Why do we look different?

United States
July 6, 2008 9:45am CST
This thought popped in my head last night for no reason at all, and it's probably something I hadn't thought of since I was a child. I can't remember how it was explained to me as a child if I ever had wondered. But I'd like to know if there are any religious or scientific explanations for why people look different. And I don't just mean differences such as brown eyes or blue eyes... I mean real nationality differences. You can put an Asian next to a Middle Eastern next to a Mexican next to a Brittish and know there is a real difference in nationality... why is that? If you think about the theory of evolution... that we all somehow evolved from monkees, then you'd think we'd all look the same. So perhaps some environmental factors played into our genes. Okay, so why is it that after being here in America for hundreds of years, we don't all look like native Americans who are much darker with dark hair and eyes? Why can an asian family continue to produce asian looking offspring after generations and generations of living in America. You would think if evolution was the case that we would slowly begin to look like all the others in this environment, correct? Does anyone know, or have any theories as to why we all have obvious differences? How you can just look at a person and know the area of the world they decend from.
1 person likes this
6 responses
@foxyfire33 (10005)
• United States
6 Jul 08
Here's my theory...which popped into my head just within the past few weeks even though it wasn't really anything I was too concerned with. We all know how dominant and recessive genes work. So I think that way, way back, when people generally never went far from where they were born and the same families and genes pools were fairly well intwined, certain traits became more dominant than others until eventually various areas looked significantly different. Add on to that all those years of "not mixing" with other races and the strength of certain genes became even more noticeable. Say for example, everyone used to look basically the same...not very dark, not very light, eye and hair colors fairly equally distributed. But the people who looked most similar began breeding only with each other carrying on and strengthening those specific genes (simplified a dark brown haired man and a slightly lighter brown haired woman will most likely produce a brown haired child, if that child then reproduces with an equally brown haired person there is little chance of there being a light haired child in the family). The same would apply to skin color and the other dominent features of races...at one time fairly random but over time the continual mixing of only those genes created significant differences. (Honest, it all makes sense in my head it's just hard to explain in words) I think perhaps now we may be experiencing the opposite since races are allowed to mix. Maybe in hundreds of years enough races will have mixed that we won't have major differences anymore.
@foxyfire33 (10005)
• United States
6 Jul 08
Yeah see, that's what is tricky to explain...ok take a person who is very mixed race...mother was Asian/Middle Eastern/African and father was Mexican/Caucasian/Native American. That child would have all the genes for those various races but only some of the common features. If that child then "bred" with a Mexican/Caucasian/Native American, those specific genes and traits would become more dominate...then that child 'breeds' with a Mexican/ Native American...and then finally that child breeds with someone who is only left with Mexican traits. Now you've gone from one mixed race to one specific race...and assuming there were siblings all along the way, it's likely that the various branches of this family are now completely separate races who look nothing alike. Using the Adam and Eve theory...perhaps they were a complete mix but once generations began breeding only with those who looked most similar to them, those traits and colors began to separate.
@foxyfire33 (10005)
• United States
6 Jul 08
I agree that the differences were made even more noticeable as those people adapted to their living environments. I think as the spread out, certain genetic makeup was carried with them and then repeated amongst them of many generations further strengthening those specific traits. Combine that with adaptation and you get a world full of people who look very different from one another.
• United States
6 Jul 08
Yes it makes sense, however the question still remains how it began in the first place. There had to have been different looking people since the beginning of time to create such differences today. For example.. if we follow the age old theory of Adam and Eve... for arguments sake let's say they were your typical caucasian couple, fair skin, fair hair. If they were the first 2 people on the face of the earth, and all people have decended from them... how do you explain dark complexions or different features such as asian eyes?
@zhuxia (344)
• China
7 Jul 08
I think that all these different are because of evolution by millons of years. There are too many mysteries in the universe.
• United States
7 Jul 08
That is very true.
@jesus777 (662)
• Bermuda
6 Jul 08
there are different colors in the rainbow and i know you might have that variety is the spice of life we are all different colors and different nationilities because this is the way god intended it but he does not really see color he sees people hearts the bible says man looks on the outward appearence and god looks on our hearts so the colcor should not matter to su just the hearts we all have different personalities and we are all different colors god does not look at this and neither should we we should just look as hearts as god does!!!!
• United States
6 Jul 08
I never said there was anything wrong with looking different. I was just wondering about the obvious differences and how it became to be so.
@Hatley (163781)
• Garden Grove, California
7 Jul 08
I still think most of this can be explained by our dna, as I am sure a person of British blood and an American would not have the same dna so yes we are all patterened from our parents and our forbears back generations.our genes are all different and viva la difference. I love it as the world would be really boring if we were all just alike.
• United States
7 Jul 08
Well yes, all that I understand. But what I wanted to know was how these differences got there in the first place.
@GreenMoo (11834)
6 Jul 08
I think it's just God's way of making life more interesting
• United States
6 Jul 08
Well I can't argue with that.
6 Jul 08
i think it is because we adapt to our homelands and people in mexico for example have a lot darker skin becuase of the heat whereas us poor brits struggle to get a day of sunshine lol! i think it is a good thing that we all look different and that differnt nations have their own 'look' so to speak. im not sure why the differences are so prominent tho and im sure somebody would be able to give a better explaination that the one that i have come up with lol!
• United States
6 Jul 08
I do believe it's a good thing also... I'm just curious as to why. How do historians explain these differences? You know what I mean? Does this fit in more with the theory of evolution or the religious teachings? That's what I'm wondering.