Were Europeans originally dark-skinned or light-skinned?

Europeans were dark-skinned until 8,000 years ago: Pale complexions were brought to Europe from the Near East, study claims. The original migrants to Europe from Africa arrived 40,000 years ago.

Are “Europeans” a race?

Inside the ballroom full of hundreds of people, Spencer proceeded to speak. He said America “belonged to white men,” and kept repeating that he was a “European,” equating “Europeans” with the “white race.” After he said this about four times, I could not hold back and yelled out, “Europeans are not a race.”

When did people start having lighter skin in Spain?

Genetic analysis has shown that hunter gatherers living in Spain up to 8,500 years ago still had dark skin. It was not until 7,800 years ago, when the first farmers migrated from the Near East through Turkey that two key genes that provide lighter skin appeared.

Is there a pure race in Spain?

As the early twentieth-century Venezuelan sociologist Laureano Vallenilla Lanz said in 1919, there is no purity of race in Spain. This idea was grounded in the prescient words of Cuba’s founder, Jose Martí, when he uttered the words “there are no races” in 1891.

Did our ancestors have pale or dark skin?

Several million years ago, our ancestors’ skin tone would not have been obvious. That’s because early hominins were almost certainly cloaked in dark fur. But beneath the body hair, they probably had pale skin based on the fact that our evolutionary cousins, chimpanzees and gorillas, have light skin under dark fur today.

What is the difference between dark and fair skin?

Put simply, dark complexion is advantageous in sunnier places, whereas fair skin fairs better in regions with less sun. That may seem obvious, considering the suffering that ensues when pale folks visit the beach. But actually, humanity’s color gradient probably has little to do with sunburn, or even skin cancer.

What was the first skin color in Europe?

Europeans were dark-skinned until 8,000 years ago: Pale complexions were brought to Europe from the Near East, study claims. The original migrants to Europe from Africa arrived 40,000 years ago. Up until 8,000 years ago, early hunter-gatherers largely had darker skin.