Friday, March 24, 2017

Red Hair, Vampires, Red-Headed Irish Leprechaun and Many More

It was historically known that in certain countries and cultures, people who had red-hair were considered to have a bad genetic trait. It was strongly associated with strong-willed, mischievous bullies. ''Gingerphobia'' was a termed that was coined to describe the fear of red-heads and ''gingerism'' is the bullying of or prejudice against redheads. In Egypt, it was known that people who had red hair were burned. People with this color hair have some interesting medical facts; they tend to be left-handed and less sensitive to absorption of Vitamin D. Red-hair is a recessive trait and is often associated with low concentration or the absence of melanin. It a secondary mutation of the melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) gene, found on the 16 chromosome. This mutation can be found around the world but it is most common in Scotland. 
This is connected to genetics since this is a genetic mutation. Having red hair is a rare and it was also historically badly seen as a bad trait just like previous or present day rare traits. 

http://health.usnews.com/health-care/for-better/articles/2017-03-17/genetics-the-common-thread-of-redheads-st-patrick-vampires-and-culture

No comments:

Post a Comment