{"id":31130,"date":"2022-09-06T23:45:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-06T23:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=31130"},"modified":"2022-09-07T20:40:52","modified_gmt":"2022-09-07T20:40:52","slug":"human-skin-stood-up-better-to-the-sun-before-there-were-sunscreens-and-parasols-an-anthropologist-explains-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/human-skin-stood-up-better-to-the-sun-before-there-were-sunscreens-and-parasols-an-anthropologist-explains-why\/","title":{"rendered":"Human skin stood up better to the sun before there were sunscreens and parasols \u2013 an anthropologist explains\u00a0why"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nina G. Jablonski<\/a>, Penn State<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Human beings have a conflicted relationship with the sun. People love sunshine, but then get hot. Sweat gets in your eyes. Then there are all the protective rituals: the sunscreen, the hats, the sunglasses. If you stay out too long or haven\u2019t taken sufficient precautions, your skin lets us you know with an angry sunburn. First the heat, then the pain, then the remorse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Were people always this obsessed with what the sun would do to their bodies? As a biological anthropologist<\/a> who has studied primates\u2019 adaptations to the environment, I can tell you the short answer is \u201cno,\u201d and they didn\u2019t need to be. For eons, skin stood up to the sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skin, between you and the world<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Human beings evolved under the sun. Sunlight was a constant in people\u2019s lives, warming and guiding them through the days and seasons. Homo sapiens<\/em> spent the bulk of our prehistory and history outside, mostly naked. Skin was the primary interface between our ancestors\u2019 bodies and the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Human skin was adapted to whatever conditions it found itself in. People took shelter, when they could find it, in caves and rock shelters, and got pretty good at making portable shelters from wood, animal skins and other gathered materials. At night, they huddled together and probably covered themselves with fur \u201cblankets.\u201d But during the active daylight hours, people were outdoors and their mostly bare skin was what they had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During a person\u2019s lifetime, skin responds to routine exposure to the sun<\/a> in many ways. The surface layer of the skin \u2013 the epidermis \u2013 becomes thicker by adding more layers of cells<\/a>. For most people, the skin becomes gradually darker as specialized cells kick into action to produce a protective pigment called eumelanin<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"cross-sectional<\/a>
Exposure to the sun\u2019s rays triggers production of more protective eumelanin, which also darkens the skin\u2019s appearance. ttsz\/iStock via Getty Images Plus<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This remarkable molecule absorbs most visible light, causing it to look very dark brown, almost black. Eumelanin also absorbs damaging ultraviolet radiation. Depending on their genetics, people produce different amounts of eumelanin. Some have a lot and are able to produce a lot more when their skin is exposed to sun; others have less to start out with and produce less when their skin is exposed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My research on<\/a> the evolution of human skin pigmentation<\/a> has shown that the skin color of people in prehistory was tuned to local environmental conditions, primarily to local levels of ultraviolet light. People who lived under strong UV light \u2013 like you\u2019d find near the equator \u2013 year in and year out had darkly pigmented and highly tannable skin capable of making a lot of eumelanin. People who lived under weaker and more seasonal UV levels \u2013 like you\u2019d find in much of northern Europe and northern Asia \u2013 had lighter skin that had only limited abilities to produce protective pigment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With only their feet to carry them, our distant ancestors didn\u2019t move around much during their lives. Their skin adapted to subtle, seasonal changes in sunlight and UV conditions by producing more eumelanin and becoming darker in the summer and then losing some pigment in the fall and winter when the sun wasn\u2019t so strong. Even for people with lightly pigmented skin, painful sunburns would have been exceedingly rare because there was never a sudden shock of strong sun exposure. Rather, as the sun strengthened during spring, the top layer of their skin would have gotten gradually thicker over weeks and months of sun exposure<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not to say that the skin would have been undamaged by today\u2019s standards: Dermatologists would be appalled by the leathery and wrinkled appearance of the sun-exposed skin of our ancestors. Skin color, like the levels of sun itself, changed with the seasons and skin quickly showed its age. This is still the case for people who live traditional, mostly outdoor, lives in many parts of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"a<\/a>
Chronic unprotected sun exposure can damage skin, with effects that look like those on this farmer in India. Randeep Maddoke\/Wikimedia Commons<\/a>, CC BY<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is no preserved skin from thousands of years ago for scientists to study, but we can infer from the effects of sun exposure on modern people that the damage was similar. Chronic sun exposure<\/a> can lead to skin cancer<\/a>, but rarely of the variety \u2013 melanoma<\/a> \u2013 that would cause death during reproductive age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indoor living changed skin<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Until around 10,000 years ago \u2013 a drop in the bucket of evolutionary history \u2013 human beings made their living by gathering foods, hunting and fishing<\/a>. Humanity\u2019s relationship with the sun and sunlight changed a lot after people started to settle down and live in permanent settlements. Farming and food storage<\/a> were associated with the development of immovable buildings. By around 6000 B.C. many people throughout the world were spending more time in walled settlements, and more time indoors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"line<\/a>
Persian King Darius the Great, who lived more than 2,500 years ago, is portrayed being shielded from the sun. Luisa Vallon Fumi\/iStock via Getty Images Plus<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While most people still spent most of their time outside, some stayed indoors if they could. Many of them started protecting themselves from the sun<\/a> when they did go out. By at least 3000 B.C., a whole industry of sun protection grew up to create gear of all sorts \u2013 parasols, umbrellas, hats, tents and clothing \u2013 that would protect people from the discomfort and inevitable darkening of the skin associated with lengthy sun exposure. While some of these were originally reserved for nobility \u2013 like the parasols and umbrellas of ancient Egypt and China \u2013 these luxury items began to be made<\/a> and used more widely<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some places, people even developed protective pastes made out of minerals<\/a> and plant residues \u2013 early versions of modern sunscreens<\/a> \u2013 to protect their exposed skin. Some, like the thanaka paste used by people in Myanmar<\/a>, still persists today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An important consequence of these practices in traditional agricultural societies was that people who spent most of their time indoors considered themselves privileged, and their lighter skin announced their status. A \u201cfarmer\u2019s tan\u201d was not glamorous: Sun-darkened skin was a penalty associated with hard outdoor work<\/a>, not the badge of a leisurely vacation<\/a>. From Great Britain to China, Japan and India, suntanned skin became associated with a life of toil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As people have moved around more and faster over longer distances in recent centuries, and spend more time indoors, their skin hasn\u2019t caught up with their locations and lifestyles. Your levels of eumelanin probably aren\u2019t perfectly adapted to the sun conditions where you live and so aren\u2019t able to protect you the same way they might have your ancient ancestors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if you\u2019re naturally darkly pigmented or capable of tanning, everyone is susceptible to damage caused by episodes of sun exposure<\/a>, especially after long breaks spent completely out of the sun. The \u201cvacation effect\u201d of sudden strong UV exposure is really bad because a sunburn signals damage to the skin that is never completely repaired. It\u2019s like a bad debt that presents itself as prematurely aged or precancerous skin many years later. There is no healthy tan \u2013 a tan doesn\u2019t protect you from further sun damage, it\u2019s the sign of damage itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People may love the sun, but we\u2019re not our ancestors. Humanity\u2019s relationship with the sun has changed, and this means changing your behavior to save your skin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nina G. Jablonski<\/a>, Evan Pugh University Professor of Anthropology, Penn State<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nina G. Jablonski, Penn State Human beings have a conflicted relationship with the sun. People love sunshine, but then get hot. Sweat gets in your eyes. Then there are all the protective rituals: the sunscreen, the hats, the sunglasses. If you stay out too long or haven\u2019t taken sufficient precautions, your skin lets us you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":31131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[42,3410],"tags":[2346,4298,250,9899,5118,11849,12513,12515,12512,2913,12511,12509,12516,12284,11170,11776,12510,3158,12514],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31130"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31130"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31136,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31130\/revisions\/31136"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}