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| Alternate Races/Ethnicities | |
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| Topic Started: Mar 15 2010, 03:55 PM (1,462 Views) | |
| lamna | Mar 15 2010, 03:55 PM Post #1 |
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What other kinds of races could have developed under different conditions, and why? I know that "Asian eyes" probably evolved to cope with dust-storms, and skin tone depends on sunlight. Where their is little sunlight you need pale skin to get as much vitamin D as you can, in bright places dark skin is needed to protect the skin, but what is the reason for other features? |
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| agatharights | Mar 15 2010, 04:12 PM Post #2 |
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Prime Specimen
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I'm actually part of an alternate worldbuilding thing where I've gotten to make some of my own ethnicities Most features are both evolutionary a AND sexual selection. Asian cultures found petite woman with childish features attractive, and for millenia have bred as such. Many african cultures hold darker skin and height in high regard. Europeans have always loved the pale type with great big bosoms. Sexual selection plays a strong part in it. |
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| lamna | Mar 15 2010, 04:45 PM Post #3 |
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I'd love to read about them, I find the whole idea of new races fascinating. Of course, that must play an important role in it too. Do you know what the benefits for straight and curly hair are? Their must be a reason why Africans have it and most other races have straight hair. As do most animals come to think of it. Perhaps it provides better protection from the sun. |
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Living Fossils Fósseis Vibos: Reserva Natural 34 MYH, 4 tonne dinosaur. [flash=500,450] Video Magic! [/flash] | |
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| Margaret Pye | Mar 15 2010, 08:28 PM Post #4 |
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Adult
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Really? I thought racial variation was mainly a matter of genetic drift. Skin colour and body shape obviously have functional relevance, and epicanthic folds might, but I'm pretty sure the rest of it is fairly random. African cultures tend to prefer dark skin? I wouldn't know, but the idea seems a bit odd - farming cultures with an aristocracy wind up with the higher-class people being lighter skinned, unless there's genetic difference, so most cultures decide that light skin's more attractive. Industrial Revolution famously turned this upside down in Europe - suddenly the posh people are brown and the plebs are pink so now everyone wants to be brown - but most traditional, non-westernised African cultures are farming-based, and the rich stay inside more. (Maybe it's just the hunter-gatherers and other egalitarian cultures who prefer dark skin? Maybe a very dark-skinned group conquered a large area and set themselves up as an aristocracy, and the genetic difference in melanin production was stronger than the "aristocrats get less sunlight than plebs" thing?) And the tendency of Africans to be tall could be put down to sexual selection, I wouldn't have the foggiest idea, but it must also have a lot to do with heat radiation. Random interesting thing about skin colour, that I actually am certain about: light skin's only necessary for farmers, because hunter-gatherers get plenty of vitamin D in their diet anyway. So that's why native Southern Australians are still chocolate coloured after... what's the latest estimate? Way over 10 000 years, anyway... in a temperate climate. Never invented farming - kept on eating balanced diets - no need for sunlight-related Vitamin D. |
| My speculative dinosaur project. With lots of fluff, parental care and mammalian-level intelligence, and the odd sophont. | |
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| Cynovolans | Mar 15 2010, 09:19 PM Post #5 |
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Servant to Empress Min
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I think the basic rule for natural preference is women with lighter skin/hair, and men with darker skin/hair, but it's been changing. People like the Inuit also have rather dark skin despite the fact they live so far north, it is because of all the vitamin D they receive from eating fish. It has been suggested that afros or curly hair evolved after the transition from lighter skin covered in hair to darker skin covered in much less hair. The curly hair is suppose to prevent UV light rays from burning the human scalp, it was helpful until their skin became so dark and adapted to the UV light rays. The biggest challenge to this is why we don't have hair on our shoulders when they receive just as much sunlight. Another theory is that the curly hair allows cool air into the scalp, and is more suitable to the equatorial environments than straight hair which is better for colder climates. And then the other theory that says it was just something leftover from a past fetish or sexual preference. EDIT: And an example of what the ideal man and woman looked like in Egypt. Spoiler: click to toggle
Edited by Cynovolans, Mar 15 2010, 09:28 PM.
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I wish I could give the public a true picture of the queen as she appeared at her best, but this would be impossible, even had she permitted a photograph to be taken, for her charming play of expression while in conversation, the character and intellect which were then revealed, were only half seen when the face was in repose. -Lilias Underwood when speaking of Empress Myeongseong "I was born in the dark. I went out into the light, and your Majesty, it is my displeasure to inform you that I have returned to the dark. I envision a Seoul of towering buildings filled with Western establishments that will place herself back above the Japanese barbarians. Great things lie ahead for the Kingdom, great things. We must take action, your Majesty, without hesitation, to further modernize this still ancient kingdom."-Min Young-ik to Empress Myeongseong | |
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| Margaret Pye | Mar 17 2010, 04:47 AM Post #6 |
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I've always thought it'd be interesting to have a race with dark skin but light eyes and/or hair. Or how about strange eye colours? There are monkeys with eye colours such as yellow, red, or bright, clear shades of blue or green, so it should be theoretically possible for humans. Almost black skin and bright yellow eyes. That'd be a cool-looking combination. Maybe a tropical race with very big ears, to radiate heat? Maybe a race with some kind of atavism? I like the idea of people with little fangs, but hair-covered people (that'd be handy for cold climates!) or a race that normally had little tails would be fun too. There's probably room for slight aquatic adaptations without becoming a different species. How about a race with oversized webbed hands and feet, perhaps evolved in a swamp or on a cluster of teeny islands? Opposable big toes for better climbing? Patterned skin pigmentation, as a feature of the race rather than an occasional mutation? |
| My speculative dinosaur project. With lots of fluff, parental care and mammalian-level intelligence, and the odd sophont. | |
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| Ook | Mar 17 2010, 08:13 AM Post #7 |
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not a Transhuman
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all blue eyed peoples have same ancestor,which lived in bulgaria....maybe yellow or purple color of eyes could exist |
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| agatharights | Mar 17 2010, 10:46 AM Post #8 |
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Prime Specimen
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ONe of my alternate races of people has a genetic predisposition towards heterochromia, so that's kinda sweet. OTherwise they're all kinda boring. Nuuits are basically inuits. Thorrlundt are nordic. Barbidenos are tall, thin Jamaicans And Quetz are..well...azteks. Edited by agatharights, Mar 17 2010, 10:47 AM.
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| T.Neo | Mar 17 2010, 11:29 AM Post #9 |
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Translunar injection: TLI
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I doubt adaptations would be that severe. We manipulate the environment; it doesn't manipulate us. Race is mostly only a minor difference, anyway. |
| A hard mathematical figure provides a sort of enlightenment to one's understanding of an idea that is never matched by mere guesswork. | |
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| agatharights | Mar 17 2010, 01:34 PM Post #10 |
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Prime Specimen
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Race does play a major issue when it comes to health, though. Generally, organ transplants from people of a different race tend to have excessive complications (which is why the US is badly in need of multi-racial and minority organ donors) as well as being a big predeterminer for different genetic diseases. Like Factor V Leyden. If you're white, you probably carry the genes for it. Yay Europe.
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| Margaret Pye | Mar 17 2010, 07:43 PM Post #11 |
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Adult
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Most of the differences I suggested are minor enough to be considered "racial". And humans don't have all that much control over the environment, not without very advanced technology. I think it's perfectly reasonable that a Stone Age group, living in a jungle long enough, might become intrinsically better at climbing. |
| My speculative dinosaur project. With lots of fluff, parental care and mammalian-level intelligence, and the odd sophont. | |
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| Cynovolans | Mar 17 2010, 07:49 PM Post #12 |
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Servant to Empress Min
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I find one of the most amazing of "race" classifications is the Negrito people. They closely resemble African pygmies, but they live throughout Southeast Asia and parts of Oceania in the Andamans and Papua New Guinea. They share the same Afro-hair, dark skin, they are short like pygmies, steatopygia occurs as often as in African populations, and craniology once supported the theory they were the original people to migrate out of African that remained isolated from Asian opulations. But genetic research actually shows them not only to be closer to Asians, but also the most genetically distant population from Africans. It seems like preference varies towards the environment the people live in. Edited by Cynovolans, Mar 17 2010, 07:49 PM.
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I wish I could give the public a true picture of the queen as she appeared at her best, but this would be impossible, even had she permitted a photograph to be taken, for her charming play of expression while in conversation, the character and intellect which were then revealed, were only half seen when the face was in repose. -Lilias Underwood when speaking of Empress Myeongseong "I was born in the dark. I went out into the light, and your Majesty, it is my displeasure to inform you that I have returned to the dark. I envision a Seoul of towering buildings filled with Western establishments that will place herself back above the Japanese barbarians. Great things lie ahead for the Kingdom, great things. We must take action, your Majesty, without hesitation, to further modernize this still ancient kingdom."-Min Young-ik to Empress Myeongseong | |
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| colddigger | Mar 17 2010, 08:06 PM Post #13 |
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Joke's over! Love, Parasky
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curly hair for europeans i imagine would be to keep warm, hypercurly for africans would be to keep the hair off their backs and protect the head, and straight hair could be used as just a barrier or the result of simply not needing curly hair... but those are all just guesses. |
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Oh Fine. Oh hi you! Why don't you go check out the finery that is SGP?? v Don't click v Spoiler: click to toggle | |
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| Margaret Pye | Mar 17 2010, 08:24 PM Post #14 |
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Adult
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Does hair texture have any adaptive value at all, or is it just genetic drift? |
| My speculative dinosaur project. With lots of fluff, parental care and mammalian-level intelligence, and the odd sophont. | |
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| colddigger | Mar 17 2010, 08:29 PM Post #15 |
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Joke's over! Love, Parasky
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i would imagine that it does... smooth hair is great for parasites to roam through for example... |
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Oh Fine. Oh hi you! Why don't you go check out the finery that is SGP?? v Don't click v Spoiler: click to toggle | |
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Yay Europe.


7:17 PM Jul 10