A tricky question to word appropriately.....?

Question

As I said, this is a tricky question to find the appropriate words for without causing some kind of offence to someone out there but.......

When I look at countries such as China for example, the majority of the native population seems to look quite similar.....ie, black hair, oriental eyes, usually short, coloured skin, whereas in western countries everybody looks far more individual. Why is there not much variation in natural hair colour and do you think Great Britain used to be like this once upon a time?

Answer 1

The big thing you've got to realise is that in countries such as china their ancestry has been largly untouched by out side influences. Whereas anyone who tells you that they are 100% british is inadvertantly lying. British genes have been "diluted" by thousands of years of various other nationalitys coming to our shores and procreating with the settlers they meet. We're all a big mix of different nationalities (which is probably what makes us so great!). The other problem is if you haven't grown up around alot of people with asian looks you won't be able to see the subtle difference's that are all to obvious to someone who has. As for being offensive try asking a chinese person if he can tell the difference between an english man and a swedish man! i bet he can't!

Answer 2

I think the variation amongst Britons in particular can be explained by the number of times as a country we have been invaded: the Gauls, the Romans, the Vikings etc. With such a widened gene pool this gives a greater number of possible genetic permutations. On the other hand when you consider races that tend to be more isolated, eg Maori, Aborigine, Native Americans, etc where until recently the people's gene pool was not perhaps as varied (what I'm trying to say is when you only have one race mixing their genes) there is less opportunity for genetic variance, whereas a blonde, blue eyed person who breeds with a red headed, green eyed person will produce more genetic variation. In short, the more genes available for breeding the more variation in human features and characteristics.

Answer 3

The UK is far from homogenous ethnically. One of the stations recently ran a program where a selection of your very average English folk were tested for DNA differences. The results showed that there really isn't anything like a pure 100% English person.

Historically, you have the Romans, Angles and Saxons, the Picts and everybody else that was here before the R A & Ses, Normans. Add in a long history of maritime trade and travel and it's really not a surprise.

There's actually far more ethnic differences in China than most Europeans realise. (Something like ~140 recognized groups, I think.) It's just that we see their similarities before we see their differences. What you think of as Chinese is Han.

Answer 4

Yep, all of Ireland and Wales had red hair and blue eyes, and all of England had brown or dark hair and blue eyes. if you look at your feet, if your second toe is longer than your 'big' toe, then you are a true anglo saxon apparently.
People's skin colour and eye colours, are a direct response to evolving to the enviroment they live in. England has been conquered by the Romans and Vikings, who in turn had darker skin with brown eyes, and blond hair with tanned skin and blue eyes. Plus, we conquered most of the world and brought people from those countries back, so we have a greater range of hair and eye colours.

Answer 5

China is a large land mass and was, for many years, sufficient unto itself. Its people spread across Asia. GB is a small group of islands, influenced by successive invasions and permanent settlements, including Celts, Romans, Sacons, Vikings. Even now, you will find that we visit other places and and then come home.

Answer 6

you want to talk to about genetics and origin, recently in conversation about Ghangis khan it was mentioned that approximately 70% of the world population can be traced back to him(don't quote me on this as it was just a pub conversation) if anybody can shed some light as to this please mail me

Answer 7

The variation in the UK has come from being invaded many times so we have Roman, Viking etc blood in us.

The UK will have had less variation before people invaded us.

Answer 8

All chimps look the same to me.

Point being... if you're a chimp, then I'm sure they don't.