Why are most English so pale skinned and prone to sunburns, yet not so for other peoples in simmilar climates?

Question

For instance, why didn't the American Indians native to the cloudy, rainy Pacific Northwest become through natural selection pale skinned like us English?

Answer 1

I've long wondered about how it simply isn't true, as many people say, that northern people are all light-skinned. Most people living near the poles aren't.

Native Americans haven't been here very long, from an evolutionary perspective, and so haven't had time to change.

I suspect it was a genetic mutation that happened to take hold in northern Europe that's responsible.

According to a really cool documentary I saw on PBS a couple of months ago, Europeans, Native Americans, and many living in middle Eurasia were all descended from a very small group of people whose decedents later dispersed.

This was found by an expert in genetics, who traveled around collecting samples.

Answer 2

It is simply evolution, pale skin can make better use of low intensity sun levels to manufacture vitamin D.
As far as the native Americans go, there very few representatives of there race left, due to the European invaders killing most of them. These cannot be held up to prove anything such as a comparison to people living in the UK. There used to be American Indian tribes that could grow beards, these were tribes that lived in more northern parts of North America, I believe there skin was less dark than the tribes living further south. Sun or lack of it will affect all peoples skin coloration, even people with naturally black skin. If they see little sunlight for long periods their skin lightens, if they are exposed to strong sunlight it darkens. Northern European white skinned peoples skin darkens in strong sunlight, even English summers tan people. They lose that tan in winter months.

Answer 3

Two things-
The founder effect (google it) and adaptation to lack of sunlight and inability to produce vitamin D without it.

They were there much longer than said Native Americans, BTW, who are generally believed to have gone through that area during the migration through Baringia, settled in the southwest of North America, then moved up as ice retreated.

Answer 4

because evolution is an extremely slow process.

the English are mostly Nordic and Germanic (Vikings from Norway/Sweden, Celts from Bohemia, Saxons from Germany) and the Amerindian is an Asian native. you will see more variety in the Amerindian then the English as they have had more time to evolve, but not enough to become a truly separate race

Answer 5

Hmmm, more red heads in the mix????? Hence the more fair skin?


Today, red hair is most commonly found at the northern fringes of Europe. It is associated with those in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, as well as in England, particularly Cornwall.

Scotland is the country with the highest proportion of redheads in the world. 13 percent of the Scottish population has red hair and approximately 40 percent carry the recessive, so-called "ginger gene".[4]

Ireland has the second highest number of redheads worldwide; as many as 10 percent of the Irish population have ginger or strawberry blond hair. It is thought that up to 35 percent of the Irish population carries the recessive "ginger gene".

Red hair has a frequency of over 10 percent in Wales.[5] In England, the county of Cornwall and the far north, near the Scottish border, also have significant proportions of redheads.

Red or reddish-tinged hair is also found in other European populations particularly in the Nordic and Baltic countries as well as parts of the Netherlands, Northern Germany and Russia.

In the United States, anywhere from two to six percent of the population is estimated to have red hair.[1]

The Berber and Kabylie populations of northern Algeria have occasional redheads.[6]

In Asia, darker or mixed tinges of red hair can be found sporadically from Northern India, Iran and Pakistan, all the way to Japan. Red hair can be found commonly amongst those of Iranian descent, such as the Pashtuns.[7]

Answer 6

It takes thousands of years living in a very cloudy cold environment. Native Americans can primarily trace their ancestry to Tibet with a few other races mixed in. Tibet has high elevations with intense sun and still it is very cold. They evolved features to protect from both. They retained their black hair to protect from the sun. Having lived in Seatle area for two years, I think you may under-estimate the summer sun there. I think having the ability to protect oneself from the sun would be balanced with the need to produce vitamin D.

Answer 7

time and the tribes that settled england where already light from living north except the greeks and the phonecians and the romans but the mongoloids of siberia and so on where isolated and then moved down into the americas over time thousands of years as the english only had a few thousand of darker tribes visiting but more lighter folkes

Answer 8

Scottish people if they see the sun they put out a flag. The word Pale-Face describes
the Scots I should know I live in Glasgow.

Answer 9

Historically, most English didn't have to spend much time out in the gruelling sun so that genetic trait has been passed down through the generations. American Indians lived outdoors most of the time, which caused their skin to acclimate to the sun through melatonin production.

Answer 10

What you say is not true. All colours of skin can just as easily get sun burnt. You just have to treat the sun with respect no matter your colouring