Skin Deep

I watched an amazing documentary last night.  It aired on SBS Australia recently and I’m really glad I recorded it to watch when I had the time.  It was called Skin Deep.  The trailer below tells the story:

As a Professor and Head of Dept. Anthropology at Penn State University, Nina Jablonski presents information in a way that is easy for the average non-scientific person to understand.  She gives us the data we need to think critically about where we all came from.

Based on these findings, we all came from darker skinned people.  Lighter skinned people “are a mutation”. This makes me smile. Imagine the outrage felt by some – not only is evolution real but it shows we all came from the same source!  I love it.

The following extract is taken from:  Scientific American; New York; Oct 2002; Nina G Jablonski;George Chaplin;

“The ability of skin color to adapt over long periods to the various environments to which humans have moved reflects the importance of skin color to our survival. But its unstable nature also makes it one of the least useful characteristics in determining the evolutionary relations between human groups. Early Western scientists used skin color  to delineate human races, but the beauty of science is that it can and does correct itself. Our current knowledge of the evolution of human skin indicates that variations in skin color, like most of our physical attributes, can be explained by adaptation to the environment through natural selection. We look ahead to the day when the vestiges of old scientific mistakes will be erased and replaced by a better understanding of human origins and diversity. Our variation in skin color should be celebrated as one of the most visible manifestations of our evolution as a species.”

And don’t you love this part?

“the beauty of science is that it can and does correct itself.”

The fact that new information becomes available and changes the way in which we view the world is really important.  If we can teach our children to ask questions and to seek proof before blindly believing what they are taught, our world will surely be a better place.

Some sources:  Penn State – Nina Jablonski , SBS Australia  (there is some interesting video here and also a Q & A with the director, Franco Di Chiera)