Evolution
Afro-textured hair may have initially evolved because of an adaptive need (amongst humanity's hominid ancestors) for protection against the intense UV radiation of Africa. Subsequently (and/or additionally), because the relatively sparse density of Afro-hair, combined with its elastic helix shape, results in an airy effect, the resulting increased circulation of cool air onto the scalp may have served to facilitate our hominid ancestors' body-temperature-regulation while they lived in the open savannah. Further, Afro-hair does not respond as easily to moisture/sweat as straight hair. Thus, instead of sticking to the neck and scalp when wet (as do straighter textures), unless totally drenched, it tends to retain its basic springy puffiness. In this sense, in addition to the above-listed causes, the trait may have also been retained/preferred among many equatorial human groups because of its contribution to enhanced comfort levels under warm conditions. Finally, sexual selection based on visual and/or tactile socio-aesthetics may have also and/or further contributed to this trait's ubiquity in certain regions.
Read more about this topic: Afro-textured Hair
Famous quotes containing the word evolution:
“As a natural process, of the same character as the development of a tree from its seed, or of a fowl from its egg, evolution excludes creation and all other kinds of supernatural intervention.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“Analyze theory-building how we will, we all must start in the middle. Our conceptual firsts are middle-sized, middle-distanced objects, and our introduction to them and to everything comes midway in the cultural evolution of the race.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“Historians will have to face the fact that natural selection determined the evolution of cultures in the same manner as it did that of species.”
—Konrad Lorenz (1903–1989)