genetic accident so to speak, whose effect has spread, probably due to the first person being considered a kind of miracle, after all people were terribly superstitious back then. Even today albinos in Africa are considered either something very positive or the opposite.
I have greenish or hazel eyes, hard to tell, anyway, I live in one of the sunniest regions of Europe, never wear sunglasses, and still never got a headache. At the same time there are people with dark brown eyes here that are nevertheless sensitive to the light and always wear sunglasses.
Wrong! Under "primitive" conditions, most African albinos had a much shorter lifespan than a fully-pigmented African. For this reason, the genetical selection for a richly pigmented person to live in sunny condition is perfect. The vast majority of people of pure African ancestry have brown eyes, most of the time dark brown tones. Though from time to time, here and there some also have lighter eyes hazel, green or even blue, but that is definitely not the norm. Due to exposure to the harsh African sun, African albinos easily suffered from skin cancers early in life, and many became blind or nearly blind due to the fact their very light eyes( many times of pinkish-blue) are ultra-sensitive to sunlight! Northern climates of Europe or North America would be much suitable for an African albino than those of Tanzania/Kenya/Sudan, etc... There is a high linkage between light eyes and skin which are sensible to the sun. Obviously there would always be people who are dark-eyed who have a very sun-sensitive skin type. The majority of people with dark brown eyes would do much better than you in the sunniest regions. Actually the Khoi-San people of Southern Africa have probably a much better vision than a regular European/white person, since they are so well adapted to the harsh Namibian desert sunlight glare. In earlier times, they were probably able to see much further than a white person. I have greenish-blue eyes and reddish hair, I definitely know that the hot summer sun isn't to my skin which easily burns. Though I played so many outdoor sports such as football(American Football), rugby, beach volleyball,etc... through the sunburns, I've learned now the harsh sunlight is definitely not beneficiary to my skin as it would be to a person of African ancestry. My African-American friends nicknamed me "sun-screen". [/quote]
Oh it does - my mother has Irish ancestry and my father is the son of a Jamaican. I'm just a mongrel with no sense of place.
The fact that you have a mixed racial ancestry could be many times an advantage. Or what I'm seeing is that you have an inferiority complex, get yourself free from that. You calling yourself a derogatory name, that means you might need help. You have some Western African ancestry through your Jamaican-descended father and Northern European ancestry through your mother of Irish descent. Instead of whinning, just be proud of who you are. [/quote]
I don't think peoples 'colouring' has anything to do with sunshine apart from on a superficial level - I thought white skin / light eyes were a result of a single genetic mutation somewhere down the line.
Unfortunately it has. That's why most indigenous Europeans have a white or nearly white skin, while indigenous people of Africa, Australia, southern India have a dark brown or nearly black skin. Nothing supercificial there, just the perfect work of natural selection. People with white/light eyes were originally found in regions which were cooler than those with dark brown. Countries in Africa such as Sudan have a much higher ratio of sunny days than where you come from. So how can you say that sunshine has nothing to do with? Think about it. Why do you think dermatologists advise very fair-skinned people like myself and many other white people to use sunscreen especially when spending a lot of time outdoors in the summer, but will not do the same for a person who is very dark-skinned because they have the natural advantage. [/quote]
Wrong! Under "primitive" conditions, most African albinos had a much shorter lifespan than a fully-pigmented African. For this reason, the genetical selection for a richly pigmented person to live in sunny condition is perfect. The vast majority of people of pure African ancestry have brown eyes, most of the time dark brown tones. Though from time to time, here and there some also have lighter eyes hazel, green or even blue, but that is definitely not the norm. Due to exposure to the harsh African sun, African albinos easily suffered from skin cancers early in life, and many became blind or nearly blind due to the fact their very light eyes( many times of pinkish-blue) are ultra-sensitive to sunlight! Northern climates of Europe or North America would be much suitable for an African albino than those of Tanzania/Kenya/Sudan, etc... There is a high linkage between light eyes and skin which are sensible to the sun. Obviously there would always be people who are dark-eyed who have a very sun-sensitive skin type. The majority of people with dark brown eyes would do much better than you in the sunniest regions. Actually the Khoi-San people of Southern Africa have probably a much better vision than a regular European/white person, since they are so well adapted to the harsh Namibian desert sunlight glare. In earlier times, they were probably able to see much further than a white person. I have greenish-blue eyes and reddish hair, I definitely know that the hot summer sun isn't to my skin which easily burns. Though I played so many outdoor sports such as football(American Football), rugby, beach volleyball,etc... through the sunburns, I've learned now the harsh sunlight is definitely not beneficiary to my skin as it would be to a person of African ancestry. My African-American friends nicknamed me "sun-screen".
The San are usually lighter-skinned than other Africans, not nearly as black as people in, say, Nigeria. But then again, Africans have been living there for tens or hundreds of thousands of years, whereas light-eyed Europeans have been around for just a few thousands years. And interestingly, their ancestors have come from regions that are sunnier than central and northern Europe.
In Europe light eyes have little to do with climate. If those light-eyed ancestors had moved to southern Spain and spread there, people in Southern Spain might look like Norwegians today, unless of course they mixed a lot with locals.
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