The Real World > History
The Origin of Blue Eyes
Radagast:
CS said blue eyed people arrived from Kantek.
Geneticist Hans Eiberg claims with certainty blue eyes in human race are the result of gene mutation that occured aprox. 10000 in one single man . Until then nobody had blue eyes according to this scientist.
here is the translation from Croatian online scientific magazine called New Vision(http://www.newvision.ba/magazin/svi-plavooki-ljudi-imaju-istog-pretka.html)
--- Quote from: New vision ---Actually it is the pigment melanin that is responsible for darker skin. Mutation in certain genes can lead to dysfunction in melanin production which results in white skin, white hair and red eyes. This phenomenon is known as albinism and it has been frequently recorded in certain animals too.
Eiberg claims that all human race originally had brown eyes and that blue eyes appeared only 10000 years ago. Moreover he assumes that one single man was responsible for this, when mutation occurred in his genes precipitating changes in his irises he was born with blue eyes, approximately 6000 - 10000 years ago. Therefore, all blu eyed people should be progeny of this one man. Eiberg claims this mutation occured in gene OCA2 causing the "switch" which literally shut off the possibility for brown eyes affecting the melanin production in the eye.
Nevertheless this switch only significantly reduced melanin production, it couldn't stop it completely as in that case they would be red.
Therefore all blueyed people have inherited this "switch".
Eiberg and co. draw their conclusions upon years long DNA analysis in 800 people. This number included blue eyed people not only from Scandinavia but also from Jordan or Turkey. Eiberg traced OCA2 gene in 1996.
From evolutionary point of view, blue eyes were redundant same as freckles or different variations of light hair. Why are blue eyes predominant in Northern Europe, Eiberg only speculates. He thinks light blue eyes could provide certain advantage in dark winters or long summer days. Or maybe Europeans favored blue eyed partners because they deemed them more attractive.
--- End quote ---
Sounds totally lame if you ask me. I mean I can accept that there is a switch caused by genetic mutation but the rest is preety feeble. Actually it is only theories like this, that we can expect from scientists whose minds are closed in their neat and tight boxes.
lets try to imagine that all people in this world have brown eyes. All of the sudden you run into the person with blue eyes, the chances are he or she will freak you out and most probably you will not desire to mate them. It is in human nature to fear the unknown and Eiberg should know that humans (same as every other animal) rarely chose to mate with wierd specimens of the species or those who don't fall into genetically imprinted pattern of "appropriate appearance". Also there is a big chance you or your villagers will try to kill them and stop that disgusting and dangerous abomination of nature there and then.
In any case if such freak mutant got lucky and managed to mate, the chances of his offspring spreading across the planet in such great numbers are pretty slim.
Also he didn't explain, how is this switch that causes changes in the eye color related with changes in skin and hair color.
In any case his year long study only managed to prove what we knew all along, all blue eyed people are related full stop.
Recently there was a theory according to which, all humanity (all races included) that populates BBM today originated from one tiny isolated population (possibly survivors of great cataclysm). I wonder how Eiberg's theory corresponds with this cataclysmic theory
Telperion:
The info in this post is something interesting to consider. However I feel I should mention that the color of eyes is an illusion because the origin of all color in eyes except red is melanin. The shape of the iris and the distribution and concentration of melanin in the iris determines what color will be seen when light hits the eye. Consider blue/light eyed folks and their trouble with 'red eye' in photos. So whatever the origin of eye color, what we see is not really anything more than a fancy light show.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6195091.stm
Mechanic:
--- Quote from: Telperion ---Consider blue/light eyed folks and their trouble with 'red eye' in photos.
--- End quote ---
As far as I know the phenomenon of people having 'red eyes' in photo's is due to the flash of the camera reflecting from the retina, which has a lot of tiny blood vessels, hence the red color. So it has nothing to do with the (color of the) iris.
--- Quote from: Deckard ---lets try to imagine that all people in this world have brown eyes. All of the sudden you run into the person with blue eyes, the chances are he or she will freak you out and most probably you will not desire to mate them. It is in human nature to fear the unknown and Eiberg should know that humans (same as every other animal) rarely chose to mate with wierd specimens of the species or those who don't fall into genetically imprinted pattern of "appropriate appearance". Also there is a big chance you or your villagers will try to kill them and stop that disgusting and dangerous abomination of nature there and then.
--- End quote ---
Well I wouldn't be too sure about this myself. I know I can be attracted to rare or 'unknown' (at least to me) physical features. Of course it's impossible to test this with something which didn't exist up until now.
I searched the net to find some examples because there exist colored contact lenses nowadays, so here goes:
purple irises:
yellow (and some paint on her forehead I guess):
It does look odd, but I don't think no one would want to mate with those women because of their eye color. Heck, some guys probably wouldn't even notice. Of course the color difference between those pictured and the normal colors one observes is less than the difference between brown and blue, and our world is much different than 10000 years ago, but still I wouldn't be sure that such a mutation would mean the mutant gene was destined to die off. This of course doesn't mean I think Eiberg is totally right, as I'm not capable of verifying most things he claims. Thanks for the article.
Telperion:
--- Quote from: The Mechanic ---
--- Quote from: Telperion ---Consider blue/light eyed folks and their trouble with 'red eye' in photos.
--- End quote ---
As far as I know the phenomenon of people having 'red eyes' in photo's is due to the flash of the camera reflecting from the retina, which has a lot of tiny blood vessels, hence the red color. So it has nothing to do with the (color of the) iris.
--- Quote from: Deckard ---lets try to imagine that all people in this world have brown eyes. All of the sudden you run into the person with blue eyes, the chances are he or she will freak you out and most probably you will not desire to mate them. It is in human nature to fear the unknown and Eiberg should know that humans (same as every other animal) rarely chose to mate with wierd specimens of the species or those who don't fall into genetically imprinted pattern of "appropriate appearance". Also there is a big chance you or your villagers will try to kill them and stop that disgusting and dangerous abomination of nature there and then.
--- End quote ---
Well I wouldn't be too sure about this myself. I know I can be attracted to rare or 'unknown' (at least to me) physical features. Of course it's impossible to test this with something which didn't exist up until now.
I searched the net to find some examples because there exist colored contact lenses nowadays, so here goes:
purple irises:
http://images.43things.com/entry/305237xl.jpg
yellow (and some paint on her forehead I guess):
http://www.duetsblog.com/Gabby-Haunted.gif
It does look odd, but I don't think no one would want to mate with those women because of their eye color. Heck, some guys probably wouldn't even notice. Of course the color difference between those pictured and the normal colors one observes is less than the difference between brown and blue, and our world is much different than 10000 years ago, but still I wouldn't be sure that such a mutation would mean the mutant gene was destined to die off. This of course doesn't mean I think Eiberg is totally right, as I'm not capable of verifying most things he claims. Thanks for the article.
--- End quote ---
Ok, everything you said makes sense to a certain degree however it is not logical to jump to the conclusion that a woman with different color eyes would have more trouble mating than a woman with "regular" eyes. The following story is 100% true - In my sophomore year of high school there was a kind of frumpy girl who transformed herself during the course of the year and started coming to school in slinky tight numbers. One day she showed up with these very dramatic cat eye contacts looking like something from an Anne Rice novel. Some people thought it was weird, others thought it was cool, and at least one person thought it was sexy because she turned up pregnant not too much later after I saw her wearing those contacts. So maybe my observation is the exception to the rule but I doubt it, physical characteristics that are different can be seen as exotic and sexy as well as weird or strange. So blue eyes many years ago may have been embraced by some group of people who protected that trait over time.
dant:
--- Quote from: Deckard ---lets try to imagine that all people in this world have brown eyes. All of the sudden you run into the person with blue eyes, the chances are he or she will freak you out and most probably you will not desire to mate them. It is in human nature to fear the unknown and Eiberg should know that humans (same as every other animal) rarely chose to mate with wierd specimens of the species or those who don't fall into genetically imprinted pattern of "appropriate appearance". Also there is a big chance you or your villagers will try to kill them and stop that disgusting and dangerous abomination of nature there and then.
--- End quote ---
Maybe not so weird for some?
For some, they may be attracted to a bit of mystery, intrigue,
'one-of-a-kind', and/or 'exotic' because everyone else is too
much of the same, thus 'boring'?
But in any case - isn't beauty in the eye of the beholder? ;)
But getting back on topic, I agree that it is easy for some to make
sweeping statements without providing more objective data and the
sampling itself is rather naive. Who says that sampling of the data
"today" is the same sampling of data taken from say hundreds or
thousands of years ago? Nonsense.
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