What would the average skin tone and facial features look like after 300 years if every partner relationship was interracial until there were no other ethnicities? Just a hodgepodge of DNA. What would the average human look like having a little bit of everything in them?
I just think the idea is neat is all.
There are no races in the first place.
The only reason I refer to it that way is because it is easily understood and is how a lot of paperwork refers to it. In my opinion, it makes it sound like we we are a completely different alien species.
it is easily understood
Only by racists.
I mean there are general genetic differences due to where people are from. Is that not what a race is?
The whole race theory has been debunked over a century ago. You also have genetic difference in foot shape, blood type and many more, and a race system build on that would be as wrong as one based on skin colour
Oh I’m not particularly informed on any of this because I don’t really care tbh, but I though race was where you (and your ancestors) are from as opposed to skin colour?
Some people use “race” to mean that, but the word you’d be looking for is ethnicity.
You have to ask biology, not politicians. That’s the major change!
Biology’s answer is simple, and it hasn’t changed during the last 50 years or so.
There’s genetic differences between you and everyone else in your family. Are you a different race to them?
No, that’s why I said general. For example people from Europe tend to have lighter skin, Scandinavian people tend to have lighter hair, African people tend to have coarser hair.
You are just picking an arbitrary set of characteristics and calling it “race”. Nature has no concept of race because we are all genetically different and there is no line that one crosses from being one race to another. Race is purely a human construct, and a very unhelpful one, as it is just another way to divide us.
Life is not a race
I don’t think 300 years would be enough to completely homogenize all races even if done intentionally.
Even so given the appropriate amount of time, where do you think we might end up?
Measured at what age? You definitely don’t have the same skin now as newborn you. Skincolor is dependend as much on nutritional and eviromental factors as it is on genetic ones. In addition to that the genes don’t simply average out your skin tones. There are enough examples of “interracial” couples having 2 children, one being dark skinned and the other being pale. Your base melanin levels and additional melanin production are two entirely different and independend genetic factors.
Fair enough, measured at 25 and with a healthy nutrition and they do see the sun regularly. That answers the skin tone, but what about facial features? When it is all said and done, what features might take over? Like eye, nose, and mouth shape.
would would?
wood? bread?
charcoal?
Well you do raise a very good point. But what about wood would wheat ash?
Needs charcoal oil.
Of course, how could I not think of that?
National Geographic (I think — it may have been Smithsonian or Scientific American or…) projected this back in the late 80s. The genetic “average” that they generated was beautiful.
Out of curiosity, I looked up “race” by anthropological terms in the dictionary and discovered that “race” is…
- No longer in technical use.
- Described as an arbitrary classification.
- A socially constructed category.
“Ethnicities” might have been a more suitable word choice for your intended query.
Corrected to ethnicities. However it still is used in words like interracial. So it isn’t completely out of our lexicon.
Oh I didn’t meant to imply it has left our lexicon. I was just curious about it since so many people had things to say, and looked it up. You bring up a really fascinating point about “interracial”, though. If there’s a more appropriate alternative to that word, I’d like to know it.
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Do we have any current examples of a human with more than 4 or so distinct racial backgrounds? Like white and black grandparents with a mixed child with another Asian and middle eastern grandparents also having a mixed child. Then those children having a kid of their own.
At a guess, anywhere around the Mediterranean would likely have people with this profile.
Pretty much everyone.
Race is a human social construct, and in terms of genetic histories only vaguely useful. While it is a useful tool, for say, comparing ancient remains… despite what ancestry.com tells you identify race from genetics of individuals is almost impossible and really stupid.
But they want to make money, and selling your kits and then selling your admixture dna to the highest bidder is big business
Probably a mixture of Arabic and Asian features.
I was betting a lightish brown skin tone with Asian feature set. However, I believe you might be closer to what it might be.
I think having a 300 year life span would tend to select for darker skin and possibly other traits that would better survive 300 years of exposure - enough to distinguish it from any existing ethnicity.
Idk, but I’m sure that in at least 200 years genetical modifications will be accessible if everything goes fine. Probably it will apply to skin tone and facial features and there could be a strange variety of new colors or most people would pick whatever is considered ‘the best looking’ features in 300 years.
tbh the idea of having the choice of changing genetics sounds good, but it’s impossible to know what will happen in 300 years.
At least that is what I think possible in the next 300 years.If we can look like shrek, a not insignificant portion of the population would do so. I mean, who wouldn’t want to look like the ideal body type?
Shrek is love, Shrek is life, Shrek is high fashion.
Correct me if I am wrong, but as I understand it the dominant traits will always win over the recessive traits. For two dominant alleles that do not have complete dominance, the trait can be shared.
However, for things like skin pigments it isn’t so black and white (ha) there are a variety of genes that determine it. The question then becomes what are the truly dominate set of traits that would win statistically in the genetic fight if they were all mixed?
