Theme: Civilization

Spectrum not binary. Technically given the arc beween the nile and mesopotamia, there is local neotenic variation on predictable grades from the afroasiatic (arabian peninsula) to the egyptian to the levantine to the syrian to the anatolian to the caucuses to the iranics and down into the mesopotamians and back down to the afro asiatics. (When I worked on speciation among amerindians and the pattern was obviously a repetition of the middle east.)
The agrarian revolution led to massive migratory recombination and the bronze age accelerated it.
The late bronze age collapse in the eastern mediterranean was a result of the western and southern expansion of indo europeans – mostly counter-clockwise around the black sea – mostly around 4000 bc. By 3000 BC the corded ware (what we think of european) culture had formed and this was the origin of the major pressure point as they moved graduallya cross europe, and by 2400-2300 or so their conquest of europe was complete. So, by the bronze age collapse (1200bc) “The expansion of WSHs resulted in the virtual disappearance of the Y-DNA of Early European Farmers (EEFs) from the European gene pool, significantly altering the cultural and genetic landscape of Europe.”

Reply addressees: @dissidentwrath

–Q: Curt: “When did light coloring develop? Was it agrarian diet?”–

1. White skin evolved around 19,000 years ago likely in the ancestral north eurasians (lost population). 2. Counter clockwise migration pressure across eurasia caused westward distribution.
3. Cheddar man was ‘ruddy’ not dark as shown in the model – repeatedly falsified but persists in the discourse.
4. Neotenic Adaptation is not just diet, and it’s not just melanin but it is natal biochemistry.
5. Light Skin, Light hair, Light Eyes are highly neotenous.
6. Neoteny is the principle direction of all human evolution – domestication syndrome trading agency for impulse and calm for aggression, by delay of and reduction of the depth of sexual maturity (still visible in race differences in gestation, maturation, and dept of maturation).
7. So lightness in general, just like gracility, spread by selection pressure in favor of neoteny particularly in women, and particularly given the asymmetric reproduction of women vs men.
8. Agrarians (anatolian farmers) are darker in color than europeans. So the migration of light coloring was westward from the north of the caucuses, and especially from the northeastern ancestral north eurasians and northeastern europeans – not westward from the south of the caucuses.
9. So most neotenous to least: east asians, west europeans > caucasians > south eurasians (north african, levantine, iranic, hindustani people) > afro-asiatics (arabs) > modern africans > old africans (San people)
10. Coloring is determined by a complex interaction (polygenetic) but we do know the primary genes:
– Eyes: OCA2 (pigment) and HERC2(lighter)
– Skin: MC1R (melanocortin 1) as well as LSC245 and SLC45A2, in europeans.
– Hair: MC1R (again) and TYRP1 (both skin and hair). Ergo: agrarian impact on skin color was minor and late.

This is the correct answer.