Blondism in Melanesia with Asia Pacific and Polynesia recapped 2012

photo of Natural Blondism in Asia Pacific Melanesia

occurring from Papua to Native Australia

Across the Asia Pacific there have been living for 10s of thousands of years, Pacific Islander cultures with Blond hair. It wasn't until more recent late 20th and early 21st Century genetic studies that older Ethnographic exploits were deemed "poor practices of racial sciences", written entirely by Euro-western education. The Blond hair color is mostly seen in Melanesia, Papua, Australian natives, and sometimes in Fiji. The greater Blondism studies have been focused on West Melanesians, hoping to map their genetic markers and learn the South Pacific relations with Southeast Asia and Southern India. 

Polynesians have been found not to exhibit Blond hair, a feature reserved for their neighbors, but who do at early ages exhibit white hair (a salt and pepper feature). Samoans and Tongans show very often, silver white streaks at 5-10 years old.

Blondism traits in Melanesia are prominent in youth with the children being featured in science articles showing off radiant blond stems. The Blondism can be a permanent feature throughout Melanesian adult life or can gradually fade with age. On both men and women during older ages in Melanesia, the Blond or Blonde hair may tend to fade to the outer tips, looking like "salon highlights". On elder men, blondism has been seen more predominantly on the beards. [ex. 1,2,3,4]

"When I think of Dark skinned blonde Asians, I instantly refer to Sadhu Naga Baba throughout South India. The Sadhu Naga Babas of India are Holy men from across the region with a majority having a great darkness in skin tone, seen very often with Blond beards in older ages. The Sadhu Naga Babas gather at 'Kumbh Mela', the largest gathering of people for a religious purpose in the world, with millions gathering along the Ganges River to celebrate life. However the Melanesians have even greater tones of Blondes, with some children far more blonde than Northern Swedes." [ex. 1,2]

Racial studies of Melanesians: Unscientific Era

The racial ethnographic publishing's which flooded most of the 19th century support usually a theory that overseas traders like the British gave Blond hair in Melanesia, when British are by majority a "brown haired people". Then after the original controversy, came a theory a German gave them Blonde hair to cover-up the error. In 2009 and 2010, genetic results revealed that Blondism in southern regions of Asia-India and Melanesia have long distance migratory relations. A genetic route through the southern seas of India, to the north, may have an ancient genetic Andaman Islander or Melanesian regional connection with the Caucasus regions. Anthropology theory points directly to the rivers that flow from the South of India, including the Ganges River (The Great Ganges River connects the West Himalayas to the Plain of North India) to be a source of migration north toward the Northwest India and the Caucasus.

"In older mapping blunders, Melanesia was tagged for being the Black Islands. Melanesia translates to the Black Islands, which is not really a successful academic mapping of their region. It goes without saying, Black and White are not actual races nor a tribe of people and that Melanesians are in fact Asian and have been part of the Asia Pacific for thousands of years. Asia is a vast and ancient region of many people and cultures"

Genetic Research into Asia-Pacific Melanesia

Genetic studies identified Pacific Blondism from an arginine-to-cysteine change at a highly conserved tyrosinase-related protein 1 (TYRP1). The catalytic activity of TYRP1 gives a recessive trait of natural Blonde hair, being inherited, in this case over thousands of years. The data also shown in that Melanesians have greater genetic relations with other South, East, and Southeast Asian populations, than with west Africans today. Studies shown also a Melanesian dispersal from Southeast Asia connecting with Australians natives within 10,000 years. This means that interisland activity was rampant in Southern Oceania, long before the beginning of Europe in the year of 453 AD after the Mongol Huns destroyed the Roman Empire. Melanesian and Australian native colonization estimates back 60,000-70,000 years.

"What the data really means is, these people show an extensive genetic line, and there is no evidence that supports a Caucasian origin. The Caucasian origin of blond hair was never taken seriously in the first place, more of a media news or magazine gimmick to attract readers. Eurasia is connected to Central and West Asia, with their blondism and blue eyes being an admixture of traits. Central Asians also have reddish hair, Blonde tones, and blue eyes. The Caucasus Mountains are geographically inside West Asia, with Iran and the nation of Kazakhstan bordering the mountainous areas" [ex. 1,2,3,4]

Confirming that Melanesian Blondism is rooted in their own genetic evolution, the data sparked more studies into skin pigmentation in the Caucasus mountains regions finding it to be a separate trait from Northwest Asia, West Asia, and Central Asia, who settled west over long periods of time and over several migration periods into early Eurasia, then migrating further into western Europe. 

Post References:

[-] A counter-clockwise northern route of the Y-chromosome haplogroup N from Southeast Asia towards Europe. Siiri Rootsi, Lev A. Zhivotovsky, Marian Baldovic, Manfred Kayser, Ildus A. Kutuev, Rita Khusainova, Marina A. Bermisheva, Marina Gubina, Sardana A. Fedorova, Anne-Mai Ilumäe, Elza K. Khusnutdinova, Mikhail I. Voevoda, Ludmila P. Osipova, Mark Stoneking, Alice A. Lin, Vladimir Ferak, Jüri Parik, Toomas Kivisild, Peter A. Underhill, Richard Villems Eur J Hum Genet. 

[-] Y-chromosomal DNA haplogroups and their implications for the dual origins of the Koreans. Han-Jun Jin, Kyoung-Don Kwak, Michael F. Hammer, Yutaka Nakahori, Toshikatsu Shinka, Ju-Won Lee, Feng Jin, Xuming Jia, Chris Tyler-Smith, Wook Kim Hum Genet. 

[-] The human genetic history of East Asia: weaving a complex tapestry. Mark Stoneking, Frederick Delfin Curr Biol. 

[-] Mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome variation in the caucasus. I. Nasidze, E. Y. S. Ling, D. Quinque, I. Dupanloup, R. Cordaux, S. Rychkov, O. Naumova, O. Zhukova, N. Sarraf-Zadegan, G. A. Naderi, et al. Ann Hum Genet. 

[-] Maternal Footprints of Southeast Asians in North India Kumarasamy Thangaraj, Gyaneshwer Chaubey, Toomas Kivisild, Deepa Selvi Rani, Vijay Kumar Singh, Thanseem Ismail, Denise Carvalho-Silva, Mait Metspalu, L.V.K.S. Bhaskar, Alla G. Reddy, Sarat Chandra, Veena Pande, B. Prathap Naidu, Niharika Adarsh, Abhilasha Verma, Inaganti Amara Jyothi, Chandana Basu Mallick, Nidhi Shrivastava, Ragala Devasena, Babita Kumari, Amit Kumar Singh, Shailendra Kumar Dhar Dwivedi, Shefali Singh, Geeta Rao, Pranav Gupta, Vartika Sonvane, Kavita Kumari, Afsar Basha, K.R. Bhargavi, Albert Lalremruata, Arvind Kumar Gupta, Gurukamal Kaur, K.K. Reddy, A. Papa Rao, Richard Villems, Chris Tyler-Smith, Lalji Singh Hum Hered. 

[-] Temple University (2007, February 28). New DNA Study Helps Explain Unique Diversity Among Melanesians. ScienceDaily

[-] Temple University (2008, January 18). Genome Scan Shows Polynesians Have Little Genetic Relationship To Melanesians. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 5, 2012

[-] University of Leeds (2011, February 3). Genetic study uncovers new path to Polynesia. ScienceDaily

[-] Durham University (2008, November 6). Epic Voyage To Discover Origins And Migration Routes Of Ancestors Of Ancient Polynesians And Their Animals. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 5, 2012

[-] University of Adelaide (2008, July 29). 'Chicken And Chips' Theory Of Pacific Migration. ScienceDaily

[-] Durham University (2007, March 12). Pig Study Forces Rethink Of Pacific Colonisation. ScienceDaily

All Asia Pacific Islander American Studies are free for use for community. Studies can be used in research papers, notes, blogs, articles, personal research, this information was researched purely out of personal interests.

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