Why me/death to the round eyes

[auntlohimein]

–A friend of mine and myself were engaging in a session of verbal intercourse about his trip back to S. korea, and he said many people are getting “round eye” surgery, getting rid of eye folds and some ? nip/tuck around eyes. My ? {me born Kyoto}, IS why do I have eye folds, what evolutionary advantage[s] do they provide me with ?

[panache45]

First of all, why do you assume there’s an evolutionary advantage?

Second, do they really call it “nip”/tuck over there?

[Reply]

A random blog linked from Wikipedia says:

Eyes are protected from the cold Siberian air by fatty folds of skin. These eyes are often considered beautiful, and Charles Darwin wondered if racial differences might not result from the particular tastes of individuals. He called the idea that mates were chosen for their attractive quality “sexual selection.” It is very likely that some characteristics undergo sexual selection—eye color and shape, for example. The shape of Asian eyes is not appreciated in Asia today. If it is admired elsewhere, why is it not found in other parts of the world? Of course it is also characteristic of the Bushmen of southern Africa, and other Africans have slanted eyes. It probably diffused by sexual selection from northeastern Asia to Southeast Asia, where it is not at all cold. It is also possible that the trait may have originated more than once in the course of human evolution. If it first appears that climatic factors were most important in the creation of racial differences, we should not neglect sexual selection as a possible side explanation. Unfortunately, the genetic bases for these adaptations are not well known; each of these traits is very complex. Considerable local variation in tastes further complicates the matter.

[Speaker_for_the_Dead]

@panache45

First of all, why do you assume there’s an evolutionary advantage?

What’s the answer if the question is phrased as “why is it that some human groups, who presumably looked fairly alike at some point in the past, evolved epicanthal folds, while others didn’t?”

D’oh, question answered.