quote:HAIR FROM PARACAS INDIAN MUMMIES MILDRED TROTTER
Department of Anatomy, Washington University, Saint Louis, Missouri TWO FIGURES During his visit to Peru in 1941 Dr. T. D. Stewart examined a small series of Paracas Indian mummies collected by Dr. Julio C. Tello in 1925.l These mummies are preserved in the Museo de Antropologia at Magdalena Vieja, a suburb of Lima, and are identified as yet only by the collector’s numbers. In connection with his examination Doctor Stewart secured pieces of scalp from ten of the mummies. These hair samples form the basis of the present report. Examination of hair from mummies is not a new field of study. Peter Browne (1853) who first suggested a correlation between race and the shape of the cross section of hair may have included hair from mummies among his material. In a contribution made later (1860) to a collective study on the American Indian, Browne examined hair from ten individuals of whom six were mummies. Woodbury and Woodbnry (’32) studied differences between certain of the North American Indian tribes; of these, two were prehistoric tribes, vie;, the Basket Maker and Mesa Verde Indians. The present series is comprised of two females (234 and 310-77) and eight males; one individual in each group had been classified as “young” (38 and 310-77) and there was some evidence that the others were old since the sample in each case was interspersed with very light yellow hairs which may be assumed to have been white. In general, the color was a rusty brown and gave the appearance of having faded.
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The determination of shape and size of the hair shaft may be made on the cross section of the shaft. It was found that these fragile hairs could be sectioned transversely with the Hardy device. This instrument has been described by Doctor Hardy (’35) and its application to the study of human hair was made by Steggerda (’40). The procedure used on the hairs from the Paracas mummies was as follows : a lock of the hair was cut at a distance of approximately &I em. from the scalp ; washed in ether-alcohol and allowed to dry ; sectioned transversely near the proximal end with the aid of the Hardy device ; and mounted on a slide in Canada Balsam. The slide was projected onto a sheet of “Kodaloid.” This is a celluloid-composition material whose weight-area ratio is known and has been used before in the study of hair (Trotter, ’30). The projection was made from an inverted microscope at a distance which produced a magnification of 355x. The outlines of the cross sections of the hairs were drawn on the Kodaloid and the scale from a slide micrometer was projected at the same distance. Thus, the measurement of the diameters of the hairs could be made directly by means of the projected scale. Finally the cross section outlines were cut out and weighed and the area equivalent to the weight was determined. On each slide the entire number of cross sections was considered and all, with the exception of number 243, afforded a
(....)
The means for the indices of the ten samples in the series shown in table 1 indicate a range of 16 points, viz., from 70 to 86 This spread covers all divisions of hair form according to Martin ('28) who considered hair with an index of 50-75 to be curly; 75-80 wavy; and 80-100 to be straight. It is of interest that two samples (94 and 310) were wavy, if not curly, in the gross specinieii aiid that two other samples, whose indices were eveii lou7cr (392 and 310-77) appeared to be straight. The range of means for the indices of ten Negroes found by Steggerda and Seibert ('41) amounted to 17 points. However, the hair of the total group of Paracas mummies shows a mean of 81.81 for the index which stands midway between Woodbury axid Woodburp's fiiidiiigs for the Mesa Verde Indians of 79.77 and for the Basket Maker Indians of 82.81. It is within the range of indices reported by Steggerda and Seibert for the Maya, Hopi, Navajo and Zuni Indians (85.04, 82.98, 82.53, 80.46, respectively).
posted
So from the empirical data below, we test how much cold weather corresponds with straight hair in world populations:
quote: Global indices, taken from elsewhere:
San, Southern African 55.00 Zulu, Southern African 55.00 Sub-Saharan Africa 60.00 Tasmanian (Black) 64.70 Australian (Black) 68.00 Western European 71.20 Asian Indian 73.00 Navajo American 77.00 Chinese 82.60
quote: Amerindian indices, taken from the study in the OP:
Although the Hopi and Zuni Indians show cross-section indices that decline from north to south, i.e., they go from straighter in the North, to less straight haired Zuni slightly to the south, the rest of the indices show that this has nothing to do with temperature. For example, the Mayan indians, who live near the equator have the highest index, and the northernmost (samples wise) Mesa Verde Indians show the lowest cross-section index.
Compare the ellipticity of northern and Mesoamerican Indians (Mayan and Navajo):
Notice how much more circular (straight haired) Mayan cross-section hair shapes are, compared with both Northern hemisphere Amerindians, and North-Western Europeans!
quote: 6.2 Regional Human Hair Characteristic Variates The older terms “Mongoloid,” “Caucasoid,” and “Negroid” used to describe the major population groups of humankind are replaced in this atlas with the more modern terms East Asian, European, and African (meaning sub-Saharan African), respectively. These terms were adapted from Brace. 27 The populations of the Indian subcontinent are allied with the European populations in terms of anthropological kinship. 28 However, the scalp hair of the Indian subcontinent populations is more closely allied with the hair type of the East Asian populations, as is the scalp hair of the native populations of North, Central, and South America. Although the native populations of the Americas are allied with the East Asians anthropologically, many of the populations of Mexico and the other countries of Central and South America are of mixed heritage, so the scalp hair of these populations may represent characteristics consistent with those of a mixed heritage.
From: Atlas of Human Hair Microscopic Characteristics
So Amerindians and (East) Asians sport straighter hair than both Africans and Europeans, even though they inhabit a continent that spans the Northern cold extreme and the Southern cold extreme, and thus, they are subjected to temperatures that are found in both Africa and Europe. Why then, do we not find cross-sections indices that are comparable with Africans and Europeans?
Perhaps a better question would be, considering the erroneous notion of straight hair as a European and cold adapted trait, why Europeans not only show up as intermediate between Africans and Asians in cross-section measurements, but why they are positioned as intermediate in a number of measurable landmarks on scalp hair, even though they reside exclusively in cold areas (annually, 10°C and below):
quote:Human hair is commonly grouped into just three main sub-types: Caucasian, Asian and African. Differences between these groups are usually determined with respect to a range of parameters including: hair fibre diameter and its cross-sectional form, overall fibre shape, mechanical properties (see above), comb-ability, shape, chemical makeup and moisture level. For many of these parameters Caucasian hair falls intermediate to the Asian and African extremes.
From: Hair in toxicology: an important bio-monitor
posted
1) you still have not put forward a hypothesis for why some people have straight hair. Let us know when that time comes.
2)It is speculated that people migrating out of Africa during the the OOA had afro kinky hair. If theorized all people originated from Africa and some have straight hair then they must have begun with afro type hair which over time evolved into straight hair.
3) Your assumption is that straight haired people going into cold climates would undergo a reverse process in which theory hair would mutate back to afro curly. People in the Americas and elsewhere where there are varying climates may not have been in given climate for such evoltionary changes to occur-this is likely.
4) If one were to suggest an African origin for straight hair you would have to explain why afro kinky hair is so much more common there and that straight hair existed there before trade with the later straight haired Middle Eastern people in a later period who had. If hypothesizing an African origin for straight hair it seems like you would also have to assume there was some large population of straight haired Africans living in Africa before the OAA and then most of them migrated out of Africa. It seems far fetched. -although some light skinned Berbers might claim this.
5) If you think you are showing inconsistencies, that should lead to a better alternate model. You have not shown it
Your line of thinking puts into question evolutionarily adaptation in general
quote:Originally posted by The Explorer: [QB] The diversity of hair type of course has adaptive quality to it, that is related to environment [possibly related to body temp regulation], however, there may also be an element of sexual or mating-selection involved in some cases. This might explain why it does not correlate with temperature
Explorer thinks hair type is related in part to environment. It relates to temperature, the exceptions, places where it does not seem to relate to temperature is simply due to the fact that the people there have not been there long enough for such changes to occur. It is also possible unique conditions such as prehistoric sudden BP dessication changes of the Sahara don't correlate to South American climates
Posts: 42918 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
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quote:Originally posted by Kalonji: EXAMINING THE DATA
Although the Hopi and Zuni Indians show cross-section indices that decline from north to south, i.e., they go from straighter in the North, to less straight haired Zuni slightly to the south, the rest of the indices show that this has nothing to do with temperature. For example, the Mayan indians, who live near the equator have the highest index, and the northernmost (samples wise) Mesa Verde Indians show the lowest cross-section index.
Compare the ellipticity of northern and Mesoamerican Indians (Mayan and Navajo):
Notice how much more circular (straight haired) Mayan cross-section hair shapes are, compared with both Northern hemisphere Amerindians, and North-Western Europeans!
quote: 6.2 Regional Human Hair Characteristic Variates The older terms “Mongoloid,” “Caucasoid,” and “Negroid” used to describe the major population groups of humankind are replaced in this atlas with the more modern terms East Asian, European, and African (meaning sub-Saharan African), respectively. These terms were adapted from Brace. 27 The populations of the Indian subcontinent are allied with the European populations in terms of anthropological kinship. 28 However, the scalp hair of the Indian subcontinent populations is more closely allied with the hair type of the East Asian populations, as is the scalp hair of the native populations of North, Central, and South America. Although the native populations of the Americas are allied with the East Asians anthropologically, many of the populations of Mexico and the other countries of Central and South America are of mixed heritage, so the scalp hair of these populations may represent characteristics consistent with those of a mixed heritage.
From: Atlas of Human Hair Microscopic Characteristics
So Amerindians and (East) Asians sport straighter hair than both Africans and Europeans, even though they inhabit a continent that spans the Northern cold extreme and the Southern cold extreme, and thus, they are subjected to temperatures that are found in both Africa and Europe. Why then, do we not find cross-sections indices that are comparable with Africans and Europeans?
Perhaps a better question would be, considering the erroneous notion of straight hair as a European and cold adapted trait, why Europeans not only show up as intermediate between Africans and Asians in cross-section measurements, but why they are positioned as intermediate in a number of measurable landmarks on scalp hair, even though they reside exclusively in cold areas (annually, 10°C and below):
quote:Human hair is commonly grouped into just three main sub-types: Caucasian, Asian and African. Differences between these groups are usually determined with respect to a range of parameters including: hair fibre diameter and its cross-sectional form, overall fibre shape, mechanical properties (see above), comb-ability, shape, chemical makeup and moisture level. For many of these parameters Caucasian hair falls intermediate to the Asian and African extremes.
From: Hair in toxicology: an important bio-monitor
Excellent work Kalonji. So East Asians and American Indians have the straightest hair of all.. Amd all this in such a wide range of climatic contiions from swelting tropics to quasi Artic environs? Very interesting.. Curious that assorted "Aryan" proponents do not link the AEs with say Chinese or Cherokee in their haste to play the "hair" card..
I would question the Atlas of Human Hair Microscopic Characteristics categories though, because "sub-Saharan" Africans include Somalis and Ethiopians, populations that are overwhelmingly tropically adapted Africans and they have a wide range of hair- from straight, to loosely curled, to kinky. The term "African extreme" as used in the "Hair in toxicology" text might also be questioned. The peoples of New Guinea are by blood and DNA closer to Asian populations than Africans, but their hair can sometime also be tightly curled to almost resemble some Africans. Hence why isn't that the outer edge of an "ASIAN extreme" going the other way?
In any event good info. Could the "intermediate" position be tied back to Cavlli-Sforza's argument that white people may not be a "race" at all but a mixed hybrid breed- one third African, two-thirds Asian? Not saying it is so but just throwing that out.
".. it appears that Europeans are about two-thirds Asians and one-third African." (--Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza (2000). Genes, peoples and languages. FARRAR STRAUS AND GIROUX Publishers)
"Nuclear DNA studies also contribute to the deconstruction of received racial entities. Ann Bowcock and her colleague's interpretation (Bowcock et al. 1991; Bowcock et al. 1994) of analyses of restriction-site polymorphisms and microsatellite polymorphisms (STRPs) suggests that Europeans, the defining Caucasians, are descendants of a population that arose as a consequence of admixture between already differentiated populations ancestral to (some) Africans and Asians. Therefore, Caucasians would be a secondary type or race due to its hybrid origin and not a primary race". This compromises the racial schema and also invalidates the metaphysical underpinnings of the persisting race construct, which implies deep and fundamental differences between its units. In this case if the interpretation of Bowcock and her colleagues (1991) is correct then one of the units is not fundamental because its genesis is qualitatively different from the other units and even connects them." -- S.O.Y. Keita and Rick Kittles. (1997) The Persistence of Racial Thinking and the Myth of Racial Divergence, American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 99, No. 3 (Sep., 1997), pp. 534-544
Posts: 5905 | From: The Hammer | Registered: Aug 2008
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posted
Well, as it is with Mexicans (infact probably the Americas's purest indigenous groups left), as it turns out genetically Europeans aren't really the best example of an unmixed population according to Sforza et. al.:
Genetic distances plot: length of the stem represents a group's uniqueness. (More to the map above that, Americas just not included)
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So Europeans don't necissarily debunk cooler weather theory. I've read that it is a fact that when people not indigenous travel to extremely tropical (hot & humid) areas their hair can secrete an oily ooze that's greenish or something -- this would suggest to me the people who do differ in some way.
Another criticism - and i'm not saying i disagree with you, i see this as kind of mysterious too - is that we don't need to expect to see any Native American indigenous populations with hair getting any curlier -- yes, they may have had plenty of time to diverge as they seem to have suddenly diverged from the global pleistocene phenotype at the same time populatins elsewhere did, however hair form could be like melanin for which there's no genetic on-switch (once it's lost somewhere down the line those with alleles of deleterious mutation aren't going to suddenly have a black kid out of no where (unless there's some jungle fever goin' on). And during the ice age climate shifts did cause one population in the SouthWestern U.S. to have to suddenly shift between temperature extremes -- from scorching uninhabitable desert to cold Mountain.
Posts: 5555 | From: Tha 5th Dimension. | Registered: Apr 2006
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You know what though, plenty of other creatures have straight fur and inhabit hot areas. If you look at deserts, you don't really see many mammals though; lizards and reptiles appear to get around better than anything else.
And, speaking of Mountains and deserts, both of these are *drier environments* -- like ancestors of the Maya may have inhabited (other than Siberia-Canada). If you look just at Africa, which has a wide range of hair types, you notice Northern and Eastern Africa are drier, North Africa at-the-mo being nothing but desert and mountains. These are regions where many have curly, wavier and straighter hair. And the very Mountainous Kenyan Rift valley is very intricately interwoven with the evolution of our modern species. Infact it's the Rift Valley's rapidly shifting environ and its forcing of our ancestors' adaptation to rapidly changing terrain that's supposed to be the main thing responsible for our species cognitive advances. Then there's Southern Africa, which has it's fair share of dry areas: particularly in Namibia, SouthWest Africa, home to some of humanity's oldest lineages which are usually carried by Khoisan (a group that includes both Khoi and San). To your point (debunking the negative temperature correlation or any correlation) South African San, although their limbs measure sub-tropically, have hair "nappier" even than groups living in the tropics and ON the equator - like Nigeria or Somalia which is home to hair quite straight / wavy. Though Khoisan presently do not inhabit the most moist areas, they are hunter-gatherers who likely had the run of the entire Southern third and much of the Eastern side of the continent unlikely to have to opt for drier areas until the great Bantu migrations 2k B.P. -- really recent times evolutionarily speaking.
So how did this divergence happen? Who knows, maybe increasingly curlier and curlier hair came about and / or caught on mostly after non-Africa's primary ancesters left the continent and then straighter hair took over with many of them, forced to inhabit drier areas (when the temperature gets low, the humidity begins to drop out of the air). Or, as it is today, from the start in Kenya / Ethiopia their was practically the whole range of variation in hair form that exists today excluding extremely straight East Asian / AmerIndian hair, and these types emerge / diverge later. Austrailian aboriginees, who are associated with early Out-of-Africa migrants have - many of them - straight hair, live in the tropics, and appear tropically adapted.
I try to remember though that people can adapt to where ever they live to a certain extent -- thus we witness phenomena like the mostly arbitrary distribution patterns of hairiness often Austrailian indigenies and Near Easterners are hairy -- it damn sho' nuff don't protect them from the harsh sun there.
Posts: 5555 | From: Tha 5th Dimension. | Registered: Apr 2006
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Young woman in Niger with relatively straight hair, but then the hair looks trained. There are better examples of Tuareg desert dwellers with such hair and complection. More to lioness's point when we see straighter hair in Africa & and the Middle East it's often not like that found in Northern EurAsia and not as straight as can be found there. However there is a possibility neither of you guys are wrong, as i've explaine above. Oh, and like half of Africa is no more in the tropics zone than is "the Middle East", that shifty area just West of India -- so using your own logic any diffusive miscegenation may not have to be with non-Africans.)
Posts: 5555 | From: Tha 5th Dimension. | Registered: Apr 2006
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If we entertain the notion that straight hair is an adaptation to cold(er) weather, one would predict to see a correlation between cold temperature and high straight hair incidence in populations. Of course, it is already visible from a glance at the very first lines of the previous index tables, that the indices don´t correlate with cold temperature. For example, The Khoisan and Zulu show the lowest index (kinkiest hair) of all the samples, and they live in cooler areas compared to groups from near the equator, who have a higher (less spiraled) hair than them. Just for entertaining purposes, I´ll list the populations anyway in descending order (temperatures). Again, for those that didn't anticipate this by now, we should expect to see the indices going up (straighter hair) as the temperatures go down (colder regions), if straight hair really is an adaptation to colder regions.
The rest of the temperatures were discerned from the map above.
As everyone with a single braincell can observe for him/herself, that there is no correlation to be observed with cold weather and hair structure. Instead of increasing linearly along with the decreasing temperatures, the indices are all over the place. Immediately, between the first and the third warmest region representatives (Sub-Saharans & Mayans) one can observe jumps in index from 60 to 85, almost the entire sample range when the Khoisan are excluded. How can wheather be involved, when both populations are no more than approximately 10°C apart from each other. 10°C differences between regions are to be observed in Africa as well, yet there is no such thing as a (modern) index of 85 in Africa’s most mild climates, not even in regions with admixture from Eurasia (North Africa), or the Horn (Amhara).
Compare this with crural index, which has been shown to correlate positively with mean annual temperature:
quote: Lapps………………………..79% .25°C modern Inuit……………81.5% 4°C Belgium……………………82.5% 10°C S.African white………..83.2% 8.5°C Yugoslav………………….83.75% 8.4°C American white……….82.6% 9.8°C Kalahari Bushman…..83.4% 18°C New MexicoIndian….84.6% 14°C S.African black………..86.4% 17°C Arizona Indian…………85.5% 18°C Melanesian…………….. 84.8% 23°C Pygmy……………………..85.1% 24.2°C Egyptian…………………..84.9% 26.1°C American Black………..85.25% 26°C
quote: Originally posted by Zaharan: I would question the Atlas of Human Hair Microscopic Characteristics categories though, because "sub-Saharan" Africans include Somalis and Ethiopians, populations that are overwhelmingly tropically adapted Africans and they have a wide range of hair- from straight, to loosely curled, to kinky. The term "African extreme" as used in the "Hair in toxicology" text might also be questioned. The peoples of New Guinea are by blood and DNA closer to Asian populations than Africans, but their hair can sometime also be tightly curled to almost resemble some Africans. Hence why isn't that the outer edge of an "ASIAN extreme" going the other way?
I agree These side notes should be included so the less seasoned don't get it twisted. Not everyone is as good in reading texts with outdated terms and disecting the few golden nuggets. One might also question the Negro epithet underneath picture with the flattened cross sections in the screenshot I posted.
Posts: 8785 | From: Discovery Channel's Mythbusters | Registered: Dec 2009
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quote: Originally posted by Whatbox: So how did this divergence happen? Who knows, maybe increasingly curlier and curlier hair came about and / or caught on mostly after non-Africa's primary ancesters left the continent and then straighter hair took over with many of them, forced to inhabit drier areas (when the temperature gets low, the humidity begins to drop out of the air). Or, as it is today, from the start in Kenya / Ethiopia their was practically the whole range of variation in hair form that exists today excluding extremely straight East Asian / AmerIndian hair, and these types emerge / diverge later. Austrailian aboriginees, who are associated with early Out-of-Africa migrants have - many of them - straight hair, live in the tropics, and appear tropically adapted.
Yes, we recently discussed the lost phenetic variation present in holocenic and mid stone age Africa.
Recap:
quote:The Nazlet Khater specimen is part of a relict population which is a descendant of a larger sub-Saharan stock, which extended as far north as present day upper Egypt sometime during the Last Interglacial period, or the early part of the Last Glacial period. In such a scenario, the Nazlet Khater belongs to a relict population which retained some of the morphological features [form & structure] that were present among Middle Stone Age populations, but no longer present in other contemporaneous sub-Saharan and North African populations.
Here is another one from Christopher Ehret, referring to the four broad divisions of Africans, that comes to mind:
quote:WHC: Can you talk about the way this approach works for the four African peoples you have explored?
Ehret: Well, first of all, there were surely other peoples besides these four, peoples who have been lost to history because they were assimilated and absorbed into agricultural societies. We're left with these four today, but there may well have been others, of course.
And
The populations to the right..
Posts: 8785 | From: Discovery Channel's Mythbusters | Registered: Dec 2009
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posted
I'd be most interested in a scientific study having to do with genetics and hair straightness in general or better yet a genetic study on different regions of the world and the various hair forms therein, but i doubt such an endeaver will be undertaken anytime soon.
quote:Originally posted by Whatbox: I'd be most interested in a scientific study having to do with genetics and hair straightness in general or better yet a genetic study on different regions of the world and the various hair forms therein, but i doubt such an endeaver will be undertaken anytime soon.
eing bald or boasting a "leonine mane", having straight or curled hair, blond or black� it's all in the genes. And while you're admiring the silky hair of the East Asian girls, you should know one fact: their hair fibers are 30% larger than those of Africans and 50% than those of the Europeans.
A new research presented last week at the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics has unveiled the mystery: a sole genetic variant. Japanese, Thai, and Indonesian teams of geneticists have employed the International HapMap Project to solve the puzzle.
The investigation started with 170 candidate genes, connected by various researches made in mice and genetic human conditions to hair development. The researchers compared the variations in these genes amongst three HapMap populations: Yoruba from Nigeria, Europeans, and Japanese and Chinese.
A mutation in the gene named EDAR was found in 88% of the Japanese and Chinese, but lacked in the other two races. To understand how this gene could have been involved in hair thickness, the scientists compared hair fiber width and the gene's pattern in 186 subjects coming from two ethnic groups in Southeast Asia who displayed a large array of hair patterns.
The thickest hair fibers were connected to the presence of the genome of two copies of EDAR. The EDAR gene encodes for the ectodysplasin A receptor, involved in the molecular pathway that spur hair precursor cells to start developing a follicle. "The variant may have been selected for in East Asians either because thicker hair was beneficial in the cold north Asian climate or because it is linked to some other trait, such as tooth shape, that gave East Asians an advantage," said co-author Akihiro Fujimoto of the University of Tokyo.
"The EDAR allele wouldn't be all that useful for figuring out what someone looks like from their DNA because it doesn't determine whether hair is straight or curly, and hair thickness also varies with sex and age. However, it could be used as a marker for East Asian ancestry.", said co-author Ryosuke Kimura of Tokai University School of Medicine in Kanagawa, Japan.
"Indeed, the EDAR allele had already jumped out in the HapMap analysis as being distinctly East Asian", said molecular anthropologist Mark Shriver of Pennsylvania State University in State College.
Common Variants in the Trichohyalin Gene Are Associated with Straight Hair in Europeans
Sarah E. Medland1, Go To Corresponding Author, , Dale R. Nyholt1, Jodie N. Painter1, Brian P. McEvoy1, Allan F. McRae1, Gu Zhu1, Scott D. Gordon1, Manuel A.R. Ferreira1, Margaret J. Wright1, Anjali K. Henders1, Megan J. Campbell1, David L. Duffy1, Narelle K. Hansell1, Stuart Macgregor1, Wendy S. Slutske2, Andrew C. Heath3, Grant W. Montgomery1 and Nicholas G. Martin1
1 Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane 4029, Australia 2 University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA 3 Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO 63110, USA
Hair morphology is highly differentiated between populations and among people of European ancestry. Whereas hair morphology in East Asian populations has been studied extensively, relatively little is known about the genetics of this trait in Europeans. We performed a genome-wide association scan for hair morphology (straight, wavy, curly) in three Australian samples of European descent. All three samples showed evidence of association implicating the Trichohyalin gene (TCHH), which is expressed in the developing inner root sheath of the hair follicle, and explaining ∼6% of variance (p = 1.5 × 10−31). These variants are at their highest frequency in Northern Europeans, paralleling the distribution of the straight-hair EDAR variant in Asian populations.
Posts: 42918 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
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posted
^ LOL @ this dishonest lying fool attempting to do scholarly research and present scientific findings.
I'll give her a D for effort, other than that let's see how it goes.
If it is anything like her posts in other threads, it will eventually bomb.
By the way, I should point out that thin hair tends to be lost more easily than thick hair which is why pattern baldness in general and among men in particular is greater in populations with thin hair. Australian aborigines have tend to have among the highest pattern of male pattern baldness among tropically adapted peoples.
Also some of you may be familiar with this source from Myra.
West Africa Magazine July 8, 2001
Egyptology: Hanging in the Hair
by Anu M'bantu and Fari Supia
FOR YEARS, EGYPTOLOGY has been fighting a losing battle to hold onto an ancient Egypt that is Caucasian or, at worst, sun-tanned Caucasian.
At the 1974 UNESCO conference Egyptology was dealt a fatal blow. Two African scholars wiped the floor with 18 world-renowned Egyptologists. They proved in 11 different categories of evidence that the ancient Egyptians were Africans (Black). Following that beating, Egyptology has been on its knees praying to be saved by science. Their last glimmer of hope has been the hair on Egyptian mummies.
The mummies on display in the world's museums exhibit Caucasoid-looking hair, some of it brown and blonde. These mummies include Pharaoh Seqenenre Tao of the 17th dynasty and the 19th dynasty's Rameses II. As one scholar put it: "The most common hair colour, then as now, was a very dark brown, almost black colour although natural auburn and even rather surprisingly blonde hair are also to be found."
Many Black scholars try skillfully to avoid the hair problem. This is a mistake!
In 1914, a white doctor in Detroit initiated divorce proceeding against his wife whom he suspected of being a "closet Negro". At the trial, the Columbia University anthropologist, Professor Franz Boas (1858-1942), was called upon as a race expert. Boas declared: "If this woman has any of the characteristics of the Negro race it would be easy to find them . . . one characteristic that is regarded as reliable is the hair. You can tell by microscopic examination of a cross-section of hair to what race that person belongs."
With this revelation, trichology (the scientific analysis of hair) reached the American public. But what are these differences?
The cross-section of a hair shaft is measured with an instrument called a trichometer. From this you can get measurements for the minimum and maximum diameter of a hair The minimum measurement is then divided by the maximum and then multiplied by a hundred. This produces an index. A survey of the scientific literature produces the following breakdown:
San, Southern African 55.00 Zulu, Southern African 55.00 Sub-Saharan Africa 60.00 Tasmanian (Black) 64.70 Australian (Black) 68.00 Western European 71.20 Asian Indian 73.00 Navajo American 77.00 Chinese 82.60
In the early 1970s, the Czech anthropologist Eugen Strouhal examined pre-dynastic Egyptian skulls at Cambridge University. He sent some samples of the hair to the Institute of Anthropology at Charles University, Prague, to be analyzed. The hair samples were described as varying in texture from "wavy" to "curly" and in colour from "light brown" to "black". Strouhal summarized the results of the analysis:
"The outline of the cross-sections of the hairs was flattened, with indices ranging from 35 to 65. These peculiarities also show the Negroid inference among the Badarians (pre-dynastic Egyptians)."
The term "Negroid influence" suggests intermixture, but as the table suggests this hair is more "Negroid" than the San and the Zulu samples, currently the most Negroid hair in existence!
In another study, hair samples from ten 18th-25th dynasty individuals produced an average index of 51! As far back as 1877, Dr. Pruner-Bey analyzed six ancient Egyptian hair samples. Their average index of 64.4 was similar to the Tasmanians who lie at the periphery of the African-haired populations(1).
A team of Italian anthropologists published their research in the Journal of Human Evolution in 1972 and 1980. They measured two samples consisting of 26 individuals from pre-dynastic, 12th dynasty and 18th dynasty mummies. They produced a mean index of 66.50.
The overall average of all four sets of ancient Egyptian hair samples was 60.02. Sounds familiar . . ., just check the table!
Since microscopic analysis shows ancient Egyptian hair to be completely African, why does the hair look Caucasoid? Research has given us the answers.
Hair is made of keratin protein. Keratin is composed of amino acid chains called polypeptides. In a hair, two such chains are called cross-chain polypeptides. These are held together by disulphide bonds. The bulk of the hair, the source of its strength and curl, is called the cortex. The hair shafts are made of a protective outer layer called the cuticle.
We are informed by Afro Hair - A Salon Book, that chemicals for bleaching, penning and straightening hair must reach the cortex to be effective. For hair to be permed or straightened the disulphide bonds in the cortex must be broken. The anthropologist Daniel Hardy writing in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, tells us that keratin is stable owing to disulphide bonds. However, when hair is exposed to harsh conditions it can lead to oxidation of protein molecules in the cortex, which leads to the alteration of hair texture, such as straightening.
Two British anthropologists, Brothwell and Spearman, have found evidence of cortex keratin oxidation in ancient Egyptian hair. They held that the mummification process was responsible, because of the strong alkaline substance used. This resulted in the yellowing and browning of hair as well as the straightening effect.
This means that visual appearance of the hair on mummies cannot disguise their racial affinities. The presence of blonde and brown hair on ancient Egyptian mummies has nothing to do with their racial identity and everything to do with mummification and the passage of time. As the studies have shown, when you put the evidence under a microscope the truth comes out. At last, Egyptology's prayers have been answered. It has been put out of its misery.
A modern Beja man and 'Ginger' the Predynastic mummyPosts: 26238 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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1) We do not know this particular Beja Man's ancestry. Over the centuries, they had contact and some influence from Greeks, Romans, Arabs and Turks. The Red Sea route was one of three main trade routes between Europe and the East. In the 13th century, under growing pressure from Mameluk Egypt, they became Muslim at the same time adopting genealogies linking them to Arab ancestors.
quote:Originally posted by MindoverMatter718: You have to understand what tropical adaptations entail before you you solely rely on one trait. Limb proportions are not the sole implication of tropical adaptation, skin color is also in correlation with tropical adaptation.Add on the tightly coiled hair Khoisan possess as noted by Explorer.
You say tightly coiled hair rather than all hair in general is tropically adaptated. Interesting, that confirms the other thing Explorer said:
quote:Originally posted by The Explorer: The diversity of hair type of course has adaptive quality to it
posted
^ LOL The adoption of Arab lineage for sharifa prestige is not the same as having actual Arab or any other foreign lineage.
As I pointed out in another thread, the lightening of hair color to even some shades of blonde due to loss of pigment is not uncommon for many Africans in their old age and has NOTHING to do with foreign ancestry you twit.
Give it a rest, fool.
Posts: 26238 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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^ And you still fail to prove your point. The Egyptians did not have bone-straight hair like Asians but rather wavy hair that is still thick which makes them no different from other Africans.
Malian
Algerian
Egyptians
Ethiopian
Somali
ALL African and ALL obviously tropically adapted.
Note that there are also a few people in equatorial Africa that have the same hair texture namely the Bilma people of Uganda yet their facial features are stereotypically "negroid". According to Lyingass and Nonthinker they must still have 'Eurasian' ancestry since such hair is "cold adapted". LOLPosts: 26238 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Kalonji: explain how straight hair is indicative of ancestry from the Arabian peninsule, when Amhara's with sometimes as much as 40% J haplogroup, actually have lesser incidences of straight, wavy and curly hair than Somali's have.
quote:Kalonji further stated Your model fails to explain why your "cold adapted" Tasmanians had higher incidences of whooly hair. (especially considering that Tasmania is well below the subtropics in a temperate climate that is closer to cold than the Mediterranean!)
Liar's got some explaining to do. Posts: 26238 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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quote:Originally posted by the lioness: We do not know this particular Beja Man's ancestry.
Making this point strikes me as a little excessive; the picture he posts shows that someone the complexion of the chick on your avatar can look like that. There are plenty in the Pacific Islands and even Etiopis that have hair like that.
I'll do lioness's homework as i don't think we'll get much out of lioness, she seems like a Mike111 converse only less dedicated to propagating nonsense (or anything for that matter) and more often sarcastic or disingenuous.
Ok, genetic drift (which could bypass Kalongi's uniparental marker test) and sexual selection could be the culprit as is often proclaimed. As the reasoning goes, although someone who could pass for white might have an untameable fro' when the hair's grown out, overtime overall offspring with darker skin or regardless of skin colour and offspring with straighter hair would be selected for.
As i see it though, when hair of the "kinkiest" grade is already there it's pretty darn dominant trait -- i know you've seen those mixed kids with their hair grown out. Often looking the same texture if not nappier than otha bruthas' hair i know but then maybe the cases i saw don't touch theirs.
In any case neither scenario can be ruled out.
I still think it is drier environment.
Posts: 5555 | From: Tha 5th Dimension. | Registered: Apr 2006
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Indian and Dravidian people would be the best example. One of the blackest and i mean pitch black people i met on Earth was this Indian young lady shopping with what could have been her mother or gammy. Prior to that point i had no idea they could get that dark. Anyway, unlike for "Veddoid" populations across the whole Southern continent of Asia including the Middle East, which sometimes have hair that looks a fusion of the entire human race's texture, I almost always encounter Indians with straight to *very* straight hair. Then again, some of India is humid, isn't it??
That part of India would be the biggest threat to my arguement. Then again multiple migrations are hypothesized to have been responsible for folks outside of Africa and these peoples and their ancestors may have acclimated to different environs explaining why some folks who live in the tropics on the Asian front have fro like hair basically uniformly while others never uniformly have like hair. Often, people were stuck in certain environs and forced to adapt until circumstances dictated otherwise until the advent of farming i.e. the Neolithic age.
posted
you don't even know if the Beja man's hair texture was fro and was treated and combed out
You speak of what is called anecdotal evidence with no background information, not even an interview where the man is quoted discussing the condition of his hair's texture of color
it's a double standard. Somebody brings up contemporary Egyptians and then people say, without data, oh they have been heavily mixed with non-black type Arabs.
Then we go to the horn and all of sudden they're pure breds
the tactic is switched to draw the conclusion you want
Posts: 42918 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
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quote:Originally posted by MindoverMatter718: You have to understand what tropical adaptations entail before you you solely rely on one trait. Limb proportions are not the sole implication of tropical adaptation, skin color is also in correlation with tropical adaptation.Add on the tightly coiled hair Khoisan possess as noted by Explorer.
You say tightly coiled hair rather than all hair in general is tropically adaptated.
Why are you quoting me in this thread wherein I never posted? You weirdo!
Besides I see you're taking my post as well as Explorers to try and make one of your idiotic posts.
As usual out of context.
I didn't say tightly coiled hair rather than blah blah blah anything you dunce. As you quoted me, there's nothing about that in my post.
In fact tightly coiled hair was noted by Explorer that the Khoisan exhibit which is indicative specifically of their (Khoi-San) tropical adaptation.
This of course was in the thread you made up about indigenous southern Africans being tropically adapted which as noted there they are.
Don't quote me in threads I have not posted in fool.
Posts: 6572 | From: N.Y.C....Capital of the World | Registered: Jun 2008
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quote:Originally posted by the lioness: you don't even know if the Beja man's hair texture was fro and was treated and combed out
You speak of what is called anecdotal evidence with no background information, not even an interview where the man is quoted discussing the condition of his hair's texture of color
it's a double standard. Somebody brings up contemporary Egyptians and then people say, without data, oh they have been heavily mixed with non-black type Arabs.
Then we go to the horn and all of sudden they're pure breds
the tactic is switched to draw the conclusion you want
posted
^ LOL That is one of the M.O.s of the Lyingass, she takes one quote someone else made (even on another thread) totally out of context in a way as to make it look like it supports her absurd assertions. Leave it to Lyingass. Posts: 26238 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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And that was one tall ass chick! Couldn't have been much older than I, 19 young twenties, very narrow facial profile, glasses..
quote:Originally posted by the lioness: you don't even know if the Beja man's hair texture was fro and was treated and combed out
Precisely.
This is a ditto of my own comment on Saharan girl I pictured above, and the same is so for those mummies people picture. The moral of the story is [what is essentially Random] Pic Spam Analysis is dubious compared to data from thorough peer reviewable studies.
What was being referenced in your quote though by me was your allusion to his possible mixture -- everyone in that part of the world today is so -- the fact is a simple statement of whether he is mixed or not (especially with a people probably mixed with his own) simply proves nothing for either case at any rate.Posts: 5555 | From: Tha 5th Dimension. | Registered: Apr 2006
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posted
^ But of course Lyingass has her own separate standard. She can post random pictures of individuals to back up her claims but I or the rest of us cant. LOL
quote:Originally posted by the lyingass: you don't even know if the Beja man's hair texture was fro and was treated and combed out
The only thing rural Beja treat their hair with is henna which gives it a reddish color. The texture is common for Beja people.
quote:You speak of what is called anecdotal evidence with no background information, not even an interview where the man is quoted discussing the condition of his hair's texture of color
it's a double standard. Somebody brings up contemporary Egyptians and then people say, without data, oh they have been heavily mixed with non-black type Arabs.
Then we go to the horn and all of sudden they're pure breds
the tactic is switched to draw the conclusion you want
Nope. My conclusions are based on HISTORICAL evidence unlike yours. It is a historical FACT that Egypt suffered many invasions and migrations from not only the Near East but Europe. The Horn of Africa did NOT. Do you not understand??
Posts: 26238 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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