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kimyoonmiauthor · 1 year

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Worldbuilding: Physical Anthropology

As usual, this won’t substitute for you taking the actual class/es and this only covers Worldbuilding topics. And if you want to challenge anything, please do so with reliable sources. I will give you credit if you are correct and I can double verify your sources from reputable sources.

So, if you don’t have any interest in writing humans, some of this will STILL be useful. This does hope that you have basic understanding of genetics, aren’t creationists, and leans heavily more into the science end of things. I’m only going to gloss over the early homonins since the majority of people aren’t writing homonins into their SFF (though WHY NOT? A few Neanderthal wouldn’t be unwelcome?)

Myths about the Story of Whiteness

This is about where real facts hurt some people... but anyway, there is a line here, where it gets extreme--I mark that point for PoCs. I know people go with the “I can do what I want, it’s my story.” And again, freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom from consequences. And especially after the line marked clearly “Content Warning”, you’re plain being racist.

Honestly, this might make people a bit displeased, but yeah, we’re starting here. Either you like science and facts, or you are more pleased with being a white supremacist. And sorry, I’m more on the side of facts.

This is because people try to hang onto agricultural white people SO HARD in order to be (racist) about PoCs and expel them from their world and any involvement of PoCs, even as OMG, a trader/merchant. So bringing some anthropology to dispel this. I should note when I point these things out, white people flip out, even if the evidence is there genetically, geography and archaeology. I’ve had liberal white people really flip out over this. I’d suggest to catch up with the rest of the world and get over it. ALLLSOOO hang on and I’m going to cover a few other things at the end of this section.

“Caucasian” (Race-based term) is a racist lie that fueled Nazism.

This one sends white people over the edge. They super get angry when I take this term away from them. But I feel obligated as an Anthropologist to do it.

This is not going to be fun for anyone. And I’m slapping a

TRIGGER WARNING: Slavery of women, sex slavery (lightly mentioned), genocide, Naziism, and general headaches in scientific racism follow. Skip to How white people got their skin color if you don’t want to deal with this story.

So a German "Anthropologist” went and managed to get a bunch of skulls, without owner permission, mostly from slaves, and mostly from sex slave women. (My Anthro Prof was very blunt about this part).

And what he did was fill in the eyes part and then packed in the equivalent of “packing peanuts” to measure brain volume.

And low and behold magically, white people came out on top. He made this conclusion and then decided that the location for the rise of white people must be the Caucuses.

This seems brilliant, right? Someone is shouting from the back something like... wait, isn’t brain capacity measured in ccs? Ah, this is the catch part.

So this German anthropologist, turns out to be a dick. He subconsciously packed the “peanuts” more for the white people, really cramming it in there, and then ranked the races by intelligence in the following order:

1. Whites

2. Asians (I’m not sure if he’s counting South Asians in this)

3. Native/Indigenous Peoples. (Probably skips Aboriginals...)

At the bottom Black Africans. (Ignore people of the Pacific and around the Equator...)

A bunch of Scientists, in general, at the time were super in love with the idea that different races were different species to reinforce ideas of... yep. Eugenics.

The part 2 of this is that Guess who, really loved his work? Hitler! Oh, yes. And Hitler decided to use this work as the backbone of Nazism. You thought we weren’t going to get into genocide? He took the “scientific:” work of this German guy and then made up “Aryan” from it and appropriated the svastika, the sign of balance of the universe, flipped and angled it, so that Hindu scholars say that it is “Disharmony” and the rest is a bunch of genocide.

So... revisiting this, this turns out to *gasp* Not be true. (No one is shocked, I hope). And now people measure brain volume of skulls by cc, or water. There is a range, but it has nothing to do with race. (You can *kinda* tell the “race” from bones, which is about 70-80% of the time... but that’s by North American classifications.)

The story of the rise of Caucasian is covered in detail in the hour long video, very, very well. (Not my professor. He told the abridged version of this concluding with, we now measure it with water.) He was rather fun because he told things like methods of murdering a body, and common myths like men have one less rib, (Though I’ve seen an argument that the “One less bone” might be the penis bone and that the “rib” part is mistranslated. lol Whole other thing.) He also answered all of my world building questions with an even keel.

The Cacauses are real... kinda. This is better covered by the longer hour video. Which I swear is worth your time. But basically Caucuses is about geographically accurate as “The Middle East” And the “Middle East” suddenly in the 2000′s including Egypt out of nowhere. And also dictated largely by European convenience. (See Edward Said’s Orientalism.)

So in total, Caucasian in reference to white people as a racial term is connected to...

Sex slavery (of Black and also Eastern European women)

misogyny

racism

hatred of sex workers

hatred of the poor

Genocide of gays, trans, Rromani, Jews.

Religious intolerance

Cultural Misappropriation

Scientific racism

Stealing bodies without consent

I should note that historically at the time, Victorians were also preoccupied with things such as, but not limited to, the idea that poor people had smaller brains. Phrenology. And that poor people were generally morally degenerate because they were “born that way.” Yeah, and you can see this sliding into even more problematic.

I’ve run into white women who after learning all of that, and claiming they are “Liberal” still insist they want to use the term in a racial way. Maybe they support sex slavery and hating women. Who knows. There is a better theory of the origin of white people based on non-arbitrary science, but by genetic analysis.

I think if you find this challenging, as a white person (or maybe a PoC), then the rest of this is going to get exponentially harder.

I’m not leaving you with an anecdote.

There’s two videos you can examine. One is more of a short information video and the other is an academic lecture.

the short and fun one.

youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKB8hXYod2w&ab_channel=MTVImpact

A tiny disclaimer, I did give her the idea for the video via tumblr. But all the contents of the video are hers.

Or you can have the long academic one.

youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iZDapgQdFo

If you’re dealing with race, it’s probably better to watch the longer lecture because it goes into detail about the above story.

HOW WHITE PEOPLE REALLY GOT THEIR SKIN COLOR

https://www.science.org/content/article/how-europeans-evolved-white-skin

People still misread this article and insist on the Caucuses, so I’ll be more blunt here:

The origin of white skin is Sámi.

Sámi are NOT agricultural, traditionally. They are pastoral. This means they migrate around with herd animals. Incidentally this matches much of Siberian subsistence which has a similar climate. They are also famously mistreated by the Scandanavian governments. https://jsis.washington.edu/news/sami-land-rights-and-policy-driven-recognition-threats/ (Of course, in actuality, White supremacists don’t care about them. It’s not a pretty story, is it?)

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/cheddar-man-mesolithic-britain-blue-eyed-boy.html

Because 10,000 years ago, people looked like the Cheddar Man.

Then agriculture arrived about 9,000 years ago

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/when-the-first-farmers-arrived-in-europe-inequality-evolved

There were several waves, including, but not limited to, the Beaker People, who also were darker-skinned than originally thought: https://www.thevintagenews.com/2019/02/08/story-of-ava/?chrome=1

So, then that’s only Northern Europe... Southern Europe is also interesting: https://www.science.org/content/article/nearly-6000-year-old-chewing-gum-reveals-life-ancient-girl

As soon as 6,000 years ago the prevalent skin color was still dark brown skin.

Wild, isn’t it? Putting the light skin color in Southern Europe around 5,000 years ago.

So your timeline looks like this:

Originally everyone in Europe had dark skin like Cheddar Man.

Around 9,000 BCE, Agriculture develops around Iran. (The latest thought is that was from Migratory Pastoralism, but a disaster happened--will cover that later.)

9-8,000 years ago, Sámi appeared. There’s still some iffiness around how and exact dates.

A waves of immigrants from Western Asia/Northern Africa came to Europe, bringing agriculture at the same time.

Despite the introduction of agriculture, the switch, as it always is, was tough. (Most docs skip over this part because they like to think switching subsistence systems is somehow “advancement” *cough* racism.)

So adaptation of this new subsistence system took some time.

After a few waves, then the people of Europe gradually became more white, and then about 5,000 years ago, the predominant skin color was white in Southern Europe.

People flip out after this because the time stamps. But if you have no stock in melanin telling anything about who you are, or how smart you are or are not, then you shouldn’t care and find this fascinating. But for my fellow PoCs out there, I swear this is a good test of your white friends.

Maybe a rebranding is in order? Articians?

You can still get PoCs in Artic regions.

Inuit don’t exist for you, apparently. Other Indigenous people from the artic region also exist.

White skin is the need for vitamin D and not being able to get a source of it because of agriculture.

https://anth.la.psu.edu/research/research-labs/jablonski-lab/evolution-of-human-skin-and-skin-pigmentation/

Inuit get vitamin D, so keep their darker skin.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5502412/

It is true that it is estimated Inuit and others in the region weren’t there as long as Sami, however, the diet also helps quite a bit.

But many Mongolian ethnic groups, also have darker skin and are mostly migratory pastoral.

Albinism=/= white people.

Because apparently Tolkien “fans” thought this would be true with The Rings of Power.

https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/12/07/457147952/people-of-color-with-albinism-ask-where-do-i-belong

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-44402888

And then they would be super insulted if they cast a Black person with Albinism in the show...

I did cover this in detail before...

And Tolkien did argue for fish in caves with Gollum.

https://mdc.mo.gov/magazines/conservationist/2005-06/all-about-albinism

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3716263/

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1013850108

The idea is that true cave populations are more likely to become albino. But this is not true of dwarves, in Tolkien’s world, who are sighted, have agriculture (in part), and are not naked mole rats. Dwarves get out of the caves regularly and are really hairy, and you’d need the albino gene in the first place naturally in the population for this to be so. And Tolkien for the most part doesn’t address genetic diversity of this type. On disability, it’s mostly injuries from war: https://www.reddit.com/r/tolkienfans/comments/lvtdp3/disability_and_age_representation_in_the/

Could one do true albinos like naked mole rats as a species? Sure. Why not. Knock yourself out, but keep in mind that skin color does not preclude racial physical features. Also, albinism comes with disabilities too.

The majority of domesticated food stuff does NOT come from Europe. And, in fact, comes from about the same latitude/climate worldwide.

Cambridge History of Food. I love this book. Categorically, the majority of food is not domesticated in Europe.

Cow--not Europe.

Goats, sheep, pigs, etc. Not Europe. Horses--they existed in Europe, but the majority of the domestication is not said to be Europe, and inventions like the stirrip, and pants don’t relate to Europe. (Pants relate to horse riding. Cultures that had horse riding, had women wear pants too.).

Wheat, Oats, Corn, Rice, Barley--also not Europe.

The only one I’ve found thus far they are sure is 100% European is *drumroll* Brussel Sprouts. But let’s be clear here (which I’ll cover) In order to get the domestication of Brussel Sprouts, you need a staple food so you can muck around with other things. So it’s through the help of the introduction of agriculture itself which could allow Europe to develop things like Brussel Sprouts.

Usually around here, people are flipping tables, trying to tell me that I hate white people, trying to get me banned for true facts I pulled from Cambridge History of Food... and blocking me... and I have to say, if this true fact hurts, I think you missed the point.

If you’re super focused on the concentration of your melanin leading you to a fictional “greatness” this sounds like “terrible” news to you. But what I see is that humans are NEVER isolated. They work together over vast expanses. They take ideas and refine them. Carrots wouldn’t be orange without William of Orange. And William of Orange can’t get his name without the invention of the Orange (Southern China, Myanmar, Northeast India https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/1a88363072674762b95e1ab4e7431fd0). It’s not that bad that Europe often took ideas from other regions and tried to innovate them further, or kept the idea going. (The imperialism was awful... yes) Shouldn’t you be celebrating that Europe, much like the rest of the world was cooperating, and doing awesome stuff like the Silk Road for a long time without the imperialism?

I should note for the Tolkien fans... he was very, very particular about food in a way Rings of Power broke. Strawberries? Blueberries? He’d have none of the New World foods. He also had a cut off date for food importation from Earth he inserted.

Will go over this later in the post about subsistence, but the majority of food stuffs comes from about the same latitude/climate type. Because when you have no worries about food supply for the majority of the year, don’t need to pack it in, etc, then you have a lot more time to tinker. Boredom leads to innovation.

The majority of technological inventions did not come from Europe.

This one also ticks off white people, even the most liberal, even when you point out the physical geography and then there is a huge crisis, often because of the over attribution of white skin to greatness, facing the reality is harsh.

You can take pencils, though this is questionable without the invention of writing.

But look it up--arches, not Europe. Boats, not even human? Gothic Architecture is likely from Western Asia and Islamic Empire. Much of Science was taken from Islamic Empire. Maths. Egypt, Congo, and Babylonian. Zero. India. Geographically, Europe is at a Northern latitude with a climate that is not easy to deal with year round, and TINY (smaller than the “traditional” map) compared to rest of the world. Of course proportionally more inventions will come from elsewhere. It’s just a statistical fact.

Again, white people flip the hell out when I say this. But again, the point is INTERCONNECTION. If you’re super focused on “Invention” then you’re wrong.

Gutenberg did not invent the printing press. He did not invent movable type. He did invent an adjustable type mould which allowed the invention of things like serif fonts, type of different sizes, etc. But he depended on those other inventions to make his. But people are super occupied with, “But did he do it independently?” when it was pretty clear he was in a major trading port... (I had to fight the wikipedia page from excising credit for the true invention. The cycle on that page usually goes, someone tries to take off the Chinese and Korean credit. Then someone tries to take off the “In Europe” part and then someone comes and tries to make it “first invention” and then they try to take off the non-supporting links. Because white fragility? Adjustable type mould is just as sexy.)

Does it really matter if he “invented the Printing Press” Why not celebrate the adjustable type mould?

What is wrong with “Not coming up with the idea” when refining the idea is often acknowledged to be more difficult?

But White People did the “Age of Discovery” which is how the world became “connected”

Polynesians would like to have a word with you.

First of all, boats were not invented by white people. Though some anthropologists surmise about Homo Erectus having rafts. That’s not in Europe. https://teara.govt.nz/en/pacific-migrations/page-2

https://www.ascsa.edu.gr/index.php/news/newsDetails/plakias-survey-finds-stone-age-tools-on-crete/

Did you think that seriously, in all of that time, People of color because of their melanin were waiting for a white person to use their invention and not doing anything with it?

Plus if you don’t know, Polynesian ocean navigation is !@#$ing cool. And I hope you don’t try to attribute it to another group in your world building. But it’s mind blowing. https://manoa.hawaii.edu/exploringourfluidearth/physical/navigation-and-transportation/wayfinding-and-navigation

They have charts made from shells and sticks, which they use to teach from a young age, and then, you MEMORIZE those charts. I have to keep emphasizing they beat Europeans who were clueless. (I could rave about it for hours, or you can look it up.) Sometimes tattoos are super useful.

One of my professors (BTW, White) made fun of European Navigation because they’d use a “Step Method” go along a latitude for a while, then travel down a longitude for a while. Then try to figure out where they were. Then travel along a latitude. Figure out where they were. And so on.

Polynesians would shit all over that and be laughing their asses off. That’s how cool the ocean navigation system is.

So no, PoCs were not waiting around to be “discovered” by “white people.” Polynesians conquered the seas long before Europe ever tried.

But Flat Earth/ice planet model--white people?

More like dead people.

Unlike what people think, the Artic is not “cold all the time”. And as I said, Sámi are MIGRATORY Pastoralists. On a round planet, the majority of life is where? Rain forests and warmer climates.

You’ve killed off the majority of your life on an ice planet. You have to come up with a reason there is life there with reindeer-like animals and something for them to eat.

I’ll cover this in detail when I get to subsistence, but not likely possible unless humans settled on the planet and there is an external food supply.

Agricultural White people

Only invented in the last 5,000-6,000 years as widespread. In the southern Europe, about only widespread Agriculture ~5-4,000 years ago.

- You need a Gulf Stream-like geography, or you get Siberia, which, BTW, has mostly Pastoralists (Horses, reindeer) (Tolkien would be crying at this one and going on about why his world needs to be round.)

- You need introduction of agriculture with usually a grain (and grains are grass, basically). And the majority of agriculture comes from persistently warmer climates with good growing. (Mediterranean, Tropic.)

- You need less tolerance to lactose and lack of a vitamin D intake.

I should note lightly that as agriculture spread in Europe, it also came with massive deforestation. It’s particularly said of North America with some Native American groups, and of Germany in particular out of all of Europe.

Interestingly enough, a BBC doc also said the lack of trees and rich people hogging land in Europe, may have caused the push towards colonization. (Also very well covered by theories of subsistence).

Skin Movie (2008)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0964586/

This is worth your time to watch which will make you think harder on genetics. Based on the true story of a Black woman born to white parents.

CONTENT WARNING LINE (Skip to the end if you can’t handle blatant racism)

from real lines I’ve been told by white writers. Some of them are entertainingly wrong, but some of them are infuriatingly racist. And yeah, I wish I had the imagination to make these things up. And yes, these things are flat out racist.

If you don’t want to read it as a PoC, skip to the next major header. It will help you as a white person, though, to read it.

But I want isolated white people... a white haven.

This is not true for Europe and you’re being racist. But let’s go with your racism and fear of brown and Black people. Let’s go over the major arguments for “making this possible” even though this never ever happened in Earth.

But there are white pockets in the United States.

It is true that particularly in the US, white people tend to racially isolate over PoCs: https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=30d2e10d4d694b3eb4dc4d2e58dbb5a5

But I think this is more a result of RACISM, rather than a “Natural occurrence” as these people argue. I’ll go over that if I get to systems.

I was *cough* given the examples of (and I wish I was joking) Russia and Australia.

Russia literally has Asian people in it from the beginning because a large portion is *in Asia* And then I gave them the population numbers.

And I wish I was joking when they said they cried white tears over this fact.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_groups_in_Russia

Australia, BTW, has Aboriginal peoples. Some geneticists have said that Aboriginal people are closer related to African populations than to surrounding populations such as Chinese, etc.

“How would you feel if you discovered white people in the history archive?”

Yeah, people refute this way.

Korea has influences from China, India, Europe, Japan, Mongolia, and AFRICA. You know what happened when I found out there were Indian people in Korea in the Goryeo era? I was DELIGHTED. OMG, I wanted to know why they were there, if there were historical records, the trade, etc. There has been evidence of a Korean Queen in Iran. And people were DELIGHTED. When I heard there were Black traders in Korea, and Black slaves brought by Portuguese and that Koreans treated the slaves better than Portuguese, I was delighted.

It’s a 100% white reaction to seeing the appearance of anyone of different melanin as a “threat”. This hurts you a lot. You’re letting your racism and deficits from systemic racism rule over your thinking.

But PoCs will “Wipe white people out”

Hahaha. Hahahahaha. Hahahaha. And you’re writing fantasy? Hahahaha. I wish this was fiction, but people like the great white Skunk, Pepe Elmo Le Pew believe this. I’ve heard it on writing forums too.

First of all, White Homo Sapiens sapiens were invented (Checks) what? 8,000 years ago? Maybe 9,000? Were a population minority. And look, weren’t wiped out. But if you’ve truly gotten this far into the post after reading every bit before it and truly think this, I feel sorry for you. (Also still laughing my butt off).

If it was not us, it would have been them

The story of tea by Cognito:

youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S0hlv5sUbw&ab_channel=Cogito

Youtube video, because laying out there history takes a lot of work, and this is more “fun” until you get to the Imperialism part and get depressed.

Basically, as most stories of trade go: Was mostly fine until white people showed up. And I’m always hoping for a decent white dude. But it never goes that way.

Spice trade?: Same thing.

Silk trade: Ah, there was animosity and war over silk with China and India, but kinda settled their differences there. China took the high road, India the low road.

And then *cough* THERE WERE THE POLYNESIANS. Went allllllllll the way to North America took back the Sweet Potato (which does not float like coconuts)

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1221569110#:~:text=Archaeological%20research%20has%20now%20conclusively,3).

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/native-americans-polynesians-meet-180975269/

and then beat out (looks) Europeans including Leif Erikson. Oh look, try didn’t try to commit mass genocide or take over their land and kick them off to reservations and then appropriated all their possessions.

Nyah, it’s a Europe problem. But a few theories for that. (Nothing solid, but sounds like good theories). Later. Subsistence will cover it. (And then you can troubleshoot your fictional white people so you can argue for less violence.)

Also, I kinda think that people are too addicted to the conflict theory from Percy Lubbock. You probably also should stop believing in the Great Man theory which is still white imperialism.

*Cries* So you’re saying White people are *sniff* Inferior.

Because why not white fragility in here. I think you need to grow up more... but let’s go over this thought process.

There is nothing wrong with a cultural adaptation and evolution of objects. But there is a COST to trying to isolate. And I say this as a Korean.

While Koreans did innovate, such as with celadon pottery, metal movable type (Not Gutenberg), There are a fair amount of imports, mostly from China, but also from other areas, such as Japan, the Siberian Peninsula, Mongolia, India, Vietnam, etc. Koreans don’t deny this truth, in fact it’s a point of pride. Koreans will boast things like hangeul can transcribe most languages because the scholars went to India to study the language there. Korea spent a lot of time refining objects. Clay movable type? Make it metal. Chopsticks? Make them metal. Unlike much of Europe, Koreans (mostly) don’t try to claim on the original objects as 100% theirs in a fit of superiority and definitely not about skin color.

But Korea *did* try to isolate, and some Koreans think it was to our detriment this was so. A lot of contemporary Koreans express regret at this, saying that the transition towards industrialization might have been easier had Korea not tried to isolate.

China, BTW, was able to innovate so much because geographically it is connected to India and Northern China is a different place from Southern China in terms of climate. That connection plays a role in innovation and somewhat in governmental policy.

On both counts, I’m saying I know the costs of both. You are left behind because collectively others are trading, coming up with new ideas and innovating. The idea of a white haven, would throw quite a few problems in, which include, but are not limited to:

- Technological innovation deficits.

I’m saying, for a time Korea was a prime example of this because scholars had to smuggle in “Western Learning”.

The more people from different places to test an idea, the more likely the idea will be refined. This is often why science is considered “Slow” because you don’t know if it was some other environmental or cultural factors that might be driving the results. You need people to test and retest it. What if the bacteria is growing in the lab faster because of humidity? what if there is a cultural thought of “adding more” to be safe that wasn’t accounted for? What if your main data set came from an HIV clinic in East London that specifically serves underprivileged community and most of the participants are white gay men? (I covered this one with Monkeypox).

Because you have all places on the globe to try, say “The wheel” there’s more places to share ideas about improvements. The light bulb wasn’t Edison’s invention. It was a global effort. Fiction Movies wouldn’t have been possible without global efforts. (And Alice Guy-Blaché)

Humans fundamentally, before homo sapiens sapiens have worked very much on cooperation.

- Language deficits. Language changes over time with interaction.

There are pocket languages/dialects around the world. But also, often, ideas are tested and innovated, which springs up new language. If you look at the map for the words for “Tea” around the world, you see a sharing of ideas about it. A lot of written language comes from trade.

- The ability to adapt and change to new problems that might arise.

Do you know that Indigenous people saved Irish from complete famine by inventing the potato?

- Paranoia about the outside world

Which then leads to social deficits... When people are left kicking and screaming trying to correct the path, this is a lot longer of a process than cooperating.

Conclusion

White people aren’t great because they were “isolated” as many later White supremacists tried to come up with to try to justify white imperialism. They were great because they were CONNECTED. Look at the location on that map. You got Africa spanning the continent. Africa, which has a ton of inventions going for it. And then you have the West Asia right there, with new agriculture, connected to another major agricultural center: Southern China.

The false stories of whiteness are holding you back which is how privilege often works. You need the myths to hold onto the idea you’re better than everyone else. But often in doing so, you isolate, and then no longer know how to interact with the other. And when that happens, it can cause you to lose the thing that makes humans great: cooperation. (or at least in my mind, nothing sends me over the warm and fuzzy line faster than cooperation.) BTW, this is not the same thing as the other great white argument, “There is no such thing as appropriation,” which I also covered under Cultural Dissemination. You cooperate with consent. You share with consent. Appropriation is stealing for your own gain. And humans definitely do that.

Round Planet==required People of Color

https://www.livescience.com/43674-cancer-skin-color-evolution.html

Darker skin protects from UV, and also is reported to help with retention of foliates. https://iubmb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/biof.5520100230

Healthy Population numbers

I asked this question just for all of you.

The base population should be about 250 people who can reproduce. If you’re counting children, elderly, etc, then 500-1000 is the healthy number. My Anthropology prof suggested 2 separate towns of 1,000 people total would do it, but of course the more the better.

I should note that humans almost went extinct. And some Anthropologists put the minimum around 18,500 breeding people left. (But think a bit more about LGBTQIA in that which is roughly around 10% and that might cut down--they never think of us queers.).

There is suggestion of doing things like sperm and genetic banks to travel the stars, but you’d still need a method of fertilization and a womb for that. (Artificial wombs are being developed.)

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/health-50056405

“Species” v. “Race” in Fantasy

There’s some argument about in English (The language), that one cannot use the word “Species” in a fantasy setting, because it’s “too scientific” and Science wasn’t invented until much later, and “race” sounds less scientific.

Etymology doesn’t lie.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/race

n2.

You’re looking at 1774 for the general term, and as “one species” you’re looking at the 19th century. 19th century. Oddly that sounds like when that racist German Anthropologist was operating.

Species as to refer to humans, is OLDER than the word “race” meaning species of human.

https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=Species

Species, as a word dates from late 14th century. 1560 is when the scientific application starts. 1600 is when it takes a more scientific meaning.

19th century v. 1600′s hmmm... which is older.

Linnaeus classification of species is 1735. Systema Naturae.

The thing is, that he insisted on Latin. But your world, you can do whatever you like. This is where, the words, “It’s a story, I can do whatever the fuck I want” are useful. People were talking about species way back into the Medieval period.

And if you see, “race” meaning “Species” or roughly “fantasy races” has a suspicious root back to the 19th century, when they were mucking around with eugenics, and that guy who thinks that Black people are the least smart of all the populations of people based on stolen skulls.

While the classification certainly is out of the Medieval period (since people don’t call the “Enlightenment” Medieval (though some fantasy should play more with that era) such as order and phylum, etc, species, as a concept or a word is not “something that Darwin (and Wallace) created.” It’s like people thinking “fuck” is “really new” and “French” (It’s likely German). If you’re doing everything under the “Myths of Whiteness” and then combining it here with “I must use the word race”, you might, might want to check yourself. Because often the justification for using the myths of Whiteness is “I can do whatever I want it is my story” and “Europe is the best” but confronted that some of the terminology from Fantasy might be “racist” you double down on “It’s tradition.” Yeah, but then my question to pose to you, is what happened to “Historically accurate” and acknowledging that Science in Europe isn’t from the 19th century forwards? Do Other Worlds have to be devoid of scientists for the magic to work? As for the People of Color out there... why do you want to enforce the idea that you are a different species with a different intelligence?

Homonins

Mostly here to make my fellow Anthropologists happy. (Saying there should be other Homonins)

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/series/becoming-human/

This doc is probably the best source for an easy to digest version that’s not the racist 1990′s docs which goes: Man started in Africa (with blackface. TT)->Then the cradle of civilization was in the “Middle East” near the Tigris and Euphrates (They should say Iran, but ya know...)->But then Neanderthal were all wiped out by Homo Sapiens greatness (and maybe dogs)-> White people popped up out of nowhere and then greatness *cue 2001 obelisk music* (The Making of was also racist. You think I would skip over the Making of docs where they literally blackface? BTW, I did bring this up in Anthropology class and ask, WTF do they blackface in anthropology docs? Can they not hire Black people? Awkward stares...)

This one is more global, less racist and goes over specific populations, plus admits its own shortcomings.

Anyway, the point is Homo Erectus is generally thought of as the start of the Homo genus line. There’s debate about how far down and which branches from there feed into ours, but generally the cut off towards “Modern Humans” is Homo Heidelbergensis (Whom they attribute to learning how to make fire and control fire now. A trait some homo sapiens have lost?). That is about 50,000 years of evolutionary difference. (and yes, Humans were hitting that). So when I’m mocking people for things that Homo Erectus innovated and thinking that Modern humans can’t do those things, keep in mind I’m going that far up our family tree. We can’t even remember past mostly 5,000 years ago. And we, as a species around about 200,000 years old. Which BTW, I mock regularly. This would be like a 100 year old not remembering anything past the last 1 year of their life very clearly. Humans are weird creatures.

Homo Erectus invented trade, some think, also made boats. And people are talking about cutting off Homo Sapiens from travel. NOOOO. It’s really, really in our bones. Way back in homonin history. For Xenospecies you can play with this. But for humans, it goes waaaaayyyy back into the nature of homoninity (Not a word, but you know, humanity doesn’t quite work here) itself.

Humans will Travel (and are pests)

Under this rule also, this means no country/nation is not without multiple ethnicities. But a lot of world building tries to make “havens” of X race and ethnicities. But if you’re writing humans it’s doubtful this will stay true.

I was flat out told once someone believed Australia was a white Haven. (The education system must suck) The amount of Blacks, Asians, Aboriginals, etc in Australia met a mental genocide in their mind?

And some people in the US pointed out they didn’t have PoCs around them (even if they are on Indigenous land) Maybe it’s a result of *gasp* racism and white isolationism? The myth goes with white people that PoCs self-isolate, but the dot map disproves this. White people are more likely to self-isolate from PoCs and clear them out than the reverse.

And someone who was writing Russia got super insulted when I pointed out that Russia had more than one ethnicity and some of those ethnicities were not white. (Also pointed out geographically Russia is partially counted as part of Asia.) But *white tears* How dare I point out this truth?

Korea loves, loves saying that Koreans as an ethnic group aren’t that diverse, but as I’ve linked up prior, that isn’t true. The Bon’gwan records sometimes going thousands of years back say this is false. There are several populations today in Korea, in general that are from other locations--Thailand, Japan, China, Vietnam, etc.

BTW, Africans within Africa also moved a lot. (If you watch the PBS doc) What would you have to do to make this true? That humans never traveled.

Well... take a time machine, go back in time. Put a force field around Africa around the time of Homo Erectus, make sure Homo Erectus never leaves Africa (They were in China), and suffers quite a bit for your choice, and cut off the development of all Neanderthal and Denisovans, and then cripple the ability of Homo Sapiens Sapiens to leave Africa during a widespread famine (covered in population numbers) and thus can’t intermarry with Neanderthal and Denisovans to help be better immune to diseases outside of Africa and basically cripple the current Homo sapiens sapiens. Oh and you’d eliminate white people entirely.

The idea that humans magically couldn’t travel once white people were invented is ludicrous. Oh, I’m going to stop doing the thing that Homo Erectus, who had smaller brains than us were doing. C’mon.

https://teara.govt.nz/en/pacific-migrations/page-2

And that PoCs are just going to wait around after the invention of seafaring by Homo Erectus--that’s not even close to Modern Man, for white people to arrive for over 190,000 years, so White people can do the “Age of Discovery” (Age of imperialism and jealousy). Think harder about this one.

I still have bets on Homo Erectus making it through your force field. Homonins are that much of a pest.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/series/becoming-human/

I mean this whole doc series shows how much of a pest humans are. (And goes over basics of human evolution, though it’s updated, of course, since then).

Marry, Fuck it, Make it a pet, Kill, Eat it

Humans are the weirdest creatures on the planet. And I present to you this...

Generally, humans view objects as “useful” if they can do the things in the header with it or has activities surrounding it.

And as the Torah/Bible says repeatedly, humans will have sex with about anything. “Do not fornicate with animals.” There are human laws against it--and as one apt person put it, often laws mean someone is doing it.

So I don’t believe Tolkien’s line about how humans would never try to fuck a dwarf.

https://thedwarrowscholar.com/2013/04/11/whos-the-bride-dwarven-marriage/

Humans fuck about everything and I say that as someone on the ace spectrum. I get it--aces exist and black stripe aces are super valid, but the majority of humanity is going around and trying to fuck things that vibrate, move, feel warm, and anything they can find.

https://www.theregister.com/2005/07/27/ancient_phallus/

And the thing is that homonins, in generally, fucked each other no matter what their species/genus, which created kind of a river system, where they flow out and then converge again. So Neanderthal... homo sapiens sapiens fucked that.

Denisovans: Sapiens fucked that.

Humans fucking a Tolkien Dwarf? Absolutely would happen in my estimation.

A Tolkien dwarf after all those imposing rules might actually find it freeing to have a human to love. Short term commitment, ya know. And if truly a different species, then no children.

Humans marry buildings, sticks, cartoon characters, etc.

https://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/seattle-woman-marries-building-protest-demolition-224250710.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-49343280

Humans make rocks pets.

Humans like to “Kill words” and we’re mass murderers of our and other species.

Humans also try to eat everything. The list of “Things that are poisonous” makes you think, “Ah, a human ate that.” especially when you have “Poisonous to dogs, but not humans.” That means you seriously had a human go, “Welp the dog died, but you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to try to eat it anyway and find out if I die too.”

https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/learn/by-eating-disorder/other/pica

And that’s the thing, you got to account for the fucked up variation of humans and human behavior. Also remember, Variation in every population.

Sentient Xenospecies

The trait that makes humans able to build building, make things like Stone Henge, despite being absolutely terrible at handling change is: Cooperation.

This is what separates humans from Octopuses.

It’s surmised that in order to get structures, you need Cooperation. (I know, someone is going to go on, still about the conflict narrative... but Humans are an oddly cooperative species).

So, you need some sort of cooperation in your species to make it work.

If you’re arguing for isolationist species, then no. If you’re saying something like say... rats, rats are not isolationist, and you have to go back to the Biology part.

Once you have cooperative groups, don’t rely solely on agriculture. It might not make sense for your species--which is what happened in Star Trek: Strange New World’s gaffe. Agriculture with grains makes no sense for reptiles.

Surplus can be reached other ways.

Humans hate creatures that are like us: Multiply quickly, are tenacious, spread quickly, tend to kill other things in its path, and are cooperative.

But I kind of think if you’re going to build a “culture” one of the physical behaviors your creatures must have is some form of cooperation. You can play heavily with this, of course and examine it, but if you want space ships, buildings, etc something of that sort has to exist and likely trade. Otherwise, you aren’t dealing with culture at all.

#worldbuilding #anthropology #physical anthropology

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