Lessico
Biondo
Louro Loiro Galego
Greco
Il greco antico non ha alcun
legame col nostro vocabolo biondo. In greco esiste praticamente un solo
aggettivo per indicare in prima istanza il colore biondo o fulvo. Si tratta di
ξανθός, che viene per lo più
impiegato per i capelli, talora per la criniera dei cavalli e per il miele,
molto raramente per la criniera fulva del leone, che solo dal poeta Oppiano di
Apamea fu etichettato come ξανθοκόμης, cioè dalla chioma bionda o, se vogliamo, dalla fulva
criniera. Dioscoride
(IV,133) consigliava l'uso dello ξάνθιον per tingere
di biondo i capelli: si tratta del lappolone – Xanthium italicum –
i cui frutti, conformati a oliva, prima di seccare sono biondicci e già
armati di uncini, noti agli amanti di passeggiate ecologiche, perché, essendo
il lappolone una pianta zoofila, si appiccicano tenacemente ai vestiti e al
pelo del cane che ci accompagna, assicurando così la disseminazione a
distanza quando ripuliremo sia lui che gli abiti.
Latino
L'antico latino possedeva almeno 3 vocaboli per esprimere biondo. Flavus significava biondo (da flaccivus, flacceo = sono fiacco, in quanto la flavedo era il colore delle piante che stavano morendo – da flammivus, flammo = sono in fiamme), mentre subflavus indicava il biondo chiaro, fulvus era il biondo carico (da fulgeo = risplendo), rufus era il biondo rossiccio (derivato da ruber, rosso, equivalente al greco erythrós, ambedue di origine indoeuropea). Tutti aggettivi che hanno dato origine a praenomen, nomen e cognomen romani tipo Rufus, Flavius, Fulvius.
Italiano
Il termine biondo pare attestato nella lingua inglese dal 1481 come blond e deriverebbe dal francese antico blont, a sua volta dovuta al germanico *blund. L'inglese blond potrebbe significare colorato, dal momento che i guerrieri Teutoni (popolazione germanica proveniente dalla regione dell'Elba che verso il 120 aC con i Cimbri, della destra dell'Elba, invase la Gallia seminando ovunque distruzione) erano famosi per tingersi i capelli, ovviamente anche di biondo. Altre fonti suggeriscono un'origine latina della parola che deriverebbe da blundus, una pronuncia in latino volgare della parola flavus (biondo).
Portoghese
In portoghese biondo suona in due modi: louro oppure loiro. Più corretto da un punto di vista etimologico è louro, che richiama subito il latino aureus, color dell'oro. Loiro è una sua variante. Ambedue i termini hanno pure un altro significato: alloro, essendo derivati dal latino laurus. Ma l'alloro non ha nulla a che fare con biondo, essendo una pianta sempreverde che si degna di esibire foglie marroncine solo dopo mesi che un ramo è stato reciso. Per completezza bisogna aggiungere che loiro o louro è talora usato nel parlare corrente per dire pappagallo, e deriva dal malese nori. Un grave errore etimologico viene propinato dal Grande Dicionário Luxo da Língua Portuguesa (2003) che fa derivare louro nel senso di biondo non da aureus, bensì da laurus, l'alloro. In alcune zone del Brasile per dire biondo si usa galego e del perché se ne discuterà a parte.
Tedesco
Il tedesco, a differenza dell'inglese, è univoco: blond.
Spagnolo
Lo spagnolo, al pari del tedesco,
è univoco: rubio, dal latino rubeus = rosso,
perdendo così l'originale significato latino.
Inglese
In inglese esistono due termini per esprimere biondo. Uno è fair, che significa bello, piacente. L'altro è blond, la cui etimologia è quella dell'italiano biondo.
fair (adj.) - O.E. fæger "beautiful, pleasant," from P.Gmc. *fagraz (cf. O.N. fagr, O.H.G. fagar "beautiful," Goth. fagrs "fit"), from PIE *fag-. Fair-haired in the fig. sense of "darling, favorite" is from 1909.
blond (adj.) - 1481, from O.Fr. blont, from M.L. adj. blundus "yellow," perhaps from Frank. *blund. If it is a Gmc. word, possibly related to O.E. blonden-feax "gray-haired," from blondan, blandan "to mix" (see blend). According to Littré, the original sense of the Fr. word was "a colour midway between golden and light chestnut," which might account for the notion of "mixed." O.E. beblonden meant "dyed," so it is also possible that the root meaning of blonde, if it is Gmc., may be "dyed," as the ancient Teutonic warriors were noted for dying their hair. Du Cange, however, writes that blundus was a vulgar pronunciation of L. flavus "yellow." The word was reintroduced into Eng. 17c. from Fr., and was until recently still felt as Fr., hence blonde for females. As a noun, used c.1755 of a type of lace, 1822 of people.
Sono anni
che mi porto appresso un quesito e spero di esserne arrivato a capo grazie
alla mia perseveranza. In tutto il Brasile, così
come in Portogallo, per designare un soggetto dai capelli biondi si dice louro
o loiro, derivato dal latino aureus = color dell'oro, ma nel sud
del Brasile - e a quanto pare anche nel nordest - è pure frequente l'impiego
dell'aggettivo galego, forse perché i capelli biondi erano stati
impiantati nell'antica Galizia iberica dai Celti
o dagli Svevi, oppure perché la Galizia era famosa per le sue miniere d'oro.
Ma non si può escludere che galego nel senso di biondo sia dovuto più
alle massicce migrazioni in Brasile dall'ex Regno di Galizia e Lodomeria (tanto da
essere etichettate come Febbre brasiliana) anziché dalla Galizia
spagnola. In Brasile galego (ma stavolta in senso spregiativo) ha pure
il significato di portoghese.
Le ricerche sull'effettivo significato di galego usato in Brasile al posto di louro, se cioè con galego si intende un abitante dell'area storica della Galizia iberica anziché dell'ex Regno di Galizia e Lodomeria (oggi condiviso da Polonia e Ucraina), presero l'avvio definitivo il 9 gennaio 2008 quando mandai una e-mail al Professor Geraldino José Ochner che abita in Brasile nello Stato di Santa Catarina, e precisamente a Rodeio, 27 km a ovest di Blumenau nella valle del fiume Itajaí.
Estimado Prof Geraldino,
Quando 18
anos atrás eu fui no Brasil, aprendí que galego significa louro. Eu sei che
louro vem do latim aureus, da cor do ouro (que eu fui procurar inutilmente lá
em Rondônia no rio Madeira em 1990
). Durante
muitos anos eu pensei que o adjetivo galego vem da Galicia, da Galicia da
Espanha, sendo que provavelmente os habitantes desta região são louros sendo
que na Galicia chegaram os Celtas e os Suebos que eram louros, como aconteceu
para o Sul da Italia que ainda agora tem ilhas de pessoas louras.
Eu conseguí ligar em dezembro com uma mulher da Galicia espanhola, uma professora que trabalha na Suiça, mas ela me disse que os Galegos atualmente não são particularmente louros.
Parece que galego no sentido de louro é empregado só em Santa Catarina, sendo que Brasileiros de outros estados não usam galego para dizer louro. A mesma coisa acontece em Portugal. Então eu acho que galego é um adjetivo que vem de uma outra Galicia, aquela da Polonia (Reino de Galicia e Lodomeria). Muitos Polacos chegaram no Brasil, tambem em Santa Catarina. Eu lembro que uma noite em Blumenau eu vi muitas cabeças tam louras de parecer brancas e que nunca vi na Alemanha tão claras.
As perguntas:
1 – é verdade que galego é usado só em Santa Catarina no sentido de louro?
2 – é verdade que galego = louro vem da Galicia polaca e não da Galicia espanhola?.
Muito obrigado e um forte abraço da Italia. A Salete Dalmolin é muito feliz que eu estou em contato con você.
Dopo un mese e mezzo – 22 febbraio 2008 – ecco finalmente la risposta di Geraldino.
Boa tarde, Dr. Elio!
Não esqueci, não. Entrei em contato com diretor dos Salesianos que no tempo de professor era fera (muito bom) na etimologia de palavras, mas disse-me que nada mais do que está nos dicionários e que ainda entraria em contato comigo caso encontrasse algo diferente.
E aí, meu caro amigo, ficamos nessa. Um termo um tanto esquisito.
De momento um grande abraço e tenha um ótimo fim de semana. Abraço. Gera
Ma non mi do per vinto. Il 30 giugno 2008, sempre per intercessione di Salete, mi metto in contatto con l'italiano Professor Claudio Pompermaier, anch'egli abitante Rodeio ma d'origine tridentina. Le ricerche non sono facili e solo il 1° novembre 2008 può comunicarmi quanto segue.
Caro Dottore,
Ho ritrovato il suo indirizzo elettronico e così le posso rispondere.
1) "Galego" non è usato soltanto in Santa Catarina. Secondo il "Novo Dicionário Aurélio da Língua Portuguesa", de Aurélio Buarque de Holanda Ferreira, è usato anche nel Nord-Est brasiliano, con il significato di "Indivíduo louro".
2) Sempre secondo il "Novo Dicionário Aurélio da Língua Portuguesa", "galego" viene dalla Galizia spagnola. - galego (é). [Dal lat. gallaecu] Adj. 1. Da, ou pertencente ou relativo à Galiza (Espanha). l S.m. 2 O natural ou habitante da Galiza. 3. Língua românica falada na Galiza, e que dos idiomas da Península Ibérica è o que sofreu menor evolução.
Leggendo la definizione di "galego" si riscontra, inoltre, che questo termine si usa anche come definizione peggiorativa, assieme ad altre, di "portoghese", e che nel Nord-Est del Brasile e in Santa Catarina si usa "galego" anche al posto di "straniero", senza distinzione di nazionalità.
Sempre a sua disposizione.
Prof. Claudio Pompermaier.
Ed ecco la mia risposta in data 3 novembre 2008.
Carissimo Claudio,
Grazie davvero per la ricerca che è molto approfondita. Non voglio coinvolgere Lei a darmi ragione. Ma ho riletto il testo del mio sito che riguarda la Galizia, non quella spagnola, bensì l'omonima regione storica dell'Europa centro-orientale divisa tra Polonia e Ucraina, l'ex Regno di Galizia e Lodomeria.
Come Lei ha giustamente riportato, "Galego" non è usato soltanto in Santa Catarina. Secondo il "Novo Dicionário Aurélio da Língua Portuguesa", de Aurélio Buarque de Holanda Ferreira, è usato anche nel Nord-Est brasiliano, con il significato di "Indivíduo louro". E sempre secondo il "Novo Dicionário Aurélio da Língua Portuguesa", "galego viene dalla Galizia spagnola.
tuttavia ritengo che la Galizia potrebbe essere sì quella spagnola, ma come Lei sa io ho parlato per telefono con una Galiziana la quale mi ha detto che oggi in Galizia loro non sono particolarmente biondi. Ho espresso, come ha potuto leggere nella prima e-mail, che magari Celti e Svevi avevano trasmesso il biondo nella Galizia spagnola, come è accaduto in Italia del sud grazie ai Normanni, ma oggi i Galiziani spagnoli non sono biondi in percentuale elevata.
In Brasile invece ci sono aree di biondi che debbono dire grazie sia alla Germania che alla Galizia polacca, oggi divisa tra Polonia e Ucraina. E vedrà nel testo che segue, tratto dalla voce loiro, che ci imbattiamo in Polacchi e Ucraini. Mentre vi si afferma che raramente i Portoghesi sono biondi.
loiros
em portugal - Os portugueses são uma população de base mediterrânica e, portanto, a ocorrência de cabelos loiros é pouco comum. No entanto, há uma ocorrência relativamente expressiva de cabelos louros no norte de Portugal. Com efeito, nas regiões de Minho, Trás os Montes, Douro Litoral e Beira Alta, devido a uma maior influência celta e germânica, há a ocorrência de cabelos claros maior que no resto do País.
no brasil - O principal componente europeu dentro da população brasileira é o português que, raramente, possui cabelos loiros. Por esse fator e, também, pelo alto grau de miscigenação, no Brasil os cabelos loiros são pouco comuns, porém é notável a sua existência. A maior concentração de louros no Brasil ocorre principalmente na Serra Gaúcha, no vale do Rio dos Sinos (Rio Grande do Sul) e no Vale do Itajaí (Santa Catarina), devido à forte presença de descendentes de imigrantes alemães. Cabelos loiros também são encontrados entre brasileiros de ascendência norte-italiana, localizados em todo o Sul e Sudeste do Brasil. Há também a significativa presença em comunidades de origem polonesa e ucraniana, sobretudo no Paraná, além de uma minoria de origem portuguesa com cabelos claros, sobretudo aqueles de ascendência galaico-portuguesa.
Nel mio sito si può leggere a proposito delle migrazioni dalla Galizia polacca quanto segue:
febbre brasiliana - In totale, diverse centinaia di migliaia di persone furono coinvolte in questa "grande emigrazione economica", che crebbe stabilmente di intensità fino allo scoppio della I guerra mondiale nel 1914. La guerra pose un arresto temporaneo all'emigrazione, che non raggiunse più le proporzioni del passato. La "grande emigrazione economica", in particolare quella verso il Brasile, la "Febbre brasiliana" come venne chiamata all'epoca, venne descritta nelle opere letterarie dell'epoca della poetessa polacca Maria Konopnicka (Suwalki 1842 - Leopoli 1910), dello scrittore ucraino Ivan Franko (Nahujewice 1856 - Leopoli 1916), e di molti altri.
conclusioni
Visto ciò che si afferma a proposito dei biondi in Portogallo e in Brasile e vista la Febbre Brasiliana insorta in Galizia polacca, credo più verosimile che galego = loiro sia da attribuire anche, se non di più, ai Galegos polacchi e ucraini.
Mi faccia sapere. Magari di proporre un'aggiunta al Novo Dicionário Aurélio da Língua Portuguesa.
Cordiali saluti.
12 novembre 2008
Buonasera, carissimo Elio.
Ho letto con molto interesse la sua e-mail e faccio soltanto questo commento: l'arrivo di polacchi e, soprattutto, di ucraini in Brasile è assolutamente irrilevante. Secondo la mia esperienza, di persone bionde ce ne sono un po' dappertutto e l'origine è (per numero di appartenenti) tedesca, italiana, ucraina e, infine, polacca.
Cordiali
saluti,
Claudio Pompermaier.
Stop
fine delle trasmissioni
Pigmentation
Hair and Eyes in Europe
according to the book The Races of Europe of Carleton Stevens Coon
Hair color is the pigmentation of hair follicles due to the two types of melanin, eumelanin and phaeomelanin. Generally, if more melanin is present in the hair, the color of the hair is darker, if less melanin is present, the hair color is lighter. A person's hair color may change over time due to the varying levels of melanin and some hair can have follicles of more than one color. This can be called a "callico cat." Due to migrations and global travel, considerable differences exist in the hair colors of individuals, even between individuals of similar ethnicity, creating a greatly increased diversity of hair color.
Genetics and biochemistry of hair color
There are two types of pigments that give hair its color: eumelanin and phaeomelanin. Phaeomelanin colors hair red. Eumelanin, which has two subtypes of black or brown, determines the darkness of the hair color. A low concentration of brown eumelanin in the hair results in blonde hair, whereas a higher concentration of brown eumelanin will color the hair brown. High amounts of black eumelanin results in black hair, while low concentrations of black eumelanin in the hair results in gray hair color. Although most noticeable in red-heads, all humans have varying concentrations of phaeomelanin in their hair.
Phaeomelanin is more chemically stable than black eumelanin, but less chemically stable than brown eumelanin, so it breaks down more slowly when oxidized. This is the reason bleach will cause darker hair to turn reddish-brown during the artificial coloring process. As the phaeomelanin continues to break down, the hair will gradually become orange, later yellow, and then white.
The genetics of hair colors are not yet firmly established. According to one theory, at least two gene pairs control human hair color. One gene, which is a brown/blonde pair, has a dominant brown allele and a recessive blonde allele. A person with a brown allele will have brown hair; a person with no brown alleles will be blonde. This also explains why two brown-haired parents can produce a blonde-haired child. The other gene pair is a not-red/red pair, where the not-red allele (which suppresses production of pheomelanin) is dominant and the allele for red hair is recessive. Since the two gene pairs both govern hair color, a person with two copies of the red-haired allele will have red hair, but it will be either auburn or bright reddish orange depending upon whether the first gene pair gives brown or blonde hair, respectively.
The two-gene model does not account for all possible shades of brown, blonde, or red (for example, platinum blonde versus dark blonde/light brown), nor does it explain why hair color sometimes darkens as a person ages. Several gene pairs control the light versus dark hair color in a cumulative effect. A person's genotype for a multifactorial trait can interact with environment to produce varying phenotypes (see quantitative trait locus).
Natural hair colors
Natural hair color is black, brown, blonde, or red, depending on a person's
ethnic origins. Hair color is genetically associated with certain skin tones
and eye colors.
Black hair - Black hair is the darkest and most common color of human hair. It
has large amounts of eumelanin and is less dense than other hair colors.
Brown hair - Brown hair is the second most common hair color, the most common in Europe and other parts of the world. It is characterized by higher levels of the dark pigment eumelanin and lower levels of the pale pigment phaeomelanin. Of the two types of eumelanin (black and brown), brown-haired people have brown eumelanin; they also usually have medium-thick strands of hair. Brown-haired people are also known as brunettes.
Blond hair - Blond hair ranges from nearly white (platinum blond, tow-haired) to a dark golden blond. Strawberry blond, a mixture of blond and red hair - thought to have originated in Celtic and Scandinavian countries - is a much rarer type containing the most amounts of phaeomelanin. Blond hair can have almost any proportions of phaeomelanin and eumelanin, but both only in small amounts. More phaeomelanin creates a more golden blond color, and more eumelanin creates an ash blond. Blond hair is common in many European peoples, but rare among others. Many children born with blonde hair may develop darker hair as they age.
Auburn hair - Auburn hair ranges from light to reddish brown. The chemicals which cause auburn hair are brown eumelanin and phaeomelanin. It is most commonly found in individuals of European descent.
Red hair - Red hair ranges from vivid strawberry shades to deep auburn and burgundy, and is the rarest fully distinct hair color on earth. It is caused by a variation in the Mc1r gene and believed to be recessive. Red hair has the highest amounts of phaeomelanin and usually low levels of eumelanin.
Grey and white hair - Grey hair color typically occurs naturally as people age (see "Effects of aging on hair color", below). For some people this can happen at a very young age (ie: at the age of 10). The same can be said for white hair. In some cases, grey hair may instead be caused by a deficiency of B12 or a thyroid imbalance.
Effects of aging on hair color
Children born with a certain color may find that it gradually darkens as they grow. Many blond, strawberry blond, light brown, or red haired infants experience this. A change in hair color typically occurs naturally as people age, usually turning their hair to gray and then white. More than 40 percent of Americans have some gray hair by age 40, but white hairs can appear as early as childhood. The age at which graying begins seems to be almost entirely based on genetics. Sometimes people are born with gray hair because they inherit the trait genetically.
Two genes appear to be responsible for the process of graying, Bcl2 and Bcl-w. The change in hair color is caused when melanin ceases to be produced in the hair root and new hairs grow in without pigment. The stem cells at the base of hair follicles are responsible for producing melanocytes, the cells that produce and store pigment in hair and skin. The death of the melanocyte stem cells causes the onset of graying.
Other medical conditions affecting hair color
Albinism is a genetic abnormality in which little pigment is found in human hair, eyes or skin. This results in gray, blue, or red eyes. The skin is pale and the hair is white or pale blond. Vitiligo is a patchy loss of hair and skin color that may occur as the result of an auto-immune disease. Malnutrition is also known to cause hair to become lighter, thinner, and more brittle. Dark hair may thus turn reddish or blondish due to the decreased production of melanin. The condition is reversible with proper nutrition.
Werner syndrome and pernicious anemia can also cause premature graying. A recent study demonstrated that people 50-70 years of age with dark eyebrows but gray hair are significantly more likely to have type II diabetes than those with both gray eyebrows and hair.
Artificial factors affecting hair color
A 1996 British Medical Journal study conducted by J.G. Mosley, MD found that tobacco smoking may cause premature graying. Smokers were found to be four times more likely to begin graying prematurely, compared to nonsmokers in the study.
Gray hair may temporarily darken after inflammatory processes, after electron-beam-induced alopecia, and after some chemotherapy regimens. Much remains to be learned about the physiology of human graying.
There are no special diets, nutritional supplements, vitamins, nor proteins that have been proven to slow, stop, or in any way affect the graying process, although many have been marketed over the years. This may change in the near future. French scientists treating leukemia patients with a new cancer drug noted an unexpected side effect: some of the patients' hair color was restored to their pre-gray color.
Changes in hair color after death
The hair color of mummies or buried bodies can change over large time periods. Hair contains a mixture of black-brown-yellow eumelanin and red pheomelanin. Eumelanin is less chemically stable than pheomelanin and breaks down faster when oxidized. It is for this reason that Egyptian mummies have reddish hair. The color of hair changes faster under extreme conditions. It changes more slowly under dry oxidizing conditions (such as in burials in sand or in ice) than under wet reducing conditions (such as burials in wood or plaster coffins).
Hair coloring
The process of changing a person's hair color can be done by a chemical process known as hair coloring. Hair coloring can be permanent or temporary and the lasting effects are determined, in part, by the texture of the individual's hair. The use of chemical lighteners, such as bleach, is one way hair is lightened or "highlighted". This type of hair coloring is always permanent because it involves the removal of natural pigment, which never returns. Semi-permanent hair color can darken or change the tonal value of the hair, but cannot lighten the hair and can usually be completely washed away after several shampoos. Semi-permanent hair color is only a deposit of hair color. This hair color is used to darken natural hair color. "Rinses" are a form of temporary hair color that are usually applied to hair during a shampoo. Their effects usually only last until the hair is shampooed or rinsed. Permanent hair color is probably the most-utilized because of its ability to affect the hair in level (lightness or darkness) as well as tone, but it comes with a unique set of potential problems, such as the need to frequently re-apply, unwanted fading and hot roots.
Disappearing blonde gene is a hoax that has periodically surfaced in the media since 1865, with the most recent version starting in 2002. According to this hoax, the World Health Organization, or other experts, published a report claiming that people with blond hair "will become extinct by 2202." The report was a hoax. Neither the WHO, nor any reputable expert has issued such a report.
Science
Some have argued that the percentage (if not the absolute number) of outwardly blond-haired persons may shrink. However, unless blondness is positively selected against, it cannot become extinct, and the blond gene, or alleles for the trait cannot disappear by simple breeding. The extinction claim is based on recessiveness in genetics. To show (or express) the effect of a recessive allele (a form of a gene, e.g. there is an allele each type of eye color), such as the phenotype for blondness, a person must inherit the blond allele from both parents. The recessive allele inherited from only one parent is masked by a dominant allele, and not expressed. A good example of this is the allele for brown eyes 'masking' the allele for blue eyes. However, a recessive allele can be passed on to children, a child may be blond even if both parents are non-blond, so long as both parents pass on the recessive blond allele. Unless a gene is associated with a disadvantage to survival or reproduction, there can be numerous different alleles, each continually to be passed on to future generations and occasionally expressed.
Under assumptions of the Hardy-Weinberg principle, the frequency of the gene
alleles in the population will remain constant. However, the frequency of
expression (which means the actual ratio of individuals with visible blond
hair) will decrease as the population high in the blond recessive gene that
was previously relatively isolated is masked by the dominance relationship of
the much larger number of non-blond potential mating partners. In short, it is
unlikely as each generation passes that subsequent blonds will find and mate
with other blonds or those carrying the recessive gene for blond hair, thus
the ratio of expressed blonds in the population will further decrease with
each generation.
In the media
A number of news agencies, such as Canadian Press and BBC News took the bait. In 2002 the BBC News (and others) reported that unnamed German scientists had concluded that the natural distribution of fair hair would cease within the span of 200 years, due to the genes associated with fair hair being recessive; only a select number of people from Finland will have naturally blond hair. The article stated that there is a reportedly low number of people carrying the recessive blond allele, especially in nations of mixed heritage (examples: USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia). The dominant alleles (brown hair, black hair, brown eyes) 'overthrow' the recessive genes or metaphorically, endanger them. Subsequently the study was attributed to the World Health Organization.
In October 2002 the New York Times reported that the World Health Organization had no knowledge of this study. The WHO has since officially confirmed that the story is a fake. Causing some stir in media and blogs, including angry feminist protests and numerous rebuttals from scientists, the hoax naturally died out, only to resurface in 2006 in The Sunday Times and La Repubblica: "According to the WHO study, the last natural blond is likely to be born in Finland during 2202." It once again traveled quickly across the World Wide Web. The hoax has also been featured on the "Threat-Down" segment of the satirical television show The Colbert Report on March 6, 2006, where Stephen Colbert suggested a selective breeding program to save blonds.
La desaparición del gen rubio fue un engaño que alcanzó un gran éxito en 2002. Según esta broma la OMS (u otros expertos) habían publicado un informe en el que se afirmaba que el pelo rubio estaba a punto de extinguirse.
Agencias de noticias respetables como Canadian Press o BBC News mordieron el anzuelo. En 2002 BBC News (y otros) informaron acerca de que científicos alemanes no mencionados decían que la distribución natural del pelo rubio cesaría en el plazo de 200 años debido a que los genes asociados con el pelo rubio eran recesivos; solamente un selecto grupo de gente de Finlandia tendría pelo rubio natural. El artículo además indicaba que había un escaso número de personas que portaran el gen recesivo, especialmente en zonas de herencia mezclada como EE. UU., Canadá, Nueva Zelanda o Australia. Los genes dominantes (pelo castaño, pelo negro, ojos marrones) «derrotan» a los genes recesivos o, metafóricamente, los ponen en peligro. El estudio fue atribuido posteriormente a la Organización Mundial de la Salud. Entonces, en octubre de 2002, el New York Times informó de que la Organización Mundial de la Salud no tenía conocimiento acerca de este estudio. La OMS viene confirmando desde entonces que la historia es un engaño.
Causando algún revuelo en los medios de comunicación y blogs, incluyendo algunas protestas airadas de feministas la broma fue muriendo de forma natural sólo para reaparecer en 2006 en Sunday Times[4] y La Repubblica «De acuerdo con la OMS la última rubia probablemente nacerá en Finlandia durante el 2202». Viajó de nuevo rápidamente a través de la World Wide Web. Incluso hubo un programa satírico estadounidense, The Colbert Report, en donde se hizo mención a la broma sugiriendo un programa de crianza selectiva para salvar a las rubias. En 2007, el diario Clarín de Argentina volvió a publicar una nota sobre el tema, así como la edición online del diario La Tercera de Chile.
En cualquier caso la hipótesis está basada en una mala comprensión del concepto de «gen recesivo». A menos que el gen se asocie a una desventaja en la supervivencia o en la reproducción, continuará pasando a las futuras generaciones. Aunque las mezclas raciales puedan conducir a una proporción más reducida de individuos en los cuales se expresa el rasgo rubio (es decir, de quienes heredan el gen de ambos padres), esto en sí mismo no reduce el predominio del gen.
El color del pelo es el resultado de la pigmentación debida a la presencia de las sustancias químicas denominadas eumelanina y feomelanina. En general, cuanto más melanina se presenta, más oscuro es el color del pelo; cuanto menos melanina, más claro. El pelo negro predomina fuera de Europa. El color de pelo de una persona puede también cambiar con el tiempo y puede presentar pelo de distinto color a la vez. Existen considerables diferencias en color y textura entre individuos del mismo origen étnico. La globalización, con los movimientos migratorios y viajes masivos han incrementado en gran medida la diversidad de características del pelo en la mayor parte de los países del mundo.
Genética y bioquímica del color del pelo
Hay dos tipos (tres subtipos) de pigmentos que dan al al pelo su color: eumelanina y feomelanina. La eumelanina es negra y marrón mientras la feomelanina es roja. El aumento de eumelanina en el pelo determina su oscuridad. Una baja concentración de eumelanina marrón en el pelo le hará ser rubio, mientras que más eumelanina marrón le dará un color marrón (también llamado color castaño). Mucha mayor cantidad de eumelanina negra resultará en pelo negro, y una baja concentración de eumelanina negra en el pelo lo convertirá en gris. Todos los humanos tienen feomelanina en su pelo. La feomelanina es más químicamente estable que la eumelanina negra, pero menos estable químicamente que la eumelanina marrón, que se degrada más lentamente cuando se oxida. Esta es la razón de que la lejía cause que el pelo oscuro se vuelva marrón rojizo durante el proceso de teñido artificial. Mientras la feomelanina continúa degradándose, el pelo se vuelve gradualmente color naranja, después amarillo y por último blanco.
La genética del color del pelo todavía no se ha establecido con total certidumbre. De acuerdo con la teoría más extendida y popular, al menos dos pares de genes controlan el color del pelo humano. Un gen, que es un par "marrón/rubio", tiene un alelo marrón dominante y un alelo rubio recesivo. Una persona con un alelo marrón tendrá pelo marrón; una persona sin alelos marrones será rubia. Esto explica porqué dos padres, ambos de pelo marrón, pueden tener un hijo rubio.
El otro par de genes es un par "no-rojo/rojo", en que el alelo no-rojo (que suprime la producción de feomelanina) es dominante y el alelo rojo es recesivo. Como quiera que los dos pares de genes gobiernan el color del pelo, una persona con dos copias del alelo rojo será pelirrojo, pero podrá ser o castaño-rojizo o de un color rojo-naranja brillante, dependiendo de si el primer par de genes le hace ser castaño o rubio, respectivamente.
El modelo de dos genes no desciende a explicar todas las posibles gamas de marrón, rubio o rojo (por ejemplo, el rubio platino frente al rubio oscuro o castaño claro), ni explica por qué el color en algunos casos se oscurece con la edad. Algunos pares de genes controlan el color oscuro frente al claro en un efecto acumulativo. Por tanto, cuanto más dominantes sean éstos, más oscuro será el pelo.
Colores naturales de pelo
El color natural de pelo es negro, marrón, rubio o rojo. Esta es una de las características étnicas físicas más visibles en los seres humanos. El color negro es el más común. El color del pelo está genéticamente asociado con el color de la piel y el color de los ojos. El pelo rubio y rojo se asocia con más frecuencia que el negro con enfermedades como el cáncer de piel y características genéticas como el albinismo.
Pelo negro - El pelo negro es el color más oscuro y común en los seres humanos. El pelo negro se puede encontrar en personas de cualquier etnia. Tiene más eumelanina y es menos denso que el pelo de otros colores. Puede ser café muy oscuro o completamente negro. El pelo negro es conocido por ser el más brillante a comparación del resto de los colores.
Pelo castaño - El pelo castaño es el segundo color de pelo más comun (después del negro) y tambien se encuentra en todo el mundo (principalmente en Europa, Occidente, Africa o en algunos nativos americanos). Se caracteriza por altos niveles de pigmentación oscura (eumelanina) y bajos niveles del pigmento palido (feomelanina). De los dos tipos de eumelanina (negra y marrón), las personas castañas tienen eumelanina marrón. las personas castañas generalmente tiene el pelo de espesor medio y su color de piel y de ojos abarca un amplio rango. Aunque no es muy comun, a un hombre castaño se le puede llamar "moreno" y a una mujer castaña se la puede llamar "morena". A menudo el cabello castaño se confunde con el moreno. Sin embargo, si nos fijamos de cerca, se ve claramente una tonalidad marrón.
Pelo rubio - El pelo rubio es un fenotipo humano relativamente escaso, debido a su asociación con genes recesivos. Se halla en un 2% de la población humana aproximadamente.
Pelo gris - El pelo gris es un color que se da naturalmente cuando la gente envejece. (Ver "Efectos de la edad en el color del pelo", abajo). En algunos casos, el color gris tambien puede ser causado por una deficiencia de B12 o descompensación de las tiroides.
Efectos de la edad en el color del pelo
Un cambio de color en el cabello ocurrre generalmente a medida que la gente envejece, generalmente cambiando el color del pelo natural a gris y luego a blanco. Más del 40% de los habitantes de Estados Unidos tienen el pelo grisaceo al cumplir los cuarenta, pero pueden aparecer pelos blancos incluso en la infancia. La edad a la que el cabello comienza a ponerse gris parece que está basada casi por completo en la genetica. A veces se puede nacer con algo de cabello gris porque se pasa geneticamte. Algunso usan tintes para enmascarar su pelo gris. El cambio en el color del pelo es causado por un descenso de la pigmentación que ocurre cuando la melanina deja de producirse en las raices y los nuevos pelos crecen sin pigmento. Dos genes parecen ser los responsables de esto, el Bcl2 y Mitf. Las células del tallo en la base de los fóliculos del pelo son las encargadas de producir melanocitos, que son las células que producen y almacenan pigmentos en el pelo y en la piel. La desaparición de estas células son el comienzo de que el pelo comience a volverse gris.
Otras condiciones médicas que afectan el color del pelo
El albinismo es una anomalía genética en la cual no se tienen pigmentos en el pelo, los ojos o la piel. Esto da como resultado ojos de color gris, azul o rojos, piel pálida y cabello blanco o rubio pálido. El vitíligo es una pérdida irregular del color del cabello y de la piel que puede ocurrir como resultado de una enfermedad autoinmune. La malnutrición es otra de las causas por las que el pelo se puede volver mas luminoso, mas fino y mas quebradizo. El cabello oscuro se puede volver asi rojizo debido a un descenso en la producción de melanina. Esta condición es reversible con unas condiciones apropiadas de nutición. El síndrome de Werner y la anemia perniciosa pueden tambien causar el encanosamiento del cabello prematuramente. Un reciente estudio demostró que las personas entre 50-70 años con cejas oscuras pero cabello gris son más dadas a tener diabetes de tipo II que aquellas que tienen tanto las cejas como el cabello gris.
Cambio del color del pelo tras la muerte
El color de pelo de las momias o de cuerpos enterrados puede cambiar a lo largo de grandes periodos de tiempo. El pelo contiene una mezcla de eumelanina negra-marrón-amarilla y pheomelanina roja. La eumelanina es quimicamente menos estable que la pheomelanina y se rompe más rápido cuando se oxida. Es por esta razón por la que las momias egipcias tienen el pelo rojo. El color del pelo cambia más rápido bajo condiciones extremas. Cambia más lentamente bajo condiciones secas de oxidación (como entierros en arena o bajo el hielo) que bajo condiciones húmedas de reducción (como entierros en féretros de madera o yeso).
Variazione delle frequenze geniche
Si veda Summa Gallicana In una data popolazione, le frequenze
geniche possono modificarsi o meno nel tempo. La descrizione di come una
frequenza genica possa restare costante, se la selezione naturale e fattori
casuali non agiscono, viene data dalla legge di Hardy-Weinberg, una relazione
matematica formulata indipendentemente nel 1908 dal matematico britannico
Godfrey Harold Hardy (Cranleigh 1877 - Cambridge 1947). e dal medico tedesco
Wilhelm Weinberg (Stoccarda 1862 – Tubinga 1837). Se però agiscono le forze
selettive, le frequenze geniche sono destinate a modificarsi. Ad esempio, la
frequenza del gene per l’anemia falciforme è diminuita nelle popolazioni
africane che si sono spostate in zone non-malariche nordamericane. Utilizzando
le leggi matematiche della genetica di popolazione, è possibile prevedere
l’esatto tasso di decremento a partire dal tasso di mortalità degli
individui che possiedono due copie del gene in questione.
La legge di Hardy-Weinberg
Legge fondamentale della genetica delle popolazioni che consente di prevedere l'incidenza di certi caratteri in una popolazione. Questa legge stabilisce che in una popolazione panmittica (cioè in cui gli accoppiamenti avvengono casualmente) sufficientemente ampia – nella quale emigrazione e immigrazione siano bilanciate o assenti, la selezione naturale inoperante e il tasso di mutazione trascurabile – le frequenze relative di una coppia di alleli tendono a rimanere costanti di generazione in generazione e a seguire una distribuzione binomiale. Una popolazione dotata delle caratteristiche summenzionate è ideale in quanto esistono sempre forze che tendono a far variare le frequenze geniche. Ciononostante, ammesse tali semplificazioni, è possibile studiare i principi basilari che governano le frequenze geniche e successivamente chiarire l'influenza delle varie forze (mutazione, selezione, ecc.) su tale equilibrio. (Enciclopedia De Agostini – 1995)
La legge di Hardy-Weinberg descrive, mediante alcune relazioni algebriche, come in una popolazione la frequenza dei differenti geni non si modifichi nel tempo. In particolare, le equazioni algebriche esprimono con quale frequenza determinati alleli compaiano in una popolazione e con quale frequenza in quella stessa popolazione compaiano certi genotipi. Attraverso lo studio delle frequenze alleliche e genotipiche, i genetisti possono determinare quali raggruppamenti di individui stiano cambiando da un punto di vista genetico, cioè quali siano in fase di evoluzione; essi possono anche prevedere l’incidenza di difetti genetici. (Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006)
Frequenze genotipiche attese ed effettive
Le frequenze alleliche di una popolazione possono essere utilizzate per prevedere con quale frequenza i diversi genotipi compaiono in quella stessa popolazione. Considerando che per un determinato gene esistano due alleli, A dominante e a recessivo, i genotipi possibili che derivano dalla combinazione di questi alleli sono tre: AA, Aa e aa. Chiamando p la frequenza dell’allele A e q la frequenza dell’allele a, si ottiene secondo le equazioni di Hardy-Weinberg:
frequenza di AA = p x p = p2
frequenza di Aa = 2 x p x q = 2pq
frequenza di aa = q x q = q2
Se la frequenza dell’allele A in una popolazione è pari a 0,60, allora la frequenza attesa degli individui con genotipo AA è pari a 0,36. La frequenza effettiva di un genotipo in una popolazione si ottiene invece dividendo il numero degli individui caratterizzati da quel genotipo per il numero degli individui che formano la popolazione. Per esempio, se il genotipo AA si presenta in 33 organismi in un gruppo di 100 individui, la frequenza genotipica effettiva di AA risulta: 33/100 = 0,33.
Equilibrio di Hardy-Weinberg
Gli scienziati che studiano la genetica di popolazione paragonano la frequenza attesa di un determinato genotipo in una popolazione con la sua frequenza effettiva, allo scopo di determinare se quella popolazione è in una fase di equilibrio o si sta evolvendo. Secondo la legge di Hardy-Weinberg, una popolazione è in equilibrio se vale la relazione:
p + q = 1
in cui, considerando un gene A, p è la frequenza dell’allele dominante A e q è la frequenza dell’allele recessivo a. L’equilibrio si verifica quando sono soddisfatte le seguenti condizioni: la popolazione è isolata, cioè non vi sono fenomeni di emigrazione o di immigrazione di individui; l’accoppiamento tra i membri della popolazione avviene in modo casuale; le probabilità di riproduzione e sopravvivenza sono equivalenti in tutti gli individui; non si verificano mutazioni; la popolazione è molto numerosa.
Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006
The Hardy–Weinberg principle states that both allele and genotype frequencies in a population remain constant or are in equilibrium from generation to generation unless specific disturbing influences are introduced. Those disturbing influences include non-random mating, mutations, selection, limited population size, random genetic drift and gene flow. Genetic equilibrium is a basic principle of population genetics.
The Hardy-Weinberg principle is like a Punnett square for populations, instead of individuals. A Punnett square can predict the probability of offspring's genotype based on parents' genotype or the offsprings' genotype can be used to reveal the parents' genotype. Likewise, the Hardy-Weinberg principle can be used to calculate the frequency of particular alleles based on frequency of, say, an autosomal recessive disease.
In the simplest case of a single locus with two alleles: the dominant allele is denoted A and the recessive a and their frequencies are denoted by p and q; freq(A)=p; freq(a)=q; p + q = 1. If the population is in equilibrium, then we will have freq(AA)=p2 for the AA homozygotes in the population, freq(aa)=q2 for the aa homozygotes, and freq(Aa)=2pq for the heterozygotes.
Based on these equations, we can determine useful but difficult-to-measure facts about a population. For example, a patient's child is a carrier of a recessive mutation that causes cystic fibrosis in homozygous recessive children. The parent wants to know the probability of her grandchildren inheriting the disease. In order to answer this question, the genetic counselor must know the chance that the child will reproduce with a carrier of the recessive mutation. This fact may not be known, but disease frequency is known. We know that the disease is caused by the homozygous recessive genotype; we can use the Hardy-Weinberg principle to work backward from disease occurrence to the frequency of heterozygous recessive individuals. This concept is also known by a variety of names: HWP, Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium, HWE, or Hardy–Weinberg law. It was named after Godfrey Harold Hardy and Wilhelm Weinberg.
Mendelian genetics were rediscovered in 1900. However, it remained somewhat controversial for several years as it was not then known how it could cause continuous characteristics. Udny Yule (1902) argued against Mendelism because he thought that dominant alleles would increase in the population. The American William E. Castle (1903) showed that without selection, the genotype frequencies would remain stable. Karl Pearson (1903) found one equilibrium position with values of p = q = 0.5. Reginald Punnett, unable to counter Yule's point, introduced the problem to G. H. Hardy, a British mathematician, with whom he played cricket. Hardy was a pure mathematician and held applied mathematics in some contempt; his view of biologists' use of mathematics comes across in his 1908 paper where he describes this as "very simple".
"To the Editor of Science: I am reluctant to intrude in a discussion concerning matters of which I have no expert knowledge, and I should have expected the very simple point which I wish to make to have been familiar to biologists. However, some remarks of Mr. Udny Yule, to which Mr. R. C. Punnett has called my attention, suggest that it may still be worth making...Suppose that Aa is a pair of Mendelian characters, A being dominant, and that in any given generation the number of pure dominants (AA), heterozygotes (Aa), and pure recessives (aa) are as p:2q:r. Finally, suppose that the numbers are fairly large, so that mating may be regarded as random, that the sexes are evenly distributed among the three varieties, and that all are equally fertile. A little mathematics of the multiplication-table type is enough to show that in the next generation the numbers will be as (p+q)2:2(p+q)(q+r):(q+r)2, or as p1:2q1:r1, say. The interesting question is — in what circumstances will this distribution be the same as that in the generation before? It is easy to see that the condition for this is q2 = pr. And since q12 = p1r1, whatever the values of p, q, and r may be, the distribution will in any case continue unchanged after the second generation."
The principle was thus known as Hardy's law in the English-speaking world until Curt Stern (1943) pointed out that it had first been formulated independently in 1908 by the German physician Wilhelm Weinberg (see Crow 1999). Others have tried to associate Castle's name with the Law because of his work in 1903, but it is only rarely seen as the Hardy-Weinberg-Castle Law.
I capelli biondi si trovano nelle persone che hanno uno scarso livello di un pigmento scuro chiamato eumelanina per presenza di feomelanina. Eumelanina deriva dal greco eû = bene, nel senso di buono + melanós = nero, si tratta della vera melanina; si presenta nera o marrone scuro. Feomelanina, o melanina bruna, dal greco faiós = bruno, è quella fulva, gialla, rossa, marrone chiaro, mogano. I capelli biondi posseggono molteplici variazioni di tonalità, dal biondo platino al biondo rossiccio fino al biondo scuro tendente al castano.
La parola biondo è attestata nella lingua inglese dal 1481 e deriva dalla parola in francese antico blont. Altre fonti suggeriscono un'origine latina della parola che deriverebbe da blundus, una pronuncia in latino volgare della parola flavus (biondo).
I capelli biondi hanno la loro massima diffusione nel Nord Europa. Generalmente i capelli biondi sono associati al colore chiaro degli occhi (azzurri, verdi, grigi). Si registrano alte percentuali di capelli biondi anche fra gli Aborigeni dell'Australia, in particolare nelle zone desertiche e isolate dell'Australia centrale e occidentale.
Percentuale dei capelli biondi nelle regioni italiane - Renato Biasutti
Renato Biasutti - Geografo ed etnologo (San Daniele del Friuli 1878 - Firenze 1965). Ordinario di geografia alle università di Napoli e Firenze, fu in particolare uno specialista di geografia antropica. La sua attività scientifica si volse sia alla ricerca geografica in tutti i suoi settori, sia ai problemi antropologici attinenti alla morfologia, alle origini e alle migrazioni delle differenti razze umane, elaborando una classificazione unitaria dei gruppi umani viventi. Fin da giovane conobbe l'opera dell'antropogeografo tedesco Friedrich Ratzel (Karlsruhe 1844 - Ammerland 1904), il cui pensiero ebbe un peso determinante in tutta la produzione scientifica di Biasutti: questi, infatti, come il Ratzel, sostenne la teoria delle migrazioni per giustificare certi parallelismi tra popoli lontani nel tempo e nello spazio. Portò anche un contributo fondamentale all'indagine delle forme di abitazione rurale in Italia. Tra le opere principali: Pastori, agricoltori e cacciatori nell'Africa orientale interna, a mezzogiorno dell'Etiopia (1905), Le “salse” dell'Appennino Settentrionale (1907), La casa rurale nella Toscana (1938), Il paesaggio terrestre (1947), Le razze e i popoli della Terra (1967; in collaborazione con altri).
In Italia i capelli biondi sono diffusi particolarmente su tutto l'Arco alpino e in maniera più tenue sull'Arco appenninico. Secondo il Rapporto Livi, basato sullo spoglio dei fogli sanitari dei militari delle classi di leva 1859-63, alla metà del XIX secolo le regioni con una maggior percentuale di capelli biondi erano: Trentino Alto Adige, Friuli, Veneto, Valle d'Aosta, Piemonte, Lombardia, Toscana e Umbria.
I capelli biondi sono inoltre diffusi in certe zone del Medio Oriente come l'Iran e Azerbaijan e del Nord-Africa, in particolare nelle popolazioni berbere di Marocco e Algeria settentrionale. Sporadicamente i capelli biondi appaiono in India e in Afghanistan soprattutto in alcune popolazioni nomadi, come ad esempio i Pashtun e i Kalash.
Blond (also spelled blonde, see below) or fair-haired is a hair color characterized by low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin. The resultant visible hue depends on various factors, but always has some sort of yellowish color, going from the very pale blond caused by a patchy, scarce distribution of pigment, to reddish "strawberry" blond colors or golden-brownish blond colors, the latter with more eumelanin.
Etymology, spelling, and grammar.
The word blond was first attested in English in 1481 and derives from Old French blont and meant a "colour midway between golden and light chestnut". It largely replaced the native term fair, from Old English fæger. The French (and thus also the English) word blonde has two possible origins. Some linguists say it comes from Middle Latin blundus, meaning yellow, from Old Frankish *blund which would relate it to Old English blonden-feax meaning grey-haired, from blondan/blandan meaning to mix. Also, Old English beblonden meant dyed as ancient Germanic warriors were noted for dying their hair. However, other linguists who desire a Latin origin for the word say that Middle Latin blundus was a vulgar pronunciation of Latin flavus, also meaning yellow. Most authorities, especially French, attest the Frankish origin. The word was reintroduced into English in the 17th century from French, and was for some time considered French, hence blonde for females/noun and blond for males/adjective.
Some writers of English may continue to distinguish between the masculine blond and the feminine blonde and, as such, it is one of the few adjectives in English with separate masculine and feminine forms. However, many writers use only one of the spellings without regard to gender, and without a clear majority usage one way or another. The word is also often used as a noun to refer to a woman with blonde hair, but some speakers see this usage as sexist and reject it. (Another hair color word of French origin, brunet(te), also functions in the same way in orthodox English.) The word is also occasionally used, with either spelling, to refer to objects that have a color reminiscent of fair hair. Examples include pale wood and lager beer.
Varieties
Many sub-categories of blond hair have also been invented to describe someone
with blond hair more accurately. Common examples include the following:
blond / flaxen – when distinguished from other varieties, "blond"
by itself refers to a light but not whitish blond with no traces of red, gold,
or brown. This color is often described as "flaxen".
Yellow – yellow-blond ("yellow" can also be used to refer to hair which has been dyed yellow).
Platinum blond / towheaded – white-blond; found naturally almost exclusively in children. "Platinum blond" is often used to describe dyed hair, while "towheaded" is generally left to natural hair color.
Sandy blond – greyish-brownish blond.
Golden blond – rich, golden blond.
Strawberry blond / Venetian blond – light reddish blond.
Dirty blond / dishwater blond – light blond and sandy blond mixed together in stripes (occurs naturally)
Ash-blond – light sandy blond.
Bleached blond / peroxide blond – artificial blond slightly less white than platinum blond.
Some less frequently used categories include:
sunny blond - very bright, ranging from almost yellow to light yellow
zebra blond - streaked blonde and brunette
pool blond - blonde tinted with green due to exposure to copper in swimming
pools. There are many terms for this form of blonde
honey blond - blonde with a honey-colored tint. It can be dark blonde or light
blonde.
Origins
Lighter hair colors occur naturally in Europeans, and less frequently in other ethnicities. In certain European populations, the occurrence of blonde hair is very frequent. The hair color gene MC1R has at least seven variants in Europe and the continent has an unusually wide range of hair and eye shades. Based on recent genetic information carried out at three Japanese universities, the date of the genetic mutation that resulted in blonde hair in Europe has been isolated to about 11,000 years ago during the last Ice Age. Before then, Europeans mostly had darker hair and eyes, which is predominant in the rest of the world.
There is no consensus, but many theories, as to why certain populations in Europe had a high incidences of blonde hair. Some say that if the changes had occurred by natural selection, they would have taken about 850,000 years, but modern humans, emigrating from Africa, reached Europe only 35,000-40,000 years ago.
Other theories suggest a different form of selection: that early men simply found blonde hair more attractive. Canadian anthropologist Peter Frost, under the aegis of University of St Andrews, published a study in March 2006 in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior that says blonde hair evolved very quickly at the end of the last Ice Age by means of sexual selection. According to the study, the appearance of blonde hair and blue eyes in some northern European women made them stand out from their rivals at a time of fierce competition for males made scarce due to long, arduous hunting trips; this hypothesis argues that women with blonde hair posed an alternative that helped them mate and thus increased the number of blonds.
Another reason men may have preferred blonde women is that light hair color is a marker of youth - since many Caucasian children have blonde hair but it darkens as they mature, blonde girls or women would appear younger and therefore, more fertile.
A theory propounded in The History and Geography of Human Genes (1994), says blonde hair became predominant in Europe in about 3000 BC, in the area now known as Lithuania, among the recently arrived Proto-Indo-European settlers, and the trait spread quickly through sexual selection into Scandinavia. As above, the theory assumes that men found women with blonde hair more attractive. In 2002, the Disappearing blonde gene hoax cited WHO as the source of a "scientific study" predicting blonds were eventually going to become extinct.
Geographic distribution
Canadian anthropologist Peter Frost's map of blonde hair. In the lightest yellow area, blonde hair is the most common (80 per cent or more of the native population). The darker the colour, the fewer blondes. In the black area, there are practically no blondes. This short article can be made longer. Light hair map of modern Europe and surroundings. Yellow: >80%, light orange: 50-79%, light brown: 20-49%, dark brown: 1-19%.
Blonde hair is at the highest frequency among the indigenous peoples of Northern Europe. Due to vast movements of peoples from the 16th to the 20th centuries, blonds are also found in the Americas, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Generally, blonde hair in Europeans is associated with paler eye color (gray, blue, and green) and pale (sometimes freckled) skin tone. Strong sunlight also lightens hair of any pigmentation, to varying degrees, and causes many blonde people to freckle, especially during childhood.
In Caucasus there is a relatively high frequency of blondes, mostly to be found in Georgia, Chechnya, Azerbaijan, and Armenia[who?]. In Central, western Asia (the Middle east) and South Asia there are higher frequency of Blonds still found among some ethnic populations. There are high frequencies of Blonds amongst the northern populations of Pakistan (Kalash, Hunza, Pakhtun, Kashmiri). In Afghanistan blondes are also found in the Pashtuns and Nuristani people (up to one third of the Nuristani). There is also a high frequency in Turkey (especially in Northern and Western (European) parts of the country), northern and western parts Iran (amongst the Lurs, Kurds, Gilakis, Persians, and Azeris). The Levant (Israel (especially among the Ashkenazim), Western Syria, Palestine and Lebanon) have a high frequency of blonds as well. In North Africa, blonds are found in Morocco, Tunisia and northern Algeria among the Berbers.
Aboriginal Australians, especially in the west-central parts of the continent, also have a fairly high instance of natural blonde-to-brown hair, with as many as 90-100% of children having blonde hair in some areas. The trait among Indigenous Australians is primarily associated with children and women and the hair turns more often to a darker brown color, rather than black, as they age. Blondness is also found in some other parts of the South Pacific such as the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Again there are higher incidences in children but here many adults too carry this indigenous blonde mutation.
Some Guanches populations, particularly the now extinct aboriginal population of Tenerife, one of the Canary islands of the African Atlantic coast, were said by 14th century Spanish explorers to exhibit blonde hair and blue eyes. Blondness was also reported among South American Indians.
Relation to age and distribution on body
Blonde hair is common in Caucasian infants and children, so much so that the term "baby blonde" is often used for very light-colored hair. Babies may be born with blonde hair even among groups where adults rarely have blonde hair, although such natal hair usually falls out quickly. Blonde hair tends to turn darker with age, and many children born blonde turn light, medium, or dark brunette before or during their teenage years.
Culturally related ideas
In Norse mythology, both the goddess Sif (wife of Thor) and the major goddess Freyja are described as blonde. In the Poetic Edda poem Rígsþula, the blonde man Jarl was considered to be the ancestor of the dominant warrior class. In Northern Europe folklore, fairies value blonde hair in humans. Blonde babies are more likely to be stolen and replaced with changelings, and young blonde women are more likely to be lured away to the land of the fairies.
In European fairy tales, blonde hair was commonly ascribed to the heroes and heroines. This may occur in the text, as in Madame d'Aulnoy's La Belle aux cheveux d'or or The Beauty with Golden Hair, or in illustrations depicting the scenes. One notable exception is Snow White who, because of her mother's wish for a child "as red as blood, as white as snow, as black as ebony," has dark hair. This tendency appears also in more formal literature; in Milton's poem Paradise Lost the noble and innocent Adam and Eve have "golden tresses", while near the end of J. R. R. Tolkien's work The Lord of the Rings, the especially favourable year following the War of the Ring was signified in the Shire by an exceptional number of blonde-haired children.
In the early-mid twentieth century, Nordicists such as Madison Grant and Alfred Rosenberg associated blonde hair with a Nordic race, which they distinguished from a larger Aryan race that included what they called the non-blonde Alpine race. During World War II, blonde hair was one of the traits used by Nazis to select Slavic children for Germanization.
In contemporary popular culture, it is often stereotyped that men find blonde women more attractive than women with other hair colors. Alfred Hitchcock preferred to cast blonde women for major roles in his films as he believed that the audience would suspect them the least, hence the term "Hitchcock blonde". Blonde jokes are a class of derogatory jokes based on a "dumb blonde" stereotype of blonde women being unintelligent, sexually promiscuous, or both. In other parts of modern culture, blonde women are often portrayed as "promiscuous", leading to the stereotype that blondes "have more fun." Jean Harlow (a natural ash blonde) and Marilyn Monroe (pale blonde as a child though her hair darkened to auburn) were notable bleached blonde sex icons of twentieth-century America, frequently portraying the stereotypical dumb blonde.
Blonde
A blonde person is someone with light coloured hair. When referring to a male, it is spelled blond without the -e. Some people are blonde because they have less pigment in their hair than dark haired people. To be blonde is usually to have blonde ancestors. Then it is genetic - blondes have genes that make them blond. Sometimes it is not genetic - this is called albinism. People can also use chemicals to make themselves blonde. Bleach is sometimes used to make the color of a persons hair lighter.
Most people are not blondes by their genes. Only some people with Caucasian ancestry are blondes by their genes, and also some Australian Aborigines have a different gene that makes them blonde. Natural blondes are most common around the Baltic Sea, especially the Nordic countries such as Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and Finland. Germany and Austria, though neither are Scandinavian countries, are also Nordic. According to recent genetic analysis, both mtDNA and Y chromosome exist in Austrians, Baltic countries, Slavic countries (especially Poland) and northwestern parts of Russia. There is also a large number of blondes in Turkic Central Asia. As well as Pakistan, especially in groups such as the Kalash.
La blondeur est l'attribut des personnes ayant des cheveux de teinte plutôt claire, « jaunes » ou dorés, blond vénitien, cendrés, platine, etc. Cette teinte se voit en grande majorité chez des Européens ou personnes d'ascendance européenne connue, mais on en trouve également sur le pourtour de la Méditerranée (Afrique du Nord, de la Turquie, du Liban, ou de la Syrie), en Asie Centrale, ou exceptionnellement dans d'autres régions du monde (cas des Aborigènes blonds d'Australie).
L'albinisme peut donner chez certaines personnes une couleur blonde aux cheveux, mais il n'est pas en jeu chez les blonds ordinaires. Les déficits nutritionnels graves chez les jeunes enfants peuvent aussi entraîner un pâlissement de la chevelure. Chez les albinos ou les personnes âgées aux cheveux entièrement dépourvus de pigment, on peut parfois observer une coloration jaune pâle due à la kératine.
La France comportait par exemple en 2003 environ:
10% de blonds;
50% de personnes aux cheveux châtain (du clair au foncé);
20% de personnes aux cheveux gris;
10% de personnes aux cheveux noirs;
5% de roux;
2,5% de bruns foncé;
2,5% de personnes aux cheveux blancs.
Les pays nordiques sont ceux où les blonds sont les plus nombreux (près de trois-quart de la population). Cela s'explique principalement par la situation géographique de ces pays et la relative homogénéité de la population. En effet, les chercheurs Nina Jablonski et George Chaplin (2000) ont montré la corrélation entre la pâleur de la peau (généralement associée chez les Européens à un déficit général en mélanine qui se traduit également au niveau des cheveux) et la faible quantité de radiations UV typique des hautes latitudes.
L'adjectif « blond » ou « blonde » s'applique également à des éléments d'origine végétale:
une bière blonde (à base de malt blond);
du tabac blond, une cigarette blonde;
les blonds épis (être « blond comme les blés»).
Symbolique
Dans la symbolique occidentale, la blondeur a plusieurs significations. La femme blonde est l'image de la mère, de la Sainte (iconographie religieuse), de la femme mariée: cette figure a dérivé vers le stéréotype de la blonde dans les fictions; alors que la femme brune représente plus souvent la maîtresse ou l'aventurière et la femme rousse la tentatrice. Chez les Québécois, on utilise le terme ma blonde, pour désigner son amoureuse, sa conjointe, son épouse, donc la femme que l'on aime.
Le blond est aussi souvent la couleur des cheveux des jeunes enfants (d'où l'expression « nos chères têtes blondes ») la blondeur des enfants a souvent tendance à évoluer avec le temps, cette évolution peut-être naturelle ou influencée par des éléments extérieurs tels que la pollution urbaine; par extension il symbolise la pureté. Les anges sont également représentés blonds dans la religion chrétienne, tout comme le Christ dont on trouve de très nombreuses représentations en blond aux yeux bleus.
La blondeur fut également envisagée comme un symbole de pureté, mais ethnique. Dans les différentes monarchies germaniques et nordiques qui furent instaurées en Europe lors de l'extension des royaumes barbares au début du moyen age, le cheveu blond et long était un signe de vigueur qui distinguait les peuples septentrionaux et occidentaux des Romains. Toutefois, chez les Romains, les cheveux blonds étaient aussi valorisés, car il n'était pas rare que les dieux soient représentés avec des cheveux blonds, bien que cette couleur soit peu fréquente dans la population latine. Dans les cultures qui descendent de ces royaumes, il subsiste des traces de cette positivité associée à la blondeur dans le langage courant. Ainsi, chez les Anglo-Saxons, le terme fair qui signifie juste ou honnête désigne aussi cette couleur de cheveux. Cette symbolique de la pureté a été utilisé dans le discours nazi sur la soi-disant supériorité de la prétendue race aryenne, construite autour de raisonnements scientifiques sur les évolutions raciales largement discrédités depuis.
De nos jours, la culture hollywoodienne et l'image d'actrice blonde donne une connotation péjorative a la blondeur. Elle symbolise la vie facile et légère, la superficialité, et ouvre la voie aux politiquement correctes 'blagues de blondes'. Cette nouvelle forme de discrimination est passée dans les mœurs.
Blond (dt.-franz. „hell“) bezeichnet einen Farbton zwischen gelblich und bräunlich, im alltäglichen Sprachgebrauch fast ausschließlich eine Haarfarbe. Etwa 2 % der Weltbevölkerung sind (im weitesten Sinne) blond (zum Vergleich: etwa 4,5 % der Weltbevölkerung sind US-Amerikaner). Frauen mit blondiertem (fälschlicherweise teilweise auch mit natürlich hellem) Haar bezeichnet man üblicherweise als Blondine, untergegangen ist das Wort Blondin für einen blonden Mann.
Arten
Farbvarianten sind aschblond, nordischblond, lichtblond, strohblond und weißblond (sehr hell, fast weiß), mittelblond (durchschnittlich blond), dunkelblond (dunkel, in Richtung braun), goldblond und weizenblond (in Richtung goldgelb), semmelblond und rotblond (in Richtung rot). Sehr hellblond (weiß) gefärbte (besser: gebleichte) Haare nennt man auch platinblond oder wasserstoffblond.
Vorkommen
Zwei blonde Männer, einer ist baltischer, der andere ist skandinavischer Herkunft.
Heutzutage sind nur noch rund zwei Prozent der Menschheit von Natur aus Blond. Blonde Menschen gibt es heute vor allem in Nord-, West-, Mittel- und Osteuropa und bei den Nachfahren europäischer Einwanderer in Amerika, Australien, Neuseeland, Südafrika und Sibirien. Sie sind aber auch in Nordafrika und in Vorderasien anzutreffen. So gibt es zum Beispiel im Libanon Bergregionen mit einem großen Anteil blonder Menschen. Auch in Marokko gibt es immer wieder blonde und blauäugige Angehörige der Berber, eventuell Nachfahren der Vandalen. Ihrerseits gaben nach Annahmen mancher Wissenschaftler diese ihr Erbgut an den Volksstamm der Guanchen auf den Kanarischen Inseln weiter. Bei rein indigener Bevölkerung findet man sie allerdings fast nur in Europa. Bei den meisten blondhaarigen Kindern verdunkelt sich die Haarfarbe im Laufe der körperlichen Entwicklung, da in der Kindheit die Produktion der Melanine häufig gesteigert wird. Diesen Prozess bezeichnet man als Nachdunkeln. Bei den Aborigines im westlichen Teil Australien, besonders im Inneren des Landes, kommen ebenfalls aufgehellte Haare vor. Vor allem Kinder und Frauen zeigen diese hellen Haare. Ein kleiner Teil der indigenen Bevölkerung in Papua-Neuguinea und den Salomonen ist jedoch auch blond. Die Menschen dort haben eine sehr dunkle Hautfarbe und blonde Haare.
Vererbung
Haarfarbe entsteht durch die Einlagerung der Farbpigmente Eumelanin und Phäomelanin. Überwiegt der Anteil an Phäomelanin das Eumelanin, führt es zu einer blonden oder rötlichen Färbung. Die endgültige Farbe wird durch die Menge an produziertem Phäomelanin (Enzymaktivität) bestimmt. Da Phäomelanin im Vergleich zu Eumelanin wesentlich schwächer färbt, ist der Anteil an Blonden gegenüber Rothaarigen größer.
Im Rahmen der Vererbungslehre ist das Allel, das für die Bildung von Phäomelanin verantwortlich ist, rezessiv gegenüber dem Allel zur Produktion von Eumelanin. Daher haben die Kinder eines blonden und eines dunkelhaarigen Elternteils meist dunklere Haare. Das „Blond-Allel“ bleibt aber auch in dunkelhaarigen Menschen mit einem blonden Elternteil vorhanden; es ist dort jedoch unterdrückt, kommt so im Erscheinungsbild der Person nicht zum Ausdruck, kann aber an die Kinder weitergegeben werden.
Kinder zweier Dunkelhaariger können also blond sein, weil bei den Eltern das Allel für blonde Haare in unterdrückter Form vorliegt und sie beide eben dieses Allel und nicht das für dunkle Haare an ihr Kind weitergeben haben.
Rückgang und Aussterben
Der Anteil der Blonden an der Weltbevölkerung geht insgesamt zurück. Das liegt einerseits an den vergleichsweise niedrigeren Geburtenraten in den Regionen, in denen heute noch hohe Anteile der Bevölkerung naturblondes Haar besitzen, und zum anderen an der voranschreitenden Vermischung der entsprechenden Allele mit denen dunkelhaariger Partner im Zuge der Vererbung in einer immer stärker globalisierten Welt (siehe oben).
Es gibt immer wieder Thesen, dass es zu einem Aussterben der blonden Haarfarbe kommen soll. Irrtümliche Extrapolationen des Rückgangs, denen zu Folge Menschen mit blondem Haar zu einem bestimmten Zeitpunkt spätestens ausgestorben sein müssten, werden seit 1865 immer wieder in den Nachrichten verbreitet; ein letzter Höhepunkt wurde im Jahr 2002 erreicht. Aus dem Prinzip der rezessiven Vererbung ist jedoch leicht ersichtlich, dass eine Durchmischung zwar dazu führt, dass das Blond-Gen seltener phänotypisch ausgeprägt wird, jedoch genotypisch erhalten bleibt. Ohne zusätzlichen Evolutionsdruck ist ein Aussterben somit unmöglich.
Kulturelle Bedeutung - Westen
In der Antike war das dem Gold entsprechende Blond die Haarfarbe der Göttinnen und Götter, der Heroen und der Herrscher. Dementsprechend war das Haar der heute marmorweißen Skulpturen oftmals gelb gefasst oder vergoldet. Den griechischen und römischen Schriftstellern galten die Germanen, Kelten, und die iranischen Völker der Skythen, Sarmaten und Alanen als typischerweise blond und blauäugig. Die Germanen handelten sogar mit abgeschnittenen blonden Haaren. Deren Käufer, meist Römer, schenkten diese Haare ihren Gattinnen, die sich damit schmückten, indem sie sie in ihre Frisur einarbeiteten. Auch in anderen, südlicheren Staaten, gab es blonde Menschen (oder sogar ganze Völker) wie die Guanchen (ehemalige Ureinwohner der Kanaren), von denen aber auch ein großer Teil dunkelhaarig war.
In der Biografie seines Vaters Christoph Kolumbus schreibt Sohn Fernando: Der Admiral war ein gut gebauter Mann von mehr als durchschnittlicher Größe, das Gesicht war lang, die Wangen hoch, sein Körper weder fett noch mager. Er hatte eine Adlernase und helle Augen, seine Gesichtsfarbe war ebenfalls hell und neigte zu heftiger Röte. In der Jugend waren seine Haare blond, aber als er 30 Jahre alt war, wurden sie alle weiß.
Im Dritten Reich wurde das Blondsein (das als typisch germanische Eigenschaft angesehen wurde) zum Kennzeichen der sogenannten Herrenrasse, die nach dem Weltbild der Nationalsozialisten eine herausgehobene Stellung unter den Menschenrassen hatte.
Stereotyp Blondine
Mit Beginn der 1930er Jahre wurde die Wahrnehmung von Blondinen durch Filmstars wie Marlene Dietrich verstärkt. In den 1950er Jahren wurde das Stereotyp der Blondine maßgeblich von Marilyn Monroe geprägt. Zu ihrem Image zählten Naivität und erotische Attraktivität. Weitere Stereoypen sind die "kühle Blonde" und das "blonde Gift", die, dem Klischee zufolge, ihre Erscheinung kalkuliert und emotional distanziert einsetzen, sowie der blonde Engel, der sich durch eine strahlende und unwirkliche Erscheinung auszeichnet. Auch können blond und schwarz die „gute“ und die „böse“ Protagonistin kennzeichnen, so wie in dem Märchen Frau Holle die "Goldmarie und Pechmarie". In "Natürlich blond" mit Reese Witherspoon wird das Thema konterkariert.
Stereotyp blonder Mann
Blonde Männer gelten häufig als introvertiert und man sagt ihnen nach, dass sie über eine beträchtliche Selbstdisziplin verfügen.
Alte amerikanische Hochkulturen
Der aztekische Gott Quetzalcoatl (meist als Federschlange dargestellt) wurde in manchen Abbildungen als weißer, blonder und bärtiger Mann gezeichnet.
Japan
Blonde Haare findet man häufig bei japanischen Manga. Diese sind jedoch weniger als natürliche Haarfarbe zu deuten, da sie häufig einen Charakterzug der jeweiligen Figur symbolisieren sollen.
El rubio (del latín «rubeus»=«rojo»; ha perdido su significado original) es un color de cabello con bajos niveles del pigmento melanina. Generalmente el cabello rubio natural se ve asociado por ojos azules, piel muy clara o blanca. Se manifiesta en toda Europa pero sólo tiene una elevada frecuencia en la Europa septentrional.
El cabello rubio es producido por un gen recesivo y para que ese color se manifieste dicho gen debe estar presente en ambos lados de la familia o en la generación de los abuelos. A veces este carácter muestra un gradiente manifiesto en ciertas regiones, por ejemplo en Italia, las frecuencias más altas estarían en Véneto y las más bajas en Cerdeña. Lo mismo sucede si bien no tan marcadamente, en algunas zonas del norte de España donde cerca del 40 por ciento de la población es rubia debido a un posible mayor poblamiento céltico o germánico. Aunque se puede asumir que la pigmentación de pelo varía exclusivamente en el tronco racial caucasoide, siendo uniformemente negra en el resto de los troncos raciales, se ha descubierto cierto grado de blondismo en aborígenes australianos que parece ser que no se relaciona con fenómenos de mestizaje.
Se trasmite como carácter recesivo. En Finlandia se encuentran las poblaciones con mayor incidencia de este carácter. La mutación o mutaciones que originaron este carácter parecen ser bastante antiguas y hay quien las remonta a neandertal hasta que luego se hibridaron con Homo sapiens. La teoría más aceptada es la de que aparecieron dos: una en el tronco racial mediterráneo caucasoide y otra en el eslavo caucasoide, distinguiendo así dos tipos de blondismo: uno más dorado, el de la raza nórdica que provendría de la mediterránea y otro más cenizo, el de la eslava. Pero esto está aún por esclarecerse. Se cree que, como el aclaramiento de la piel, pudiera deberse a una adaptación a latitudes donde incidiera menos el sol. También suele estar relacionado con el albinismo, una mutación genética donde existe una ausencia congénita de pigmentacion tanto en el pelo como en los ojos y la piel.
Loiro ou louro (do latim aureus = da cor do ouro) é uma cor que oscila entre o amarelo e o castanho-claro, encontrada no pelo de certos mamíferos, caracterizada por baixos níveis de pigmentos escuros eumelanina e altos níveis de feomelanina. Esta cor é usada sobretudo para classificar uma cor dos cabelos humanos. Do castanho-claro ao loiro claríssimo, os vários graus de loiro são encontrados naturalmente em menos de 2% da população adulta de todo o mundo.
Outros termos para pessoas louras são laurícomos e lauricápilos (do latim aureus, e capillus, cabelo), flavícomos (flavus, cor-de-fogo), fulvícomos (fulvus, amarelo) e blondícomos (blundus).
Origens
Cabelos louros ocorrem naturalmente em humanos de todas as etnias, mas em um grau tão pequeno que é difícil de ser notado na maior parte das populações. Em certas populações da Europa, a ocorrência de cabelos loiros é mais freqüente. É uma das características de alguns fenótipos nos indivíduos brancos caucasianos. Baseado em recentes estudos genéticos, é provável que humanos com cabelos louros tornaram-se mais numerosos na Europa cerca de onze mil anos atrás, durante a última Idade do Gelo.
Distribuição pelo mundo
Cabelos loiros são uma característica das populações do Norte da Europa, da Europa Central e Oriental. Além da Europa, os descendentes de europeus que se espalharam pelo mundo também podem apresentar cabelos claros, notadamente nos Estados Unidos, no Canadá, na Austrália, Nova Zelândia e outros países de colonização anglo-saxã.
Em Portugal
Os portugueses são uma população de base mediterrânica e, portanto, a ocorrência de cabelos loiros é pouco comum. No entanto, há uma ocorrência relativamente expressiva de cabelos louros no norte de Portugal. Com efeito, nas regiões de Minho, Trás os Montes, Douro Litoral e Beira Alta, devido a uma maior influência celta e germânica, há a ocorrência de cabelos claros maior que no resto do País.
No Brasil
O principal componente europeu dentro da população brasileira é o português que, raramente, possui cabelos loiros. Por esse fator e, também, pelo alto grau de miscigenação, no Brasil os cabelos loiros são pouco comuns, porém é notável a sua existência.
A maior concentração de louros no Brasil ocorre principalmente na Serra Gaúcha
(Rio Grande do Sul), no vale do Rio dos Sinos (Rio Grande do Sul) e no Vale do
Itajaí (Santa Catarina), devido à forte presença de descendentes de
imigrantes alemães. Cabelos loiros também são encontrados entre brasileiros
de ascendência norte-italiana, localizados em todo o Sul e Sudeste do Brasil.
Há também a significativa presença em comunidades de origem polonesa e ucraniana, sobretudo no Paraná, além de uma minoria de origem portuguesa com
cabelos claros, sobretudo aqueles de ascendência galaico-portuguesa.
Aproximadamente 5% da população brasileira é naturalmente loira (fonte:
revista Marie Claire de maio de 2007)
Polacos
Polacos (ou também poloneses no Brasil) é o nome de um povo que vive na Polónia. Os polacos pertencem aos povos eslavos e falam a língua polaca. Na Polónia vivem 38 milhões de polacos; nas Américas e na Europa (16 -18 milhões); nos EUA (9 milhões), no Reino Unido (2 milhões), no Brasil (1,8 milhão), na Bielorússia (1 milhão), na Ucrânia (700 mil), na Lituânia (400 mil) para além da Alemanha, Rússia, Argentina e França.
A nação polaca foi unificada graças à fundação do estado polaco no século X. Desde o século XIV até ao século XVIII a língua e a cultura polaca dominaram na Europa Oriental. A Polónia foi ocupada de 1795 a 1918 pela Áustria, pela Alemanha e pela Rússia, mas foi no século XIX que viveram alguns dos maiores poetas polacos, Adam Mickiewicz e Juliusz Slowacki. A literatura romântica ajudou contra a desnacionalização. Em 1939 foi invadida pela Alemanha e União Soviética. Durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial os ocupantes mataram 6 milhões de cidadãos polacos.O polaco mais conhecido da História foi o papa João Paulo II.
In Poland
and southern Russia ashen hair of a very light shade goes frequently with
dark-mixed or brown eyes. These regional asymmetries weaken the total unity of
blondism, but do not destroy it. (Carleton Stevens Coon The Races of Europe - 1939 - Distribution of Bodily Characters Chapter
VIII section 5).
O idioma galaico-português (também chamado de galego-português, galécio-português, português antigo ou galego antigo) foi língua falada durante a Idade Média nas regiões de Portugal e da Galiza, (Espanha), de que o português e o galego modernos descendem. É conhecida, na Galiza, como galaico-português , e em Portugal como galego-português.
A língua considera-se formada no século XII, principalmente como desenvolvimento do latim vulgar falado pelos conquistadores romanos a partir do século II dC. No seu momento, foi língua culta fora dos reinos da Galiza e de Portugal nos reinos vizinhos de Leão e Castela. Por exemplo, o rei castelhano Afonso X o Sábio, escreveu as suas Cantigas de Santa Maria em galego-português. A sua importância foi tal que se considera a segunda literatura durante a Idade Média só depois do occitano. O documento da lírica galego-portuguesa mais antigo parece ser a cantiga satírica "Ora faz ost'o senhor de Navarra" de Johan Soares de Pavha, datado por alguns de 1196.
As recompilações líricas medievais galego-portuguesas mais importantes são:
Cancioneiro
da Biblioteca Nacional (antigo Colocci-Brancuti)
Cancioneiro da Vaticana
Cancioneiro da Ajuda (anteriormente conhecido como Cancioneiro do Colégio dos
Nobres).
Cantigas de Santa Maria, de Afonso X de Castela.
Documentos mais antigos em galaico-português
Recentemente foi achado o documento mais antigo escrito na Galiza, o qual data do ano 1228. Trata-se do Foro do bõ burgo de Castro Caldelas outorgado por Afonso IX em Abril do dito ano ao município de Alhariz (Galiza, Espanha).
O mais antigo documento latino-português, encontrado em Portugal, é chamado de Doação à Igreja de Sozello, encontra-se no Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, e é datado do ano de 870 dC.
A Notícia de fiadores (1175) é o documento português mais antigo conhecido, com data.
Recentemente descoberto, o Pacto dos irmãos Pais reivindica o título de texto mais antigo encontrado em Portugal, no entanto é apenas datável por conjectura, e é provavelmente anterior a 1173.
Outro documento, a Notícia de Torto, sem data, acredita-se que tenha sido escrito entre 1211 e 1216. O Testamento de Afonso II, é datado de 1214.
O galego-português, comum à Galiza e a Portugal, teve 700 anos de existência oficial e plena, mas as derrotas que os nobres galegos sofreram, ao tomar partido pelos bandos perdedores nas guerras pelo poder em finais do séc. XIV e princípios do séc. XV, provocam a assimilação da nobreza galega e a dominação castelhana, levando à opressão e ao desaparecimento público, oficial, literário e religioso do galego até finais do séc. XIX. São os chamados "Séculos Escuros". O português, por seu lado, durante este período gozou de protecção e desenvolvimento livre, graças ao facto de Portugal ter sido o único território peninsular que ficou fora do domínio linguístico do castelhano. Desta forma se separou a língua.
Galego x Português da Galiza
O idioma galego pode ser grafado à maneira portuguesa (usando dígrafos como lh e nh) ou à maneira espanhola (grafando os mesmos dígrafos como ll e ñ). O idioma galego propriamente dito, ou "galego isolacionista", "galego concórdia" ou "galego RAG" é grafado à maneira espanhola. Quando se escreve essas palavras à maneira portuguesa, costuma-se chamar de "galego reintegrado" ou "português da Galiza". A forma oral do galego é muito semelhante aos dialectos portugueses falados no norte de Portugal.
Tradição oral na cultura galego-portuguesa
O património cultural imaterial galego-português está presente nas tradições orais populares e é hoje um património em perigo de extinção, o que levou à sua candidatura conjunta pelos governos de Portugal e de Espanha à "Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity" em 2005.
O folclore galego-português é muito rico em tradições orais; estas incluem as “cantigas ao desafio” ou “regueifas”, mitos e lendas, cantigas, ditados e lengalengas, além dos falares que retêm uma grande semelhança ao nível morfológico e sintáctico, no léxico e na fonética. A tradição oral está ligada a diversas actividades tradicionais que se transmitem oralmente, como as celebrações das festas populares tais como o entrudo, o magusto, as festas da coca, o São João, as festas marítimas, romarias, música e danças populares. Nos ofícios, como as actividades piscatórias, a agricultura e o artesanato, além de serem actividades que são transmitidas de geração em geração de forma verbal, cada actividade usa de um vocabulário específico. Também nos costumes, nos falares, nos bailes, nos rituais, na medicina tradicional e na farmacêutica popular, nas artes culinárias, nas superstições e crendices, existe todo um conhecimento que é transmitido oralmente.
Controvérsia
Galego-português é um termo envolvido numa controvérsia entre os círculos académicos oficiais galegos e os grupos minoritários reintegracionistas galegos, que denominam aos anteriores despectivamente isolacionistas. Os reintegracionistas usam os termos galegoportuguês, galego-português, ou ainda galaico-português ou portugalego para designar a língua românica que, segundo eles, na Península Ibérica recebe os nomes de galego ou português. Para os reintegracionistas, o nome mais correcto do ponto de vista histórico é galego. Os habitantes do Norte de Portugal são também, às vezes, conhecidos por galegos. A região que abrange os galegos da Galiza e os galegos do Norte de Portugal fazia parte da antiga província romana da Galécia ou Gallæcia (posteriormente Reino da Galiza) e ainda hoje, séculos depois da separação de Portugal e a Galiza, os galegos dos dois lados da Raia conformam uma mesma identidade cultural que é candidata a ser reconhecida património da humanidade pela UNESCO. Contudo, para os reintegracionistas os dois idiomas nunca se separaram de facto, e devem voltar a ser tratados como um único idioma.
Mais raramente, o termo é também usado para designar um facto, objecto ou sujeito comum à Galiza e a Portugal, ou para designar algo relativo ou pertencente ao período em que a Galiza e Portugal formavam uma única unidade política no reino Suevo da Galécia antes de ser divido pelos visigodos nos condados de Gallizia e Portugallia.
Giovane
Vanuatu di ceppo melanesiano
Ripablik blong Vanuatu - Stato dell'Oceano Pacifico in Melanesia
corrispondente all'arcipelago delle Nuove Ebridi
It's really frustrating when you can't find information via Google, but, it
just reminds you how shallow the data mining of search engine crawlers can be.
On this weblog people have mentioned blondeness among Australian Aboriginals
multiple times, and ultimately we really haven't gotten anywhere (no one has
brought up novel data) because no one has any information to offer aside from
what they read in C.S. Coon's books. when they were younger. There isn't much
out there on the web.
Luckily, I decided to check the local college library, and I found Joseph Birdsell's Microevolutionary Patterns in Aboriginal Australia, which has a large section addressing the issue of blondeness among the indigenous people of the antipodal continent. Below, I will summarize most of Birdsell's data and analysis so that Google will at least have this to crawl now.
But first, I want to address a minor point that often comes up. One hypothesis about Australian Aboriginal blondeness is that it is due to admixture with Europeans, in particular Dutch sailors who entered into undocumented liaisons with native women prior to British colonization. This to me seems like a ludicrous assertion for the following reason: if the blonde alleles introgressed from another population, they can be thought of as proxies for the ancestral admixture of Western Europeans into these tribes. Though a very high frequency of tribal members exhibit preadult blondeness, there are almost no other European diagnostic phenotypes in evidence! That is, their skins are rather dark and their features classically Australian Aboriginal. Most people talk about European blondeness as if it is a recessive trait. I have issues with that simple idea, but, taking it at face value the frequency of blonde alleles in a panmictic population should be higher than the frequency of the blonde phenotype, so we are talking about a rather high level of admixture if the blondeness is due to European ancestry. On the other hand, there are no other visible signs of this ancestry. One could hypothesize of course that the initially low frequency (attained via admixture) spread through the population because of positive directional selection on the trait. So in that case the alleles are of European origin, but the frequency of blondeness is not diagnostic of ancestry because it is not a neutral trait. But Birdsell's data points away from an European origin for blondeness, and many of the recollections of readers of GNXP are correct as to the character of this trait among Australian Aboriginals.
To review, there are two primary melanin pigments, dark eumelanin and red-gold pheomelanin. The dosage of these two pigments results in the various hair colors we see in people. Redheads tend to have a great amount of pheomelanin, but almost no eumelanin. Ash blonde people are the reverse when it comes to pheomelanin, while golden blonde individuals tend to be somewhere in the middle. People with auburn hair have relatively high levels of both. But note that pheomelanin is more diffuse and less abundant, and it is no a surprise that black haired individuals may simply mask their "red" pigment. Many people with black hair (including yours truly) go through a "red blonde" phase during hair bleaching, as the dense eumelanin granules are stripped away by the bleaching agents first. It seems that the expression of the phenotype is dependent on many genes, though a few, like MC1R, have an outsized influence (perhaps through regulation of other loci). This is probably one reason that despite the typological division of Europeans into "blondes," "brunettes" and "redheads," there tends to be a continuous gradation of color. Not only do the combinations of eumelanin and pheomelanin dosage add "mixed" categories (strawberry blonde, auburn) to the triplet, the expression of these pigments is not an "on" or "off" matter as one would expect if one locus was at the heart of the process. I have made the repeated argument that the "recessive" character of blondism and the "dominant" character of brunette hair is partially an artifact of how we classify hair color. All the various non-blonde hair colors, from brown to black are slotted into the "dominant" category, when I would argue that even among black haired people there is a wide variance of pigment concentration of eumelanin that visual inspection might miss, for example between a light skinned Japanese individual and someone from southern India or Africa (basically, one can not get below a certain level of reflective, so all the extra melanin does not register any change in color).
Now, to the Australian Aboriginals.
1) The perception (based I assume in color plates in older anthropology books)
that the blonde Aboriginals were ash in their coloration is correct. The
reason, according to Birdsell, is that they exhibit very little pheomelanin in
their hair. Of course there is a lack of eumelanin in the hair samples as well.
Unfortunately Birdsell did not assay the concentration of granules
quantitatively, but inspected them visually under a microscope. Nevertheless,
he saw what was going on at the proximate level pretty well. It wasn't, to
consider an outlandish example, a case where a yellow pigment was being
produced that obscured the eumelanin.
2) There is both sexual dimorphic and paedomorphic tendencies to the trait. In
short, pre-pubescent children are blonder, as are females.
3) This is not a rare trait that is expressed by a few individuals in many tribes. Rather, the frequency of the phenotype can approach 90-100% in children, and still remain significant even in adult males. Also, the "darkening" is often to a brown color, rather than black.
4) Birdsell suggests that the allele which causes this blondeness, in reality the loss of function or expression of both traits (dark and red pigment), is characterized by "incomplete dominance." The frequencies for the expression of the trait are extremely high. If it was a "recessive" trait the allele(s) must be close to fixed. I don't find his arguments persuasive because he didn't mention crosses between dark haired aboriginals and blonde aboriginals, in part because the unmixed peoples of this sort (that is, without European ancestry) are also not likely to go on cross-continental searches for husbands or brides from other Aboriginal groups. But, that being said, Birdsell offers the following observation: hybrids between Europeans and dark-haired (eastern) Aboriginals never exhibit hair that is lighter than brown. Obviously, not all Europeans are blonde, or carry blonde genes, but the conclusion of blonde phenotypic recessiveness is hammered home. Hybrids between blonde Aborigines and Europeans almost always exhibited the ash blonde phenotype of the Aborigines as children. I don't put too much stock in terms like "incomplete dominance," aside from that it is saying "hey, we don't know much about this gene." Nevertheless, I think the hybrid phenotype is a strong line of evidence that it isn't localized on the same part of the genome as the blonde loss-of-function alleles in Europeans. Crosses between dark haired Europeans and blonde Europeans do not almost always result in blonde children (many times the children are blonde and they become dark haired as they develop, but, Birdsell seems to suggest that inheritance pattern is more deterministic when one of the parents is an Australian Aboriginal blonde).
5) Birdsell notes that the blonde phenotype does not apply to all body hair. Almost all the rest of the body hair is rather dark, the only exception being the hairs on the forearm, which tend to be even blonder (that is, those who darken with adulthood retain blonde forearm hair).
I would like to end with a tentative hypothesis. Obviously Birdsell is trying to convey the impression that this is a trait that is "incompletely dominant," even though it is a "loss of function" trait (eumelanin and pheomelanin seem to not be found in the hair). The "incompletely dominant" part suggests that there is a locus of large effect at work here. Additionally, Birdsell only mentions gradation in hair color as a function of development or maturation, not population. What I mean by this is that one doesn't get the impression of individuals with light brown or dark blonde shades as youth who become black haired as adults. Continuity (normalish distribution) is a feature of polygenic traits, while discrete or binary tendencies are exhibited by classical mendelian traits. With this in mind, I offer that perhaps these Australian Aboriginals carry an allele which results in the synthesis of a trans-acting factor which suppresses gene expression on the loci which control for melanin production (or, it could be interfering with a crucial regulatory step). This suppression is obviously dependent on factors relating to development and cell-cell differentiation, because the melanin is found in copious amounts in other body hairs as well as in the skin. A sequencing of the loci which we know affect melanin dosage might not turn up anything out of the ordinary in comparison to other dark skinned people. In contrast, I suspect many Europeans have multiple polymorphisms which result in the overall reduction in melanin production via melanocytes throughout their skin, their body hair as well as their irises.
So why is this trait expressed in frequencies of 90%+ (that is, adults who started out ash blonde as youth) in the west-central deserts of Australia? Birdsell doesn't offer any selectionist reason, and I can't think of any environmental ones. There was obviously constraint on skin color, which makes sense in light of the protection that dark skin confers against radiation. The only thing I can come up with is sexual or social selection (i.e.; it might have been preferences for a particular type of child as opposed to males and females choosing each other for this trait). But it is basically a default hypothesis (I do not credit genetic drift in this case, but I do not know the demographic history of these tribes, so that is a possibility I suppose). Also, blondism might just be a byproduct of the allele's function, which we do not know yet (or, we know it, but have not made the connection).
I was going to scan the map up, but I'm having some driver issues, so no go in that direction (if someone wants to find the book and scan it up and put it on flickr I will link to it-it's on page 196). Descriptively, you have a modal frequency of this phenotype in the middle of western Australia of 90-100%. The frequency drops off to around 50% by the southwest coast and the geographic center of the continent, and more sharply north toward Arnehm Land until the phenotype is almost nonexistent on the north coast. The phenotype is absent from the eastern third of the continent. Overall, one can imagine an area of the map where the phenotype is absent like a crescent, thick and rotund in the southeast, and becoming a relative sliver as it arcs around the zone of blondeness around its northern edge.
www.gnxp.com
