Question Details	Asked By	Asked On
Phenotypes of races	aime-cinema	06/24/06
Europe which is a lot smaller than all of Asia and Africa, Europeans tend to display many, many different facial features and differing hair and eye color, where as Asians all have the same hair and eye color and facial features do not vary very much. Same for Africans. Why do Europeans tend to display a lot of differences in their phenotypes but Africans and Asians have relatively homogeneous phenotypes?
Clarification/Follow-up by aime-cinema on 06/25/06 2:31 am: Hi rsalier, I don't get where the many different facial features of Europeans came in. I even have a Japanese friend that says "You caucasians look so different from one another its hard to believe you are all in the same race, whereas us Asians all have the same nose, mouth, eyes, etc.". I agree, we do have many, many different facial features as compared to Africans and Asians why is this? I understand about the hair color. I think. Clarification/Follow-up by rsalier on 06/25/06 8:49 am: Hi Aime, Think of the ancient populations coming out of Africa as small tribal groups exploring the world. As they left Africa and when their own way, they encountered different environmental conditions. Some required longer noses, others a need to convert solar radiation through the skin etc... These adapations all reside in the human genome but also are tied to other factors within the genome. As these adaptations took hold, hair color changed, skin color changed nose size and shape changed, eye shape changed, and other phenotypical features changed to accomodate the environmental requirements as well as social selection. In Asian cultures today, if a person marries out of the culture and marries a white person, the surrounding culture shuns them and forces them to leave the area. They move to a place where they are accepted, the USA or Canada. Cultural standards are deeply held in many cultures. It takes the form of "fear of assimilation" or "do not marry out side of your religion/culture". Do you have the same mouth and nose as a person from southern Vietnam? Or do you look like a Tibetian sheep herd? Do you have the same eye shape as a person from Ulan Baator or the Asian Siberian Steppe? I doubt it. If you are a Han Chinese, then perhaps you look like other Han Chinese. This is because it was generally forbidden to marry outside of these family groups or cultrually central associations.
Answered By		Answered On
rsalier		06/24/06
Hi Aime, European climates and the advent of various invasions and tribal movements due to these invasions tended to isolate some groups which developed into different phenotypes. Thus the higher the latitude, the lighter the skin, eye color and hair color to absorb the maximum solar radiation by the skin during the summer months. While around the Mediterranian and North Africa, skin color was darker to help protect from solar radiation, this also tends towards darker eye colors and hair colors as well genetically. But as mixing of cultural groups occured over a relatively short time frame in Europe, this allowed for admixtures to occur.

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