2007-12-03 07:41:39 · 7 answers · asked by fmjakhilles 2 in Social Science ➔ Anthropology
White skin is necessary in synthesizing vitamin D. For dark skinned people, vitamin D is gained by eating food naturally containing it like seafood. That's why coastal populations are usually darker than non-coastal. Dark skin was retained in other populations due to the risks of melanoma and other sun related diseases.
Now it really is kind of pointless having white skin as long as you have some sort of access to food variety.
2007-12-03 13:13:04 · answer #1 · answered by High Tide 3 · 5⤊ 2⤋
White is primarily a social construct, an identity that is constructed by society. Many Europeans are also dark skinned. The American Anthropological Association issued an official statement on race as a biological entitiy in humans as undocumented. Races have not formed in humans mostly because of wide migration patterns throughout the world. The longterm isolation for race formation has not occured.
2007-12-03 15:20:49 · answer #2 · answered by delachenaie1 2 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Most people think that black skin is an adaptation to a very harsh sunny environment in Africa, and that white people who lived in Europe didn't need it because there wasn't so much sun.
The only question is, did white people evolve from blacks or the other way around. (Or did we all evolve from an even older group?) No one's really sure. The black skin gene could have happened later on!
2007-12-03 09:07:40 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Natural selection, Climate
2007-12-03 08:56:00 · answer #4 · answered by Miss 6 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Perhaps the lack of abudant sun light unlike in countries below the Equator.
2007-12-03 08:29:37 · answer #5 · answered by Hello K 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
The same reason people who live in tropical climes are dark!
We're all the same race.
2007-12-03 08:57:52 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
Lotta snow in Europe, that's why.
2007-12-03 07:52:28 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋