Re: Frizzy & straight hair: lice pathogens


"nickname" <alas_my_loves@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1169855600.913123.7850@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I'm hoping Paul or someone will provide a sensible response (sorry
Spiznet! ;)) to a
question I asked a year ago:

Paul, why do you think ancient human ancestors had frizzy hair?

My work indicates that frizzy hair was an inland derived trait
resulting from natural selection of lice-carried diseases (typhus,
etc.) which bonded their eggs to straight and wavy hair follicles, but
not to frizzy follicles due to the high radial curvature of the
follicles (Sub-Saharan
African Blacks have extremely little head lice compared to all other
groups
(statement based on Black American head lice study)).

I am not sure this was ever a study, per se, but it is commonly known... the
lice and/or nits just don't seem to have a easy time of it on African
American heads.
Also, I don't think that head lice (as they currently exist in the
American population) carry any disease, much less a deadly disease. The
MOSQUITO is much deadlier... and AFAIK... is THE deadliest wild animal for
humans.
for what it's worth, in my opinion, the frizzy hair was probably the
original condition for our species and later evolved into other forms, and
that evolution occured recently, like in the last 200kya. (although it is
probably incorrect of me to say "evolved" for the so-called "racial"
differences.) My comment implies that the LCA with chimps had some sort of
frizzy hair and that it didn't change much over the following 7 million
years... a seeming contradiction. Frankly, I haven't resolved that except
by thinking that the environment in Africa during those 7 million years
didn't offer any pressure to change the hair. --chap


I think the modern SSA populations were derived from tan to dark
skinned
ancestors living on coasts, with straight to wavy hair, who slowly
eventually
moved inland to freshwater forest/savanna edges via rivers (in dug-outs
crafted with Hand-axes) developing curly and then frizzy hair (both
head
hair and body hair) due to natural selection by tropical rainforest
(freshwater)
conditions including lice and other pathogens. Body lice can transmit
typhus.

The coastal people retained straight-wavy hair due to the dual action
of sunlight
and daily saltwater submergence, where lice and their eggs (nits)
couldn't stay
attached, (straight/wavy hair being dominant in coastal populations due
to better
hydrodynamics). http://tinyurl.com/2oq7d8

Very curly and frizzy hair are inland tropical rainforest Hs traits,
this pattern of inland
frizzy/coastal straight hair is found throughout the Indo-Pacific area
with few exceptions
(Madagascar due to recent settlement). The straight and wavy hair found
in many
caucasians and East Asians tend to get worse lice infestations AFAIK
due to
the proportionately reduced time spent immersed in seawater on a daily
basis in
modern times.

DD



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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Frizzy & straight hair: lice pathogens
    ... The coastal people retained straight-wavy hair due to the dual action ... There is no evidence presented that swimming ... Very curly and frizzy hair are inland tropical rainforest Hs traits, ... The straight and wavy hair found ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Frizzy & straight hair: lice pathogens
    ... why do you think ancient human ancestors had frizzy hair? ... African Blacks have extremely little head lice compared to all other ... The coastal people retained straight-wavy hair due to the dual action ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: Frizzy & straight hair: lice pathogens
    ... The coastal people retained straight-wavy hair due to the dual action ... Very curly and frizzy hair are inland tropical rainforest Hs traits, ... The straight and wavy hair found ... proportionately reduced in modern times? ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: Color Vision Evolved To Spot Blushing
    ... My work indicates that frizzy hair was an inland trait ...
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  • Re: In need of some advice.( long, gross, and might be hard to follow) lol
    ... since we all have and love our kids then this would be a good spot.. ... getting head lice, it has been an on going problem ever since his 16 ... picking eggs out of her hair, ... I guess it's not that the school did not find out -this- time, ...
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