Evolution And History

296 CHAPTER 12 | Modern Human Diversity: Race and Racism

skin. In Australia, those populations that spread south of the

tropics (where, as in northern latitudes, ultraviolet radiation

is less intense) underwent some reduction of pigmentation.

But for all that, their skin color is still far darker than that of

Europeans or East Asians. Most of today’s Southeast Asian

population spread there from southern China following the

invention of farming. This expansion of lighter-skinned

populations effectively “swamped” the original populations

of this region, except in a few out-of-the-way places like

the Andaman Islands, in the Bay of Bengal between India

and Thailand.^21 The obvious conclusion is that 40,000

to 60,000 years is not enough to produce significant

depigmentation.^22 These observations also suggest that

Europeans and East Asians may have lived outside the trop-

ics for far longer than the people of Tasmania or that settle-

ment in latitudes even more distant from the equator were

required for depigmentation to occur.

One should not conclude that, because it is newer,

lightly pigmented skin is better or more highly evolved

than heavily pigmented skin. The latter is clearly better

adapted to the conditions of life in the tropics, although

with cultural adaptations like protective clothing, hats,

and sunscreen lotions, very lightly pigmented peoples can

survive there. Conversely, supplementary sources of vita-

min D allow heavily pigmented peoples to do quite well

away from the tropics. In both cases, culture has rendered

skin color differences largely irrelevant from a biological

perspective. With time, skin color may lose its social sig-

nificance as well.

hot climate as described in Chapter 7. This would have
been especially advantageous to our ancestors on the
savannah, who could have avoided confrontations with
carnivorous animals by carrying out most of their ac-
tivities in the heat of the day. For the most part, large
carnivores such as lions rest during this period, being
active from dusk until early morning. Without much
hair to cover their bodies, selection would have favored
dark skins in our ancestors. All humans appear to have
had a “black” ancestry, no matter how “white” some of
them may appear to be today.
An interesting question is how long it took for light
pigmentation to develop in populations living outside
the tropics. Whether one subscribes to the multiregional
continuity model or the recent African
origins hypothesis, the settling of
Greater Australia can be used to
examine this question, as
we know that the first
people to reach Australia
did so sometime between
40,000 and 60,000 years
ago. These people came
there from tropical
Southeast Asia, spread-
ing throughout Australia
eventually to what is now

Ankles of the Australopithecines

with a latitude and levels
of ultraviolet radiation
similar to New York City,
Rome, or Beijing.
As Aboriginal Australians originally came from the trop-
ics, we would expect them to have had darkly pigmented

Indian Ocean

Andaman

Islands

VIETNAM

THAILAND

SRI LANKA INDONESIA

NEPAL

MALAYSIA

LAOS

INDIA

CHINA

CAMBODIA

MYANMAR

BHUTAN

BANGLADESH

(^21) Diamond, J. (1996). Empire of uniformity. Discover 17 (3), 83–84.
(^22) Ferrie, H. (1997). An interview with C. Loring Brace. Current Anthropol-
ogy 38, 864.
Questions for Reflection

1. Humans are challenged to find ways to embrace and
   comprehend the range of biological diversity without suc-
   cumbing to oversimplification, discrimination, and even
   bloodshed fueled by superficial differences. How do an-
   thropological approaches to race contribute to meeting this
   challenge?


2. From an evolutionary perspective, why is human bio-
   logical diversity a key component of our collective identity as
   a species?


3. Why do biological anthropologists and evolutionary bi-
   ologists use clines to study human variation rather than the

biological concept of subspecies? Can you imagine another

species of animal, plant, or microorganism for which the

subspecies concept makes sense?

4. How do you define the concept of intelligence? Do you
   think scientists will ever be able to discover the genetic basis
   of intelligence?


5. Globally, health statistics are gathered by country. In
   addition, some countries such as the United States gather
   health statistics by race. How are these two endeavors dif-
   ferent and similar? Should health statistics be gathered by
   group?