Blog Profile / Evo and Proud
| URL : | http://www.evoandproud.blogspot.com/ | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | Academics / Anthropology | |
| Posts on Regator: | 260 | |
| Posts / Week: | 1.1 | |
| Archived Since: | October 4, 2008 | |
Blog Post Archive
What makes hair color "hot"?
The ‘hot’ hair color this year (source). While there seems to be a general trend to prefer average physical characteristics, this doesn’t seem to apply to hair color. People seek colors that are uncommon or even unnatural. EuropeansShow More Summary
Why are redheads less common than blondes?
Gilbert Blythe tormenting Anne Shirley (Anne of Green Gables) Male preference for female hair color seems to be frequency-dependent. The less common a hair color becomes, the more it is preferred. When male subjects are presented with...Show More Summary
Puzzle of European hair and eye color
Hair and eye color diversity is unusual in two ways. It’s confined to Europeans. And it seems to be linked to prenatal feminization. Europeans are distinguished from other humans by a diverse palette of eye and hair colors. I’ve argued...Show More Summary
The eye of the beholder?
Gender asymmetry in preferences for male and female faces (Lewis, 2012) “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” This proverb is true in the sense that beauty is a mental judgment—an output of different algorithms within the human brain. Show More Summary
Were there Neanderthals in Africa?
“Neanderthal” admixture seems to be higher in West Africans than in East Africans. How come? (Source) When modern humans began their expansion from a small core somewhere in East Africa, the continent probably had several different archaic populations.It now seems that one of them was related to the Neanderthals in Europe. Show More Summary
Were they right after all?
Modern humans entered the Americas from northern Eurasia. As they entered tropical environments farther south, they had to evolve new genetic adaptations from scratch. They no longer had the ones their remote forbearers had back in Africa. Show More Summary
Encounters between modern humans and archaics in Africa
Broken Hill (Kabwe) skull. In Africa, very archaic hominins persisted into recent times. Were archaic hominins still roaming over parts of Africa when farming villages began to form in the Middle East? I raised this question in my last post. Show More Summary
The Sub-Saharan African Dental Complex
Map of Nigeria, showing the location of the Iwo Eleru rock shelter and the Iwo Eleru skulls. (Harvati et al., 2011) Sub-Saharan Africans have an unusual complex of dental features: […] compared to other world populations, Africans south...Show More Summary
Do classes become castes?
Relative frequencies of surnames of the rich and the poor (common criminals) 1236-1858. In England, there seems to have been much downward mobility among descendants of the medieval rich and some upward mobility among descendants ofShow More Summary
African Americans and recent evolution
Fulani woman, Nigeria. Source.African Americans aren’t just sub-Saharan Africans with European admixture. There has also been admixture from Amerindian peoples and from groups partly of North African origin, like the Fulani. Have African Americans evolved since they first came to North America? The question may seem strange. Show More Summary
Were Neanderthals furry?
What did the Neanderthals look like? SourceHard to tell, since we know so little about their soft tissues. But they probably had fur. Were the Neanderthals as furry as bears? The question was raised by one of my readers, and I’ll try...Show More Summary
A few of my themes for 2012
Yakuzas (Japanese mafia). The largest Yakuza syndicate is over 70% Burakumin. Source Here are a few themes I wish to write about during 2012:Archaic admixture: A wild goose chase?With the discovery that Europeans and Asians are 1 to 4% Neanderthal, there has been a rush to learn more. Show More Summary
2012. A year of turbulence?
http://welcome2mylife88.tripod.com/id11.html Child making Nike shoes (source). Western business now has access to labor under conditions not seen since the days of Charles Dickens. My predictions from last year:It won’t be such a bad year. Show More Summary
Suicide and Inuit youth
Canadian suicide rates (per 100,000 people): Inuit, First Nations, all Canadians. Source From Alaska to Greenland, young Inuit have unusually high rates of suicide, attempted suicide, and suicidal ideation. According to a 1972 survey...Show More Summary
Were native Europeans replaced?
Spread of farming in Europe. Cultural diffusion or population replacement? Source Between 9,000 and 3,000 years ago farming spread through Europe and replaced hunting, fishing, and gathering. Was this process just a change in lifestyle?...Show More Summary
How late is too late?
In pre-industrial Finland, the average woman was caught in a squeeze play. If she married too young, she and her partner might not have enough resources to start a family. If she married too old, she risked genetic extinction. None of her children might survive to adulthood and have children of their own. Show More Summary
Vitamin D and Northern Natives
Annual average exposure to erythema-inducing UV radiation at ground level. Source: Jablonski & Chaplin, 2000. At high northern latitudes, vitamin D can be obtained only from one’s diet, notably fatty fish. Yet many northern native peoples consume little fish. Show More Summary
The Western European marriage pattern
The ‘Hajnal line’ marks the eastern limit of a longstanding pattern of late and non-universal marriage. Source In the 17th and 18th centuries, settlers emigrated from land-poor France to land-rich Canada. The result was a lower age of marriage. Show More Summary
Apples, oranges, and genes
Publicly funded misinformation. Source: PBS website In human genetics, a ‘population’ is a group of individuals who share ancestry and hence genes. This sharing is not absolute. There is always some gene flow from outside, and sometimes “outside” means another species. Show More Summary
Bringing reproductive maturity into line with the age of marriage
Île aux Coudres, a French Canadian community on an island in the St. Lawrence Human biodiversity is slowly making headway in academia. It has three defining principles:1. Evolution did not end, or even slow down, with the advent of Homo sapiens. Show More Summary