> It goes back to the sun worship in ancient times, when people with red
> hair were thought to have magical powers. Ulysses, Esau, Samson, etc. were
> redheaded - in other words, sun gods. Samson means 'of the sun', the title
> of the pre-Jewish sun kings. They were sacrificed after having their hair
> cut off by the priestess (called Delilah). The story of Samson in the
> Bible records the overthrowing of this tradition.
> In the middle ages the Catholic Church had redheads burnt at the stake
> because of the continuing sun cults in Europe. Some people have obviously
> never managed to see through the propoganda. The same goes for the hatred
> of cats, who were sun god representatives in Egypt and elsewhere, and
> burnt by the church along with the redheads. Even today, the poor training
> of vets reflects this bias against cats.
> Here's some science:
> "There is a widespread curiosity about red hair, and we are often
> asked questions about colouration – only some of which we have answers to.
> When were the first red heads? (Red-haired variants of the MC1R gene
> probably arose about 20-40 000 years ago.) What is the genetic
> relationship between bright red, strawberry blonde and auburn hair? (Not
> entirely clear as yet.) And is the red hair gene a 'Celtic gene' – as is
> widely supposed? (Not really, but it is safe to say that – a few rare
> exceptions aside - all red heads are MC1R variants that derive from
> European populations; the prevalence of these alleles is highest in Celtic
> countries.)
> So there is lots more to find out about the genes involved in skin and
> hair colour. Once we have unpicked their undoubtedly complex
> relationships, we should have many more answers about the origins, history
> and subtleties of red hair itself, and about in the development, control
> and health of the skin in general.
> Red hair is such a distinctive characteristic that one can imagine, in
> some future world, two red heads meeting up on some distant planet and the
> conversation quickly turning to their place of birth! Whether or not they
> were both of Celtic blood, they could be sure that at least one of their
> genes was remarkably similar."
> Jonathan L Rees is Professor of Dermatology at the University of
> Edinburgh.
> http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/en/genome/genesandbody/hg07f002.html
> -----------------------------------
> "Hair color is determined by the amount of two pigments called
> eumelanin and phomelanin that are in your hair. The amount of eumelanin in
> your hair gives you a range from blonde to black—a little eumelanin and
> you are blonde, an intermediate amount, brown, and a lot, black.
> Red comes into the equation with phomelanin. The more phomelanin in your
> hair, the redder it is.
> OK, then, hair color is a mixture of how much eumelanin and phomelanin is
> in your hair. For example, strawberry blonde is a little of each, auburn
> is some eumelanin and phomelanin and a redhead is very little eumelanin
> and lots of phomelanin.
> How does the body decide how much of these melanins to put in your hair?
> Genes, of course. (If you are interested in some current theories on
> inheritance of hair color besides red, please see the link below.)
> Humans usually end up with very little phomelanin because of the product
> of a gene called MC1R. What MC1R lets happen is the conversion of
> phomelanin into eumelanin which makes red hair pretty rare.
> When someone has both of their MC1R genes mutated, this conversion doesn’t
> happen anymore and you get a buildup of phomelanin, which results in red
> hair (as well as fair skin and freckles).
> So, your son may have two mutant MC1R genes, one from you and one from
> your husband. The fact that you and your husband have freckles may
> strengthen this idea as I have read that people with a single mutant MC1R
> gene don’t necessarily show red hair but often are freckled.
> So it may be a simple case of dominant and recessive traits. You and your
> husband each have a working and a mutant version of the MC1R genes making
> you freckled but not giving you red hair. Your second son got two mutant
> MC1R genes while your first inherited either one or no mutant copies. By
> this model, you had a 1 in 4 chance of having a redhead.
> As to why you haven’t seen it in your family before, it depends when it
> entered your family and simple statistics. For example, let’s say your
> family has a single copy of the mutant MC1R gene; no one has two copies of
> the mutant gene. If everyone then marries people with two working copies
> of MC1R, then any children produced will have either one or no copies of
> the mutant gene.
> Even if they did marry someone with a single mutant copy, there is still
> only a 1 in 4 chance of producing a redhead. It is important to realize
> that if you have four kids, this doesn’t mean that one will be a redhead
> for sure. It doesn’t matter what came before, each child has a 25% chance
> of being a red head.
> You can see how even if there are no known redheads in your family, you
> can still be a “carrier” for red hair. Hopefully this answer can help arm
> you against the inevitable questions."
> http://www.thetech.org/genetics/ask.php?id=44
Thanks for posting this, fascinating!
