By Tracey Wallace of NaturallyCurly.com
Hair is simply amazing. The human body and the mechanisms by which it adapts to its environment are mind boggling, and our hair color, texture, porosity and everything else plays a massive part in how well we succeed in a particular environment (or at least it did before we started living in these air conditioned covered boxes).
We all love and nourish our hair, but it’s so easy to forget just how magical these dead cells growing from out of our scalp really are.
Enter the Melanesians, a native group of people living on the Soloman Islands northeast of Australia famous for their beautiful dark skin and naturally blonde hair. Yep, that’s right. They don’t sport weaves, wigs, extensions, permanent dye, temporary dye, some weird henna reaction, or whatever else anyone uses to get the blonde look that’s so typical of the caucasian persuasion. Ten percent of these islanders actually come by it naturally.
The odd combination has got scientists wondering about how such a color combo develops over time. According to the Global Financial Newswires, many scientists have long thought that their blonde hair was a result of a diet high in fish, perhaps bleaching by the sun and salt water, or a reminder of the island’s historic relations with people of European descent.
In fact, the blonde Melanesians have blonde that is unique solely to them. According to the study in which scientists compared 43 blonde hair islanders to 42 dark hair islanders, blonde Melanesians have a variant of a native gene called TYRP1 that plays an important role in the melanin biosynthetic pathway. This variant is completely separate from what causes blonde hair in Europeans, and doesn’t even exist in the European genetic set.
What’s truly beautiful in this fascinating discovery, as so perfectly stated by the study author Sean Myles, a geneticist at Nova Scotia Agricultural College, is that “it’s a great example of convergent evolution, where the same outcome is brought about by completely different means.”
And that makes hair of all textures, types and colors absolutely unique and absolutely beautiful.
This is incredible! And thanks to reader Nikki C. for bringing this article to our attention! Ladies, what do you think?
It’s the last thing i will say about this.
The girl in de picture and the people where this article is about are Melanesian.
Melanesian people are Australoid people.
And since they are australoid, they are not African.
Black people are decendant from the continent of Africa and black is the name people give to Sub-saharan people.
If you want to know what sub-saharan means and how far this region streches look at a map in google.
There are Non-black people in africa too.
Egyptian, Lybian, Morroccan people are not black for example.
So calling this girl and her melanesian brothers and sisters black is ignorant and generalizing!
You cannot call someone black just by observing their skin color.
Ultra dark skin color exists all over the world. In africa, asia, south-america ect.
Would you call a very dark skinned cambodian girl black? No. Because she is asian.
Would you call an Indian girl black? No. But they still got very dark skin. get it?
So i guess we can finally leave it at this.
All people have their beauty, it’s ignorance and generalization that is ugly.
Actually, “cupcakepink”, I would call them black. Reading is fundamental and so is researching. Africa is the land from which all human life descends. This has been scientifically proven time and time again, which is why “ultra dark skin color exists all over the world.” The Melanesian people may not have been born on the continent of Africa, but that is non-responsive to their blackness. We are all black in some capacity – some more than others. Aside from all of that, why shouldn’t they be black? Your adamance at denying what is obvious is unsettling to say the least. Black is beautiful. Peace.
Jayy, you saying “We are all black in some capacity – some more than others.” is just plain ignorant.
Nobody is denying all human life came from africa and nobody is saying that black isn’t beautiful, hun.
However, you have some flaws in your logic.
I’m gonna start by saying that my mom what white and my dad was spanish. So if someone asks me what my ethnicity or race i am, then i should say black now? Because according to your logic, everyone is black somehow.
So the palest, blond-blue-eyed, north-european should call themselves black instead of caucasian now? Ha, i think i’ve proven your point wrong.
So if everyone is black anyway, why call a white person bad names like whitey, pasty, ugly, when they are black too? Why not call a japanese girl black? Then racism should not exist in this world when we were all the same. But it unfortunatly does.
“I would call them black.” you say, and you can call them so, but melanesians do not call themselves black.
“why shouldn’t they be black?” because, as stated so many times here, they are not black. They did not go from africa, straight to melanesia. They have more connections to asians (taiwanese Aboriginals) and so on. They heve their own melanesian dna, culture, language and ancestry. You should visit the website of a a wonderful lady jane resture: http://www.janeresture.com/melhome/index.htm
You can read about the origins of melanesian people.
We all know that the human race came from africa, but saying everyone is therefore black is wrong.
Stop claiming dark skinned people as black. They have their own people and culture to be indentified with.
Love,
xx
I don’t get why Melanesians should say they’re African yet Arabs and Europeans don’t and they are actually genetically linked.
Melanesians are not African and it’s an insult to Melanesian culture (which developed over thousands of years) just for them to be seen as Africans as it shows a complete disregard for the unique Melanesian cultures.
Papua New Guinea is an extremely heterogenous nation and you’ll find that each tribe has its own distinct culture, traditions and values. A lot of those afrocentrists love to bring up the Fijian tale but every tribe has their own tale of their origins. Im from the highlands and my tribe was said to have been descended from a crater lake in simbu, whereas my cousins claim to be descended from an ancestral bird. Culturally speaking I do think Melanesians are similar to south east Asians and even native south Americans in terms of the costumes, elaborate carvings and even some of the architecture I.e the Sepik spirit houses resemble south east Asian style buildings as opposed to anything African, where they tend to primarily construct mud or brick buildings whether they’re in the desert, highlands, coastal areas or rainforests.
Physically the only thing that links them would be the dark skin and the hair type but genetic makeup indicates little to no links between the two groups. Science tends to not agree with afrocentrists and there’s probably a reason for that….besides not all Melanesians have Afro hair, some have wavy or even Asian-like straight. This classmate of mine was from Bougainville province and she was dark as coal but her hair was naturally straight… Probably due to Polynesian admixture tho. Not all Africans have the tightly curled Afro hair too, east Africans and some western black Africans have wavy hair. The point is both regions are very diverse… In fact most African Americans tend to think that all Africans look alike and have big wide and flat noses, nappy hair but that’s not entirely true. There are major differences between different nationalities, whilst most will be able to spot the difference between a light ethiopian and a ibo from Nigeria a lot probably can’t tell the difference between a Zulu and a Yoruba man.
Anyway the point I’m trying to make is afrocentrists need to stop trying to generalize and claiming everyone…. I mean red heads from Scotland being black? O_o
Melanesians have been in their neck of the world for longer than others have so let them be melanesians and not link them to being African because they’re far from it geographically, culturally and racially. They have their own cultures which are unique to them so lets keep it melanesian.
Ok, as a Melanesian, that is offensive. The majority of Melanesians are not dying to be categorized with Africans. So don’t make it seem like we are desperate to fit into that group. Its good to be different. I had a darker shade of blonde hair as a kid, and I lost that blondness when I shaved by head. I am related to many blonde people, and red heads to, it happens to people from where I’m from(PNG). So take your categorizing to people who have an identity crises, and have no culture. I’m defined by Melanesian culture, and its nothing like African culture.
I honestly always thought black means african, in like, black african. It’s the first time i heard people saying black is just a color.
But since black african and sub saharan is seen as a racist slur *sigh* what should we call dark africans then?
Remember that north-africans are not black… So you can’t call black africans “the african race” since africa concists of a lot of races.
You can’t do any right with this situation.
I think melanesians are not black as in, black africans. They are mixed over time, with asians, probably taiwanese Aboriginals ect; so they are not the same as black africans.
The blonde hair is pretty though. I think its a nice contrast.
I know what you mean.
Just keepin’ it real, but when people are saying black, they are referring to sub-saharan-africans.
So for example; indians are not black, but people who are brainwashed into this social construct of “black or white” makes indians black in their eyes.
Throw that “black or white” social construct out of the window and start seeing people for what they are. This construct actually divides us humans -based on our color- into “black or white” and throws out all diversity of colors, cultures, “races”, and ethnicity’s.
What a small minded people i accounter on the net.
Like marcela said, they did not go from africa straight to melanesia, thus staying the same or having the same culture or language. if that’s what ya’ll think, think again. And concidering black is meant Sub-Saharan-african, we cannot say these melanesian people, who lived for all those decades in isolation, developing their own unique appearance due mixing and adaptation to environment, language, lifestyle and culture, are black…
srlsy, people are trippin’ these days.
I agree with you. In the past most people believed that melanesians were the mixture of blacks and dutch sailors. Probably, because, most children of mixed black/white ancestry look like these melanesians childrens. However, genetically, they are not related to either the white or black races. In additon, they have denisovan and neanderthal blood. Very interesting.
They have black skin & features, and blonde/red hair not genetically related to the white people blonde/red hair. They also have denisovans/neanderthal genes. I think is marvelous ! It shows the beauty of diversity!