[Sca-cooks] odd

David Friedman ddfr at daviddfriedman.com
Tue Feb 22 09:21:13 PST 2011


>And by the way, Hindu Indians are also Caucasians, even though some 
>have darker skin than Africans.
>
>Huette

That's a little tricky. The very dark skinned Indians are mostly 
Dravidian, from southern India, dark skin being apparently an 
adaptation to high levels of sunlight. Whether they classify as 
Caucasion or, more generally, what their genetic origin is, seems to 
be still a matter of some dispute.

---
The genetic views on race differ in their classification of 
Dravidians. According to population geneticist L.L. Cavalli-Sforza of 
Stanford, based on work done in the 1980s, Indians are genetically 
Caucasian, but Lewontin rejects the label Caucasian. Cavalli-Sforza 
found that Indians are about three times closer to West Europeans 
than to East Asians.[9] Dr. Eduardas Valaitis, in 2006, found that 
India is genetically closest to East and Southeast Asians with about 
15% more genetic similarity than to Europeans; he also found that 
India could be considered very distinct from other regions.[10] 
Genetic anthropologist Stanley Marion Garn considered in the 1960s 
that the entirety of the Indian Subcontinent to be a "race" 
genetically distinct from other populations.[9][11] Others, such as 
Lynn B. Jorde and Stephen P. Wooding, claim South Indians are genetic 
intermediaries between Europeans and East Asians.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dravidian_peoples
-- 
David Friedman
www.daviddfriedman.com
daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/



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