Most intriguing people
The Chachapoyas, or “The Warriors of the Clouds” lived in the cloud forests of the Amazonas region (now Peru). Before the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century, their civilization was conquered by the Incas.
The Spanish historian Pedro Cieza de León described what the Chachapoyas looked like:
They are the whitest and most handsome of all the people that I have seen in Indies, and their wives were so beautiful that because of their gentleness, many of them deserved to be the Incas’ wives …
These people had no known European ancestry. In pre Inca times, no European had ever reached that part of the world. They were good looking, had white skin and blonde hair, unlike other people living in that part of the world at that time.
So why did they look different?
An answer was offered by the Antisuyo expeditions of the Amazon Archaeology Institute:
Given that the terrain facilitates peripatric speciation, as evidenced by the high biodiversity of the Andean region, the physical attributes of the Chachapoyas are most likely reflecting founder effects, assortative mating, and/or related phenomena in an initially small population sharing a relatively recent common ancestor with other Amerind groups.
I suppose if one wants to carry out an anthropological experiment to see if the skin id of a group of people like the Chachapoyas of yore could be recreated, one could attempt what was outlined above.
Source
Wikipedia
Popularity: 1% [?]
Related posts
I think there are some truly inspiring and intriguing people across the world – have you seen the site for Alastair Galpin, who will turn his hand to try all sorts of world records – anything for a bit of publicity and raising money for charity!