Why do we have different skin colors? Why do people have different skin colors? People with different skin colors

We say that people can be black or white, but these two colors by no means exhaust the richness of the color shades of human skin. The color of a person’s skin mainly depends on where on the planet his ancestors lived.

Scientists have experimentally confirmed theories about how people developed different shades of skin color (but so far these are only theories).

What determines skin color?

Skin color depends on a substance called melanin. The more melanin in our skin, the darker it is. When a white-skinned person spends a lot of time in the sun, a lot of melanin is formed in his skin, in other words, he tans. Albinos, who lack melanin in their bodies, have pinkish skin and reddish eyes. This color is due to the translucency of blood vessels through the skin and colorless tissues of the eye. Albinos have completely white hair.

Related materials:

Causes of insomnia

What is melanin needed for?

The deposition of melanin in the skin is a protective response to ultraviolet radiation from the sun, which can cause skin cancer. As a light shield, melanin absorbs ultraviolet rays and helps protect the skin from damage. The more melanin in the skin, the darker it is and the better protected from ultraviolet radiation. Knowing the importance of melanin in the skin, scientists have developed ideas about how differences in the amount of melanin deposited in the skin appeared among different human races and how these differences developed over millions of years.

Interesting fact: The large amount of melanin in the skin protects it from ultraviolet radiation.

How did people develop different shades of skin color?

Our distant ancestors were covered with a thin layer of wool, which protected their skin from the intense ultraviolet radiation of the hot African sun. Hundreds of thousands of years have passed. As humanity developed, people began to give birth to babies without hair on their bodies. Why? No one knows this. But gradually the light spotted skin of our ancestors turned out to be completely unprotected from the scorching rays of the sun.

Related materials:

Why does the wind blow?

Since dark skin provides better protection from the sun, those individuals that were born darker than their counterparts received an advantage in terms of survival. Since dark skin color was inherited and had the advantages of natural selection, over time the skin color of the inhabitants of Africa became dark. People spread all over the Earth. Those who found their way to the cold north found the climate there was by no means African. In Europe, for example, sunlight is much weaker, especially in winter. This climate also has its disadvantages.

Too much UV rays are harmful, but too little is even worse. Ultraviolet rays are vital for us: under the influence of this radiation, vitamin D is produced in the skin, without which the formation of strong, durable bones is impossible in the body.

Interesting: the earliest humans may have had light, mottled skin similar to that of a chimpanzee underneath its fur.

The dimmer light of the European sun contains much less ultraviolet rays than sunlight in Africa. The first problems probably arose among dark-skinned aliens, whose skin blocked what little ultraviolet radiation remained in the rays of the northern sun. Some children developed rickets, in which the bones became soft and fragile, they were easily bent and broken.

On Midgard-Earth there live people with different skin colors and a certain territory of residence. This Earthly humanity has ancestors who arrived on Midgard-Earth from various Heavenly Halls - Star Systems, namely: the Great Race - white skin color;
Great Dragon - yellow skin color;
Fire Snake - red skin color;
Gloomy Wasteland - black skin color;
Pekelnogo Mir - gray skin color, foreigners.
The allies of the White Race in the battle with the Forces of Darkness were the People from the Hall of the Great Dragon. They were allowed to settle on Earth, having determined a place in the South-East, at the rise of the Yarilo-Sun. Modern China.

Another ally, the people from the Hall of the Fire Serpent, was assigned a place on the lands in the Atlantic Ocean. Subsequently, with the arrival of the Clans of the Great Race to them, this Land began to be called Antlan, i.e. The land of the Ants, the ancient Greeks called it Atlantis.

After the death of Antlani, righteous people with the skin color of the Sacred Fire, the Heavenly Power (Vaitmara) transferred them east to the boundless Lands at the sunset of Yarila-Sun lying... (American continent).

In ancient times, the possessions of the Country of Black People covered not only the African continent, but also part of Hindustan. The Indian tribes of the Dravidians and Nagas belonged to the Negroid peoples and worshiped the Goddess Kali-Ma - the Goddess of the Black Mother.

Our Ancestors gave them the Vedas - the Sacred Texts, now known as the Indian Vedas (Hinduism).

Having learned about the eternal Heavenly Laws, such as the Law of Karma, Incarnation and Reincarnation, and others, they abandoned obscene deeds, bloody human sacrifices to the Goddess Kali-Ma and the Black Dragons.

The enemy of the Great Race and other Races on Midgard-Earth are representatives of the Pekel World, who secretly penetrated onto Midgard-Earth, so the territory of residence is not defined.

God Perun calls them Foreigners (Jews). They have gray skin, their eyes are the color of Darkness, and they are bisexual (initially), they could be a wife or a husband (hermaphrodites, whose sexual orientation changed depending on the phases of the Moon).

They paint their faces with paints to look like the Children of Men... They never take off their clothes in public.

They create all kinds of false religious cults and specifically try to destroy or denigrate the Cult of God Perun, for he warned:

“They covet everything that belongs to others, that does not belong to them... All their thoughts are only about power. The goal of the Aliens is to disrupt the harmony reigning in the World of Light and destroy the Descendants of the Heavenly Family and the Great Race, for only they can give a worthy rebuff to the Forces of the Inferno...

Using lies and very flattering words, they gain the trust of the residents; as soon as they gain trust from the residents, they begin to comprehend their Ancient Heritage. Having learned everything that is possible in the Ancient Heritage, they begin to interpret it in their favor.

They declare themselves to be God's messengers, but they only bring strife and war to the world. Using cunning and vicious deeds, they turn the young away from Wisdom, and teach them to live in idle idleness, to disobey their father’s traditions. They do not know about Heavenly Honor and Truth, because there is no Conscience in their hearts...

With lies and unrighteous flattery they will capture many edges of Midgard-Earth, but they will be defeated and exiled to the country of the Man-Made Mountains (Egypt), where people with skin the color of Darkness and the Descendants of the Heavenly Family will live. And people will begin to teach them to work, so that they themselves can feed their children...

But the lack of desire to work will unite the Aliens and they will leave the country of the Man-Made Mountains and settle throughout all the edges of Midgard-Earth...

Millions of lives will be taken by senseless wars to please the desires of the Aliens, for the more wars and deaths there are, the more wealth the messengers of the World of Darkness will gain.

To achieve their goals, the Dark Forces will even use Fire Mushrooms, bringing death, which will rise above Midgard-Earth.”

The most well-known feature associated with adaptation to climate is skin color. Where ultraviolet light is most intense, people have the darkest skin. In northern latitudes, people have the lightest skin; if this were not so, children would have rickets, since dark skin protects from ultraviolet radiation, under the influence of which vitamin D is produced. Vitamin D is necessary for the absorption of calcium.

The intensity of skin pigmentation is associated with the accumulation of melanin pigment, which is controlled by the melanocortin receptor protein. The gene encoding this protein has been studied in different peoples, and it has been shown that the accumulation of mutations leading to weakening of pigmentation occurred in residents of Asia and Europe. An interesting fact is that although the peoples of Africa have the highest genetic diversity, there are no mutations for this gene, since light skin is non-adaptive there. The figure shows the latitudinal distribution of skin pigmentation.

The intensity of skin pigmentation correlates negatively with latitude, although there are some exceptions. For example, Eskimos have slightly darker skin than other populations living at the same latitude. It is assumed that this is due to the fact that they came from more southern areas in the recent past and did not have time to adapt, or because they eat a lot of liver of marine animals, where there is a lot of vitamin D.

Height and body shape are also adaptations to climatic conditions. In the north, it is most advantageous to be short, with shorter limbs, since there will be minimal heat loss through the skin; in the south, on the contrary, it is thin and tall, in order to lose more heat.

How are the people living on our planet different? To answer this question is not so difficult. Of course, by physique, religion, race, gender, worldview, temperament and, most importantly, skin color. It can be white, black, dark, or have a reddish tint.

What is this connected with?

Let's start with the fact that people with a certain skin color could only be found in certain areas of our planet. Redskins - in America, blacks - in the countries of the African continent, whiteskins - in Europe. In this case, we are talking about the territories where their ancestors lived, since in the modern world, thanks to the migration process, people with different skin colors can be found anywhere.

Of course, the place of residence left its mark on the skin color of the people living there. Climate features, solar activity, zonality - all these factors, one way or another, affect the amount of melanin produced by special cells of the human body - melanocytes. But the color of a person’s skin depends on the amount of melanin in the epidermis. The more of this pigment, the darker the skin.

But let's return to the territory of residence and how it affects the production of melanin. Let's give a simple example. The body of a person sunbathing in the sun acquires a dark tint. This happens because, under the influence of sunlight, melanocytes begin to produce more melanin, which makes the skin darker. This is why people living in hot countries may have black skin. The thing is that they spend a lot of time in the sun, and their epidermis is maximally saturated with melanin. That's the whole secret of black leather.

In white people, melanin is either absent or contained in minimal quantities. Hence, the color of their skin can be white or have a pinkish tint, which is due to the presence of a large number of blood vessels in the skin. For example, albinos not only have absolutely white skin and hair of the same color, but also completely colorless irises.

And yet, what role does melanin play in the human body?

As it turns out, its main function is to protect the skin from ultraviolet solar radiation. It is no secret that a person who has received an increased dose of solar radiation runs the risk of developing skin cancer. Melanin, in this case, is a protective filter. It darkens the skin and thereby changes its reflectivity. It turns out that dark skin is less susceptible to ultraviolet rays.

But how did dark-skinned and white-skinned people appear?

The body of the ancient man was covered with a thick layer of wool, which protected his skin from ultraviolet rays of the sun. In the process of evolution, hair on the human body began to disappear. Why this happened is not known for certain. One way or another, their skin was unprotected from solar radiation.

People living in hot countries were at particular risk. Representatives with dark and dark skin were in a more advantageous position. They were the ones who were able to survive in such extreme conditions. A real natural selection took place, as a result of which the Negroid race appeared.

The exact opposite situation occurred in people with white skin. They lived in cold northern regions, with little ultraviolet radiation. With its deficiency, human bones become fragile, and vitamin deficiency occurs in the body. In such conditions, only people with lighter skin that could absorb more ultraviolet radiation could exist. It was they who supplanted dark-skinned people whose skin blocked ultraviolet rays. For this reason, their offspring suffered from rickets, and the bones could not withstand the load and broke. As a result, only people with light skin, whom we call white-skinned, were able to survive in these places.

People are different: black, white, and also brown: from light to dark. Skin color varies from continent to continent. Where did this diversity come from? What does a person depend on? What is melanin? Let's figure it out.

Melanin. What is this?

In medical terms, melanin is synthesized in skin cells called melanocytes. Interestingly, it is present in the majority of animals, including humans. It is the pigment melanin that gives the skin its various shades. It is synthesized in two leading forms, the color of which can vary from yellow to dark brown and black. Eumelanin is a form of melanin that gives skin its brown color. The second form of melanin is pheomelanin, which has a reddish-brown hue. Thanks to pheomelanin, people have freckles or fiery red hair.

Today, almost every person knows about genetics. Each of us inherited a set of chromosomes from our parents, including those responsible for human skin color. The more active genes in the cells, the darker the skin color. Not long ago, one could observe a unique case in one family where twins with different skin colors were born. But in addition to genetic predisposition, melanin production is also influenced by external factors.

The effect of melanin on humans

Every person on our planet has approximately the same number of melanocytes. This fact proves that all people on the planet, be it white-skinned men or black girls, have the same skin. The question arises in the synthesis of melanin by an individual organism and some external factors. Under the influence of ultraviolet radiation, human skin begins to produce more melanin. This helps prevent DNA damage in human skin.

This process has not yet been fully studied, but thanks to the body’s protective reaction, our skin remains undamaged. And among people living in the equator region, where the sun's rays scorch mercilessly, the skin acquired its characteristic dark color.

Program crash

But unfortunately, there are exceptions to the rules. Today you can observe a rare disease - albinism. It is characterized by the absence of melanin in skin cells. This process is observed in both animals and humans. We enjoy watching snow-white animals, for example, you can see something magnificent, but if this happens to a person, it is truly a tragedy. A person cannot stay in the open sun for a long time; his skin instantly burns. The body suffers from severe radiation.

There is another failure in the genetic program caused by the progressive loss of melanocytes - vitiligo. In this case, the skin becomes patchy. Whatever the predominant color of a person’s skin, with this disease it sometimes becomes completely white. And as a result, a naturally dark-skinned person can become completely white. Unfortunately, today genetic defects are incurable.

Light-skinned inhabitants of the planet

An interesting fact is that representatives of the white-skinned population make up 40% of all humanity. As we have already said, the genetically light color of human skin is due to the activity of melanin in cells. If we take into account that the people who settled around the planet had facial features and skin color characteristic of a certain group, then over time the isolation of the group led to the formation of a light-skinned race. The bulk of such people live in Europe, Asia and North Africa.

The color of a person’s skin, as already mentioned, also depends on external factors. For example, people in Northern Europe have lighter skin than Asians. are less active in the north, and therefore it is easier for white people to get the vitamin D the body needs. Although it should be noted that there are northern peoples who have enough According to scientists, this also depends on food.

Interestingly, in people with fair skin, melanin in the upper layers of the epidermis is present in single copies. Eye color also depends on which layer of the iris contains a large amount of melanin. If this is the first layer, then the eyes will be brown, and if the fourth or fifth layers, then, respectively, blue or green.

Black people

The majority of the dark-skinned population lives in Central and Southern Africa. People in this climate zone are exposed to intense sun exposure. And exposure to ultraviolet radiation causes the synthesis of melanin in the human body, which has a protective function. The result of constant exposure to the sun is dark skin.

A distinctive feature at the genetic level in people with black skin is that their cells produce melanin in large quantities. In addition, as scientists have found, the upper layer of the epidermis in such people completely covers the skin with pigment. This fact gives the skin a color ranging from brown to almost black.

An interesting fact is that the melanin pigment appears in humans during embryonic development. But by the time of birth, melanocytes practically disappear from the baby’s body, and after birth they begin to develop intensively in the skin. Many people are surprised when they see light-colored babies from a dark-skinned mother. The fact is that babies are born light and darken over the next few months.

In conclusion

Currently, science is based on the fact that human skin color is the result of adaptation of a certain group of people to the intensity of solar radiation in their place of residence. Melanin in this case carries out protective functions against ultraviolet radiation from the sun; in its absence, the skin would decrepit very quickly. In addition to aging, the risk of skin cancer increases.

Interestingly, women have slightly lighter skin than men. This is why black girls look significantly lighter than guys. In people with light dermis, this difference is practically not noticeable. Unfortunately, in today's world, skin color often creates stereotypes. The division of humanity on this basis often leads to But we all belong to the same species and are human.