A few months ago, an older man told me, in English, I had nice eyes. He said that Asian people don’t have big eyes because of the Mongolian Desert. I never thought too much about it until last night when Adam and I were watching A Long Way Round. It is a TV series where Ewan McGregor travels around the world on his motorcycle with his friend Charlie. As they enter Kazakhastan Ewan says something to the effect to, “How do people know, how does the world know to change the way people look based on where they live.” Immediately I thought of my conversation about eyes. So, I went and did some research. It turns out, in a nutshell… he was right.
It seems that all babies develop the epicanthic fold on their eyes. In western society, as the nose develops, this disappears. But, in Asian counties, evolution has overtaken this. It seems that this all began with climate. In Mongolia the sunlight is so bright and the snow so harsh…that the light reflects off of the ground and the eyes have not lost this fold basically for protection. The same goes for the pebbles in the Gobi desert. I also read that the dry savannahs and yellow dust create the same type of light reflection which has caused the fold to remain for protection.
Other cultures such as Native Americans, Hawaiians, Nepali’s and Thai’s have also developed this trait.
I personally think Asian eyes are beautiful, along with their perfect skin and great fashion. I know many of the women however think otherwise and instead of getting the Asian blepharoplasty to add in an eyelid, many of the stores sell an adhesive tape that the women use to create this look. Just an FYI
Stay in the loop
Intentionally and incrementally. Most families who live this way did not leap from conventional to adventurous overnight. They built remote work capacity, paid down debt, tested longer trips, and had honest conversations about what they want from their lives.
Different for every family. For some it is long-term travel. For others it is weekend adventures close to home. What connects them is intentionality about how time is spent and a preference for experiences over accumulation.
By finding stability within the adventure rather than treating them as opposites. Routines, rituals, and family rhythms travel with you. Kids need consistency in relationships more than consistency in geography.
That people are fundamentally similar across cultures. That comfort zone is a smaller circle than it feels from inside. That the things worth having in life require effort and discomfort. And that time together doing hard interesting things is the most reliable source of family closeness.
By getting clear on why you made the choices you made and returning to that clarity when outside noise gets loud. Most families living unconventionally describe an initial period of explaining themselves that gradually gives way to just living the life.
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I did a few brief lesson on this for my undegrad and there are a few Arch/Anthro theories. The one you mentioned is one but the counter argument are that these types of eyes are not seen in the middle east or africa. Some have suggested selective breeding (this was pomoted as the beautiful ideal so people with these traits are more likely to breed). There are a few asian scholars that actually suggest that white and black people are a completely different species of human. I think that is chinese nationalistic bullshit. There are a lot of theories but it's very interesting.Thats all I can remember.Fliss
Sorry I meant that black and caucasian is a different species of human to asians.