Teaching a More Accurate Model of the Evolution of Human Skin Color

Abstract

In popular materials designed to teach American students about the evolution of human skin color, students are guided toward a model in which ancestral latitude predicts levels of skin pigmentation. While this model agrees with data from people whose ancestors practiced intensive agriculture in Europe, Asia, and Africa, this model does not match data from other human populations across the globe, including the predicted skin pigmentation of ancient hunter-gatherer populations who maintained long-term settlements in these same regions. In this review, we discuss findings from ancient genome sequencing and provide guidance on teaching an updated model on the evolution of human skin color. (To increase accessibility for non-specialists, we present here a targeted rationale for updating classroom teaching practices, with a set of frequently asked questions regarding the current state of scientific research on this topic addressed in supplemental material.) With this update, we hope to help students avoid common misconceptions about human evolution—particularly, that the evolutionary pressures encountered by those who adopted a single human culture would apply to all humans, everywhere—and leverage authentic data and argumentation to convey the anti-racist reality that people with a wide range of skin colors thrived in high-latitude regions for many thousands of years, just as students with a wide range of skin colors can thrive in whatever place they currently call home.