Learning of the day... human palms are of lighter colour than our skin. Even though this is most evident with those of us who are dark skinned but even those with lighter complexion, this becomes evident when one undergoes a tan. The colour of our palms somehow still remain lighter than the rest of the body. No other animal has this feature.
The first to notice this and use this biological factor as an evidence for his theory was an anthropologist named Gordon Hewes. He used this fact as an evidence to support his 'gestures first' theory in the field of origin of language. That human beings used gestures to communicate far before and more effectively than using verbal words and sounds, is the backbone of this theory. He speculated that this human peculiarity evolved to increase the visibility of our gestures. However, this is not the strongest of his arguments to prove his theory, nonetheless is an interesting and often overlooked human phenomenon.
I was wondering how does this apply to the soles of our feet? After all, they too are lighter in colour when compared to the skin around... unless you are like some of us who prefer to go around barefoot, in which case the soles of our feet are darker than coal!! So actually speaking Hewes would have to explain the depigmentation on our soles if he was citing the lighter colour on our palms as an evolutionary change to facilitate gestures.
No comments:
Post a Comment