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From: ronald@uhunix1.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Ronald A. Amundson)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Paranormal phenomena and evolution
Message-ID: <11136@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu>
Date: 26 Jan 91 18:58:09 GMT
Article-I.D.: uhccux.11136
References: <2523.2796bb60@verifone.com> <72753@bu.edu.bu.edu> <1435@gtx.com> <6735@harrier.ukc.ac.uk> <104@tdatirv.UUCP>
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In article <104@tdatirv.UUCP> sarima@tdatirv.UUCP (Stanley Friesen) writes:
>
>However there is some indication of evolution in humans on a ~10,000 year
>time scale.  The natives of India are much darker skinned than the natives
>of Scandinavia, despite both groups being 'aryans' (that is descendents of
>the original speakers of Indo-European).  And this difference most assuredly
>is genetic, since it is inherited in all environments.
>
>---------------
>uunet!tdatirv!sarima				(Stanley Friesen)


Both groups are speakers of Indo-European (i.e. languages derived from
proto-Indo-Hittite).  It does not follow that both groups are
_descended_ (in the genetic sense) from a single proto-population.  

Skin pigment may be heritable, but language is not.  One of the
wonderful things about human beings is that they can _learn_ languages
other than the one their parents spoke!!!!

I know of no evidence that the speakers of Sanskrit-derived languages
in northern India are more genetically related to Scandanavians than
they are to the speakers of Dravidian languages (non-Indo-European) in
southern India.  

I actually heard an interview with Michael Jordan on TV recently.  It
was conducted in English!  Since since that means his ancestors "must"
have come from England originally, Michael's dark pigmentation "must"
have been a result of _amazingly_ speedy evolution between the time of
the Mayflower and today.  [;-)]

Ron Amundson