How were different races formed in evolution?

Question

Ill be careful what to say here so Im not being racist. But in evolution, for example: If black people were the original race of the human species how where white people and chinese people etc. formed?

Answer 1

There is only one race, the human race.  Differences are the result of the evaluational changes requiring specialization of characteristics necessary for the survival of the individual.  At the beginning of the formation of what is now known as homosapians, the available population reproduced with those that were in the same region.  There was a concentration of duplicated characteristics of these various primitive tribal members.  I believe that migration to other global locations took place over tens of thousands of years, and the change in the characteristics of these people were the result of the biological and physical influences that are innate.  This is what specialization for survival is all about.

Answer 2

So who in our bodies programmed us to adapt. The universe does not come with a manual that tells it to help us survive. if we didnt have a purpose why has our whole quest in human biology been to make our time here longer and better. Oh i forgot evolution has a brain that it evolved too.

Answer 3

Its all about the environment and the various ways of dealing with factors such as temperature, sun exposure and diets.

It maybe true that the first original race was black, but when people migrated to the cold regions of the north, suddenly protecting your skin from UV was not as important as the ability to store fat and develop body hair to keep warm.

(sorry I did not mean to make that sound like they are fat and hairy...sorry sorry...=)

What I am trying to say is that there are many ways of proving this point today. In africa the skin cancer rate for blacks is dramatically lower than whites, for obvious reasons.

I will look for the study done on this very topic, but I havent read it since soph year in sociology.

Answer 4

By "race" most really mean "skin color"

We humans did start out in Africa, and we were all black.

The out of Africa migration was done during the first half of the Pleistrocence period. It was a time of ice ages, when sea levels dropped significantly and there was increased rainfall in many regions. At the same time Homo erectus was making stone tools and was able to use fire. The question of his being able to create fire has not yet been answered. Given the favorable climate and the increased skills to control his environment, Homo erectus spread out of Africa.

As for skin color:

"In their analysis of human evolutionary history, Jablonski and Chaplin concluded that modern humans most likely evolved in the tropics, where they were exposed to high UV levels. But as they moved into regions away from the equator, where UV levels are lower, humans became fairer so as to allow enough UV radiation to penetrate their skin and produce vitamin D, the "sunshine vitamin," also obtained from eating fish and marine mammals. Vitamin D is essential for maintaining healthy blood levels of calcium and phosphorous, and thus promoting bone growth.

Skin color, according to Jablonski and Chaplin, basically becomes a balancing act between the evolutionary demands of photo-protection and the need to create vitamin D in the skin.

One of the important implications of Jablonski and Chaplin's work is that it underlines the concept of race as purely a social construct, with no scientific grounds. DNA research has shown that genetically all humans, regardless of skin color and other surface distinctions, are basically the same. In an April 2001 article titled, "The Genetic Archaeology of Race," published in the Atlantic Monthly, Steve Olson writes "the genetic variants affecting skin color and facial features are essentially meaningless —they probably involve a few hundred of the billions of nucleotides in a person's DNA. Yet societies have built elaborate systems of privilege and control on these insignificant genetic differences."

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/02...

"Before the mass global migrations of people during the last 500 years, dark skin color was mostly concentrated in the southern hemisphere near the equator and light color progressively increased further away, as illustrated in the map below. In fact, the majority of dark pigmented people lived within 20° of the equator. Most of the lighter pigmented people lived in the northern hemisphere north of 20° latitude."

http://anthro.palomar.edu/adapt/adapt_4....

Answer 5

No one really knows the answer to this, other than that it was the result of genetic mutation. Genes are influenced by the environment, especially in utero. Famine causes genetic changes, usually for the worse, especially to fetuses who were born while the mother was starving. But other things too cause mutations, one of which might be adaptation to different climates. It's thought that the narrower noses of Caucasians were an adaptation to colder weather, and whiter skin may have come about from the use of clothing, but this is all speculative.

You should remember this important fact: There is much less variation among people than there is among dogs.

Answer 6

One or more individuals of one race experiences a mutation that allows it to better adjust to the environment.

These individuals are able to survive long enough to procreate and pass along the gene for this helpful mutation.

The mutation eventually becomes a characteristic of the species and it is found throughout the new generations. Thus the species changes.

If the mutation is sufficient, such as the development of the cortical segment of the cerebral hemisphere, as in the difference between us and Neanderthal, them one is generally extincted by the new version, as was the case with us and Neanderthal.

There is, of course, only one race of humans currently on the planet...us...Homo Sapiens Sapiens.

Answer 7

All people are equally distant from any "original" race.  Races form because populations become at least partially separated and continue to evolve.