No, not because they were very tanned, because in Africa the sun is too scorching.
And not because it’s easier to steal at night.
Negroes are black not because they descended from monkeys (this is how I would have answered at the age of six or seven), who are not distinguished by the whiteness of their skin. And not because “negro” is translated as “black”.
So why are blacks still black?
According to ancient legend, previously all people had black skin. One day they discovered a lake with water that painted a person white, which was no longer washed off. People went to this lake and, having plunged into it, acquired white skin. When it was the turn of the inhabitants of Africa, there was so little water left in the lake that they could only dip the palms of their hands and soles of their feet into the water. That's why blacks are black.
There is another explanation why blacks are black. Which, at first glance, is more likely to be true than the above legend.
This explanation (we will call it a version) says that the skin of blacks is supposedly very rich in melanins, that is, substances that are found in the skin, human tissues, hair and even the retina of the eye. These melanins determine the dark color of the skin and hair. Melanins also absorb ultraviolet rays and, accordingly, protect tissues from burns. That is, nature itself figured out how to protect blacks from burns and made them black....
So, initially all people had white skin? And they came, as the modern versions of the most advanced scientists say, from the North?
It seems so. But a certain part of people went very far, all the way to Africa, and, living under incessant ultraviolet radiation, tanned forever, because they received these same melanins for protection. That is, a certain mutation process occurred that changed the color of the skin, and with it some physical features of the blacks: lengthened the arms, curled the hair, thickened the lips and flattened the nose. And the increased content of melanins in skin cells began to be determined genetically.
On the other hand, North Africa has the same sun, as does Cyprus or South Italy. But there, for some reason, no one turns black, and no mutation processes occur. Probably, if you establish a colony of blacks at least in Southern Sakhalin and force them to live there, no one will turn white in a hundred or two hundred years. Mutation in the form of whitening of the skin is unlikely to occur. It is also unlikely that the length of the arms and the shape of the nose will radically change.
And one more moment. A certain Tamil people lives in South India, Burma, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Oceania. There are 77 million of them in the world, of which 63 million live in India. So, these Tamils are blacker in skin than African blacks. And they are members of the white Caucasian race.
There are also plenty of black tribes in Australia. And in the former Central Asian Union Republics, people with black skin can also be easily met. But there is no excess of melanin in their skin. Do they burn tires naked at night, and soot and soot settle on their skin and are no longer washed off?
THE FIRST MYTH is that black skin is thicker and younger than white skin.
The reality is that the thickness of the epidermis is the same in both races.
THE SECOND MYTH is that black skin contains significantly more melanocytes (pigment-forming cells) than white skin.
The reality is that there is no quantitative difference in the number of melanocytes. However, in black people, these cells are more active and produce larger, individually scattered pigment granules that contain more melanin and have a slower rate of breakdown. In contrast, pigment granules in Europeans are smaller, clustered, and contain less melanin. This difference in pigmentation is associated with advantages and disadvantages.
Black skin is better able to reflect the sun's ultraviolet radiation and protect the dermis from its damaging effects. Because of this, black skin tends to remain smoother and tighter despite aging. The downside is that the reaction of its melanocytes to mild shock or trauma is often associated with severe hyperpigmentation (dark spots), which can be very unpleasant for anyone with pigmented skin.
In white skin, sun rays can easily penetrate the epidermis due to differences in melanosomes and can cause damage to the dermis leading to a condition called solar elastosis, which is associated with the accumulation of damaged collagen and elastin, which ultimately leads to leads to the appearance of fine and deep wrinkles on the surface of the skin. Hyperpigmentation is not a significant problem, since it is easier to cope with it on the skin of a “white” person than on dark-skinned people, since the melanocytes are more “accessible” to the effects of anti-hyperpigmentation drugs.
THE THIRD MYTH is that all black people develop pathological scars after surgery.
A recent study found that fibroblasts (cells that produce collagen) are larger and more numerous in blacks. Although blacks have a greater tendency to form keloids than other races, the actual number of people who develop them is small and they can usually be prevented after an adequate medical history and examination of the patient.
FOURTH MYTH. Finally, there is a myth that black skin contains more sebaceous and sweat glands and that these glands are more active. The reality is that there is no difference in the number of glands and their activity between both races. Black skin tends to have more mixed sweat glands (apocrine, that is, large ones), but there is no difference in the amount of secretion they secrete.
In conclusion, the most obvious and important difference between black and white skin has to do with pigmentation. Because the increased melanin content of black skin protects it from the negative effects of the sun, it rarely exhibits superficial wrinkles. Uneven color and dark spots are more common on dark skin. Therefore, different skin care products are needed to address these specific problems.
MOSCOW, February 26 – RIA Novosti. Dark skin appeared in human ancestors in Africa due to the threat of skin cancer from exposure to high doses of ultraviolet radiation, according to a paper published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Scientists have explained why red-haired people are more likely to suffer from skin cancerScientists have identified a possible molecular mechanism responsible for the greater vulnerability of people with mutations in the MC1R gene to sun damage compared to darker-skinned people."Charles Darwin believed that variations in skin color did not affect adaptation to the environment, and other researchers did not consider cancer as a factor of natural selection in the process of evolution. But clinical data from people with albinism, especially in Africa, provide strong evidence that "that death from cancer may have played a large role early in human evolution, as an important factor in the development of skin rich in the dark pigment eumelamine," said Mel Greaves from the Institute of Cancer Research in London.
Skin color is determined genetically, that is, for the emergence of black people, mutations were fixed during natural selection, due to which more of the brown pigment eumelanin is formed in the skin. And to do this, he had to “mow out” people with light skin before they leave offspring.
Genetic evidence suggests that dark-skinned human ancestors began appearing around 1.2-1.8 million years ago in eastern Africa. Before this, 2-3 million years ago, they had already lost most of their hair, perhaps to protect themselves from the heat, and, like chimpanzees, the closest “relatives” of humans, they had pale skin. It protects against skin cancer 500-1000 times worse than dark skin.
Greaves reviewed existing research looking for links between skin color and various diseases. He noted that 80% or more of albino people from equatorial African countries such as Tanzania and Nigeria develop skin cancer before the age of 30. Albinism is also known to be associated with skin cancer in indigenous populations of other tropical countries, such as Panama.
These data, according to the scientist, suggest that dark skin could have appeared in the African ancestors of humans due to the threat of developing cancer.
Simple questions. A book similar to an encyclopedia Antonets Vladimir Aleksandrovich
Why are blacks black?
Why are blacks black?
Although we will be discussing a real natural fact, this topic is quite dangerous from the point of view of political correctness. In the civilized world at the present time, it is incorrect to call blacks negroes. It's like calling Jews kikes. In America, blacks are called African-Americans or, as in Europe, blacks, black people - blackman or blacklady, without any discriminatory connotation.
The answer as to why Africans have black skin is actually very simple. It consists in the fact that their skin contains a significant amount of melanin pigment. It arose as a protection for living beings from excess solar radiation, which is much greater in Africa than in northern countries. Firstly, melanin, thanks to its black color, protects the body from overheating. Secondly, it absorbs harmful ultraviolet radiation, which leads to the formation of so-called free radicals in the body, which are so chemically active that they can cause harm. Thirdly, melanin reacts with the free radicals formed and thereby neutralizes them. By the way, not only Africans, but also Asians are black. Let's say Indians are also dark-black and sometimes darker than Africans. The reason is the same - melanin.
In people with white skin, melanin is also formed from tanning, but if the sun stops working, it is quickly destroyed and the skin becomes lighter again.
But this raises two surprising questions. First: if exposure to solar radiation causes biochemistry to change and there is more melanin, is there anything else going on in the body that is stimulated by sunlight? Photobiology tells us what's going on. We know that vitamin D is formed under the influence of solar ultraviolet radiation, without which a person faces rickets. But many more hormones are synthesized under the influence of sunlight. For example, we wake up easily in the summer because solar radiation leads to the synthesis of a hormone that promotes awakening.
The second surprising question is that humanity divided into races relatively recently. This division, according to various estimates, occurred from 5 to 10 thousand years ago. For example, at the exhibition of the paleontological museum of Moscow State University, dedicated to the great glaciation, I saw materials that in the Vladimir region, during excavations of a site on the Sungir River, the skeleton of a Negroid teenager was found. Skeletons of people of the Negroid race were found both near Voronezh and in other areas of Europe. Whether they were dark-skinned or light-skinned, it’s hard to say.
But it is amazing that the division into white and black races happened so quickly. According to modern genetic ideas, everything should be much slower. So far, science has little understanding of how such rapid changes can occur. Of course, this is less surprising than the rapid development of new dog breeds, but it is also very impressive.
Thus, the simple question of why people have black skin makes us think about how man arose and evolved and how he is changing now. This requires the efforts of many sciences: photobiology, anthropology, archeology, genetics, etc.
By the way, it is known about African Americans that they have become somewhat lighter than their ancestors taken from Africa. Less than two hundred years have passed.
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Our environment directly affects our appearance - in this way nature takes care of the health and safety of our body. That is why people living on different continents, in different geographical zones, and climatic conditions can differ significantly from each other in appearance. This also applies to dark-skinned people. Read on to learn more about why people are black.
Why is there dark skin?
A pigment called “melanin” is responsible for the skin’s chocolate hue. It is present in the skin of people of absolutely any race. Only its quantity differs: if there is little melanin, then the skin is light, if there is a lot, then it is dark (and the shade can be from lightly dark to almost black). The substance is produced in response to exposure to sunlight. This is why we manage to tan so well on the beach.
Residents of hot places (for example, the African continent, Asia) have darker skin from birth - which is why African Americans have black skin. This is a natural protective factor that allows people to withstand aggressive sun exposure. Dark-skinned people do not get sunburned or suffer the burns that white-skinned people experience. At the same time, the percentage of cancers in people with dark/dark skin is also decreasing compared to white-skinned races.
As for how this feature of the body appeared in residents of especially sunny regions, it became a natural reaction of the body to diseases and injuries caused by sun exposure. In the process of evolution, human skin has adapted to living conditions. Otherwise, a person simply would not survive in them. This happened, according to researchers, between 1.8-1.2 million years ago. Next, the useful trait began to be transmitted at the genetic level from generation to generation, giving rise to races of people with dark skin (Negroid, Mongoloid, etc.).
