Where do 'White People' come from? MN Historians, Researchers, Anthropologists, please come in.

[CantStayAsleep]

Forgive me, this may be a simple question. It's 4am, can't sleep and a million things have already raced through my mind. I need an answer to this and Google is flooding me with tons of information/articles that aren't getting down to the bottom line. Atleast I can't find the bottom line myself. So over to you MNers. Help me when you're up and can be arsed. Thanks

If Black people = African descent (as many forms state and a lot of people have said), I take this to mean Black people have African ancestry, regardless if it's dating 1 generation or 400 generations ago. So what is white descent? Where have White people descended from?

They came from Africa, exactly the same ancestors as modern Africans.
I've heard they turned white because of vit D from the sun.
Light skin absorbs vit D better and so lighter skinned people had a genetic advantage, especially the further north you go. Lack of vit D can cause rickets, this can distort the pelvis making giving birth harder so the lighter skinned people could give birth more easily produced lighter and lighter skinned offspring with each generation. That's what I've heard anyway.
Also, most Europeans have some Neanderthal DNA (no idea where they came from) Neanderthals were white.

No it's fine @Letsallscreamatthesistene, I actually found @SarahandQuacks' post fascinating. Never knew that. I don't mind which way it goes but yes I was initially talking about the skin colour but other aspects can come in too. Nice to know them all.

@SarahandQuack I wonder if it's where the "angry black person" thing orginated from?

This is all really eye-opening information. Thank you everyone.

Where did the Neanderthals come from?

Does the vitamin D theory really hold though? What about Inuits who live very far north and are exposed to little sun like the Scandinavians but aren't light skinned?

Isn't fish full of vit d? I think that's the bulk of their diet.

Bible - Adam and Eve.
Garden of Eden in middle East.
Colour is white??
Then a few chapters along, in the same 1st book of the Bible, Genesis, there are more people [dont think the Bible is specific about their colour or where they have come from[I assume Middle East as well?]

@Sparrowtree

Does the vitamin D theory really hold though? What about Inuits who live very far north and are exposed to little sun like the Scandinavians but aren't light skinned?

I assume there's an issue of migration as well as evolution?

White people came from Africa, as did all human beings. Skin lightened as people moved to more Northern latitudes in order to adapt to the less intense sun rays so they could get enough vitamin D.

Apparently white people bred with Neanderthals but black people didn’t.This is because of location - Neanderthals (a different species to humans) originated in Europe so white people were near them. Black people weren’t as they were in Africa.

DS3 told me yesterday that white skin became advantagous only when we moved away from a hunter gather meat and fish based diet and became farmers, thats why the Inuit are dark skinned, they get Vitamin D from their marine based diet. I dont know where he got it but he's always finding interesting nuggets of info from the Internet when he's supposed to be doing his school work!

RE Inuits - they are getting light reflected from the white snowy ground as well as getting it from the sun. Therefore they have much more UV exposure than you’d think given the latitude and they need darker skin to protect them

Inuits look pretty light skinned to me, especially compared to their African ancestors.
Also, take into account clothing covering the skin further reducing sun exposure. I imagine our African ancestors wore little or no clothing, not so further north when you needed protection from the cold.

Originally all hominids (genus of walking primates we belong to) came from Africa, but the Neanderthal species migrated out of Africa thousands of years before homo sapiens (us) evolved. By the time the our ancestors arrived in Europe Neanderthals had already been living there thousands of years, so had already adapted to the cold climate (stocky build, probably white).

There were actually lots of different human like species that evolved in Africa, and at least 5 (including humans) that migrate to other parts of the world.

@CantStayAsleep

No it's fine *@Letsallscreamatthesistene, I actually found *@SarahandQuack*s*' post fascinating. Never knew that. I don't mind which way it goes but yes I was initially talking about the skin colour but other aspects can come in too. Nice to know them all.

@SarahandQuack I wonder if it's where the "angry black person" thing orginated from?

Yes, that's exactly where it comes from. It's awful.

It's part of the 'respectable' scientific thinking of the era and it carries on influencing people for a terrifyingly long time.

(And I'm glad it was interesting/not just a distraction!)

www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42939192

This was really interesting - they did some dna testing and discovered that Cheddar Gorge Man would have had blue eyes, but dark skin. He was a very striking looking chap to modern eyes.

@Wbeezer

DS3 told me yesterday that white skin became advantagous only when we moved away from a hunter gather meat and fish based diet and became farmers, thats why the Inuit are dark skinned, they get Vitamin D from their marine based diet. I dont know where he got it but he's always finding interesting nuggets of info from the Internet when he's supposed to be doing his school work!

Bravo to him. I like his independent research skills. He'll be giving teachers homework instead!

@beelzeboob

OP if you’re interested, read ‘Sapiens’ by Yuval Harari, really interesting book about the origins of humans

Thank you. I'll look for it.

I asked my DP something similar recently and he said the world used to be sea and one land mass, so basically a huge continent. That’s why all humans originated from one place. Then as PP mentioned humans were nomadic and began moving around and they think as we diversified our skin colour changed depending on where we settled.

The only physical difference is that 'white' people's ancestors spend more time out of the sun.

The REAL difference between people is culture. Unfortunately, we confuse the two.

@Letsallscreamatthesistene

It doesnt bother me. You seem angry.

Can't find one word or sentence in the OPs posts that even hints at anger. What a bizarre statement.

Actually @Jaxhog that's not true. There are all sort of physical and physiological differences between people of different races. But it's when you get into what happened historically and culturally that that starts being conflated with ideas of hierarchy and worth. The Victorians for example, tied themselves in knots trying to show that white people where physically and mentally "superior" to other peoples. Wasnt enough to note the differences, they needed a hierarchy where whites sat on top to justify why cultural practices such as imperialism were "part if the natural order" rather than morally abhorrent.

Eden

@Damnloginpopup

Eden

LOL

@ForeverBubblegum

Originally all hominids (genus of walking primates we belong to) came from Africa, but the Neanderthal species migrated out of Africa thousands of years before homo sapiens (us) evolved. By the time the our ancestors arrived in Europe Neanderthals had already been living there thousands of years, so had already adapted to the cold climate (stocky build, probably white).

There were actually lots of different human like species that evolved in Africa, and at least 5 (including humans) that migrate to other parts of the world.

As far as we know Neanderthals evolved outside of Africa and had many different skin colours.

@justanotherneighinparadise

I asked my DP something similar recently and he said the world used to be sea and one land mass, so basically a huge continent. That’s why all humans originated from one place. Then as PP mentioned humans were nomadic and began moving around and they think as we diversified our skin colour changed depending on where we settled.

One land mass greatly predates the origins of our species

Highly recommend listening to a couple of BBC podcasts, both about Neanderthals-

You’re Dead To Me - www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0853185
The Infinite Monkey Cage - www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000rmjf