Re: [tied] Re: Also an Austro-Asiatic Disconnect

----- Original Message -----
From: "pielewe" <wrvermeer@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2005 11:27 PM
Subject: [tied] Re: Also an Austro-Asiatic Disconnect


> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Patrick Ryan" <proto-language@...>
> wrote:
>
> > Color (of skin, hair, and eyes) _is_ a genetically inherited
> feature.
>
>
> Our skin has to perform a complex juggling act: on the one hand it
> needs to admit a certain amount of ultraviolet B for the synthesis of
> vitamin D, on the other hand it needs to keep out ultraviolet B to
> prevent damage leading to cancer. Every climate has an optimal skin,
> which is why you have these clines roughly correlated with latitude
> and other climatological factors, such as cloud cover. Migrations to
> different zones subvert the balance, setting up selective pressures
> that will tend to resotre the balance given enough time.

***
Patrick:

And how do the dark;-skinned Eskimoes fit into that thereotical picture?

This was the explanation offered to me when I went to school but it is now
discredited.

***

<snip>

> At least this is the way I understand things. There is nothing
> inherently racist in the story or inherently upperclass in a light
> skin.
>
>
> Willem