--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Patrick Ryan" <proto-language@...>
wrote:
>
> And how do the dark;-skinned Eskimoes fit into that thereotical
picture?
Depends on what you call "dark", they would be considered pretty light
if transplanted near the tropics. And isn't the present-day Eskimo
population generally regarded as the outcome of a relatively (counted
in terms of generations) recent spread originating in eastern Asia?
> This was the explanation offered to me when I went to school but it
is now
> discredited.
I don't believe that until you quote chapter and verse. I've seen too
many quite useful concepts being (temporarily) discredited in my time
to be very impressed by such a statement.
And this being biology it goes without saying that things aren't
simple. Natural selection has to operate on variation that happens to
be present (or to arise by accident) in the genome. It is not automatic
or predictable or guaranteed to yield pretty patterns.
Willem