How Our Skins Got Their Color

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How Our Skins Got Their Color

• By Mikael Allen

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Human Skin Color

• Presence of Melanin creates skin color
• Melanin is to protect the upper levels of skin
  from being damaged by the sun
• Its the first line of defense from afflictions
  such as sunburns

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Human Skin Color

• The more Melanin the darker the skin and lower
  risk of sunburn

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Dark Skinned People

• If Melanin helps with the risk of skin cancer
  then how come all the people with light skin
  havent died throughout time and only dark
  skinned people survive?
• The suns rays do not present an unmitigated
  threat all over the world.

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Sunlight

• It provides Vitamin D, and give people strength
• With out it we would have rickets and
  osteomalacia also with out sunlight pregnancy
  would result in a deformed birth canal.

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The Change

• The change started taking place in light-skinned
  people about 5,000 years ago.

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Cultural Selection

• People consciously and unconsciously may have
  decided which infant to nourish and which to
  neglect.
• Light skinned people would nourish the light
  skinned child more than their darker siblings
• The evolution of black skin is the opposite of
  this theory

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Harriss Argument

• His argument was extremely convincing
• He proved great points and used many terrific
  examples

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Insightful and Weak

• The most insightful idea in the chapter is the
  part about cultural selection
• There were really no weak parts in the chapter
  but I know he could have demonstrated his
  argument on a more in-depth level

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Essay Question

• Describe Harriss theory of cultural selection?