On Neoteny

Neoteny is the retention of infantile traits into adulthood. The mechanism through which this takes place is roughly the following:

1. People are genetically programmed to like and care for babies
2. Adults who "look like babies" in some respect take advantage of this, eliciting positive feelings, thus having possible selection advantages
3. As a result, neotenous ("baby-like") traits increase in frequency in the population.

We must be, however, cautious. We readily observe that most adults don't look like babies. Therefore, some other factor is at play here, an opposing force which does not allow the degeneration of a race into a "baby-like" state.

We may immediately think of a few factors:

1. Sexually dimorphic traits provide an advantage in sexual selection. These traits (e.g., beard/breasts) are absent in babies and present in the adult male/female (at least in some races).

2. Babies are weak, so while some of their traits look "cute", and elicit a positive response, e.g., their short legs and small hands, etc., they are a disadvantage in adult life.

A very important consideration in discussing neoteny is that it does not always work across racial boundaries. Here are some examples:

1. Mongoloids have long trunks and short legs/arms, thus being neotenous in terms of their body proportions. However, this is not attractive to other races (e.g., Caucasoids) where long limbs are admired.

2. Mongoloids have absence of hair (both facial and in the body). This is neotenous for all races, but it is not admired by all; indeed, it is not very attractive in males. Even in females, where the absence of hair is a definite advantage (meaning Mongoloid women have an advantage), it is not positively so; since e.g., the scarceness of the eyebrows in Mongoloid women is a result of the generally poor development of the hair cover, and well-defined eyebrows are attractive in e.g., Caucasoids.

3. Northern Europeoids are depigmented. This is neotenous for Caucasoids, since Caucasoids are regularly more depigmented as children than as adults. But, it is not neotenous for other races, whose babies are not depigmented. Indeed, even for southern Europeoids, the degree of depigmentation that is found in the north is not necessarily considered neotenous. This can be evidenced by the description of the Celtic hair as polios by the classical writers, who attributed to it an adjective of old age. Even today, when encountering very light hair, one may hear the comment that "she looks like an old woman", e.g., in Greece.

4. Negroids have snub noses and big lips. These are characteristic of babies, but cannot be said to be attractive to other races. For example, Caucasoids seem to prefer narrow noses. The same applies to some degree to Mongoloids as well, who also have flat noses in many of their subgroups.

5. In eyelid formation, some races (e.g., Mongoloids) retain the "closed-eye" look of infants, with eyefolds and frequent epicanthus into adulthood. While this may be attractive to Mongoloids (*) it is not so for other races where an "open" eye look is preferred. Indeed, this is a better candidate for a trait that evolved via neoteny, since young babies have large eyes compared to their faces.

In conclusion, neoteny is an important mechanism of evolution, which is kept in check by other competing forces (sexual dimorphism, natural selection). It is also wrong to think that a neotenous trait that has a selective advantage in one racial group has an advantage in others.

(*) It is more likely an adaptation to cold, rather than a traits that evolved through neoteny. Cold-adapted races have less eye height in general than warm-adapted ones; e.g., observe the continuum from Northern Europe through Southern Europe into India, with its characteristic "open eyes".

Posted by Dienekes at August 12, 2003 08:58 PM | PermaLink