Epicanthic fold

[Sahaye]

I am very interested in genetics but have very little information regarding my own background. I had no idea they have a test for that! Sounds VERY exciting. I wonder how I could go about getting one done. I will have to do some research regarding that.

I was watching Mad Men and I noticed this american actress with similar eye.who-is-Peyton-List-is-star-or-no-star-Peyton-List-celebrity-vote.jpg

I also read that Bengalis have a lot of mongoloid ancestry. I am not a Bengali by far but have at times been told I look like one.

Also I don't know if this was mentioned earlier but East asians usually have a mono-lid as well as an epicanthic fold, I on the other hand have just the fold.

I find that the fold sort of casts a shadow and creates an appearance of deep eye bags under the eyes, which is super annoying.

[Loki]

We have lots about genetics on this site - you can have a look.

The test I'm talking about:

www.23andme.com

Many of us have done it.

[Atlantic Islander]

The epicanthic fold is a projection of skin between the upper and lower eyelids alongside the nose. It is a common racial characteristic among people with east Asian ancestry. This fold is present in fetuses and infants of any race, and its continued presence can be a sign of a developmental disorder, although this is not always the case.

The epicanthic fold is one of several distinguishing characteristics for persons of Asian descent, particularly those whose ancestors originated in the region from Tibet to Japan. It is also found in Pacific Islanders and Native Americans, who are believed to be descended from Asians, and is not unknown among people of European and African descent. Some scientists speculate that the epicanthic fold may have been an aid to vision for the people residing in or near the Mongolian desert, providing protection from either glare or airborne sand particles. This is only a theory, however, as the genetic background behind such racial characteristics is still not well understood.

Asian people faced systematic racism when migrating to nations such as the U.S. and Australia in the 19th and 20th centuries. The epicanthic fold, as a clear indicator of a person’s racial background, became the target of specific racist epithets. In the mid-20th century, some Asians and Asian-Americans actually elected to have plastic surgery, called epicanthoplasty, to eliminate their folds and make them appear more Western. Epicanthoplasty is a complicated procedure because of the risk of damage to the tear ducts. By contrast, the epicanthic fold is also seen as a sign of exotic beauty in America or Europe, where it is often a rare feature.

The epicanthic fold is sometimes visible during the early development of infants, no matter what their racial background. In non-Asian children, this will often vanish as the facial structure becomes more defined. If this does not happen and there is no racial factor to influence the epicanthic fold, it may indicate a developmental disorder such as Down’s syndrome. This is not always the case, however; concerned parents should consult with a medical professional. In the 20th century, afflicted children with this characteristic were sometimes called Mongoloid because of the epicanthic fold’s association with Mongolian ancestry. This term is now considered imprecise and possibly offensive.

source

[Atlantic Islander]

[Proctor]

The epicanthic fold is a projection of skin between the upper and lower eyelids alongside the nose. It is a common racial characteristic among people with east Asian ancestry. This fold is present in fetuses and infants of any race, and its continued presence can be a sign of a developmental disorder, although this is not always the case.

The epicanthic fold is one of several distinguishing characteristics for persons of Asian descent, particularly those whose ancestors originated in the region from Tibet to Japan. It is also found in Pacific Islanders and Native Americans, who are believed to be descended from Asians, and is not unknown among people of European and African descent. Some scientists speculate that the epicanthic fold may have been an aid to vision for the people residing in or near the Mongolian desert, providing protection from either glare or airborne sand particles. This is only a theory, however, as the genetic background behind such racial characteristics is still not well understood.

Asian people faced systematic racism when migrating to nations such as the U.S. and Australia in the 19th and 20th centuries. The epicanthic fold, as a clear indicator of a person’s racial background, became the target of specific racist epithets. In the mid-20th century, some Asians and Asian-Americans actually elected to have plastic surgery, called epicanthoplasty, to eliminate their folds and make them appear more Western. Epicanthoplasty is a complicated procedure because of the risk of damage to the tear ducts. By contrast, the epicanthic fold is also seen as a sign of exotic beauty in America or Europe, where it is often a rare feature.

The epicanthic fold is sometimes visible during the early development of infants, no matter what their racial background. In non-Asian children, this will often vanish as the facial structure becomes more defined. If this does not happen and there is no racial factor to influence the epicanthic fold, it may indicate a developmental disorder such as Down’s syndrome. This is not always the case, however; concerned parents should consult with a medical professional. In the 20th century, afflicted children with this characteristic were sometimes called Mongoloid because of the epicanthic fold’s association with Mongolian ancestry. This term is now considered imprecise and possibly offensive.

source

Everything seems to be 'offensive' nowadays.

[Atlantic Islander]

The Strange Case of Björk

Björk says she is 100% Icelandic. Both of her parents are Icelandic. Icelandics are a mix between Nordics and Gaelics. Those are both North European, pure Caucasian groups. OK, so how come she looks Asiatic?

Björk, the most Asiatic looking North European I have even seen, barring the Lapps.

That’s not the only photo of her. Lapps are the most ancient Caucasians of Europe. They do have a bit of Asian in them, but not much (7%). Surely some Scandinavians have some Lapp in them, but probably not much.

I much better guess is that Björk is part Inuit from Greenland. Iceland is very close to the Inuit-populated land of Greenland, with close ties to other Inuit regions in Canada. She’s obviously got some Inuit genes somewhere in her background.

I have heard some say that some far north Scandinavians have Asiatic eyes though they are fully Caucasian due to protective effects eyefolds have on the eyes from the glare of the sun shining on the snow. I think that’s dubious until proven otherwise. Most Norwegians and Swedes don’t look very Asiatic.

Best guess is she has an Inuit ancestor back there somewhere.

Anyway, as far as I am concerned she’s White.

source - Beyond Highbrow - Robert Lindsay

[Atlantic Islander]

epicanthic fold

A fold of skin of the upper eyelid that partially covers the inner corner of the eye. Also called epicanthus.


Oxford Companion to the Body:epicanthic fold

In human anatomy, this is the fold of skin covering the inner corner (canthus) of the eye, normally from the top of the eye downward in a semilunar form. The epicanthic (or epicanthal) fold is a normal feature of fetuses of all races but is present in a pronounced form and in high concentrations in humans of certain geographic races and subraces. The epicanthic fold is sometimes referred to as the ‘Mongolian eye fold’, because of its high incidence in and historical association with the Mongoloid (Asian) geographic race. The presence or absence of the epicanthus, which helps produce in Asians a distinctive eye shape and facial appearance, has helped fuel controversies in physical anthropology and evolutionary theory, including historical attempts to establish racial hierarchies based on evolutionary fitness and disputes concerning the nature of evolutionary adaptation. In addition, epicanthic folds in individuals of groups without a high normal incidence of its presence is often phenotypic of genetic or congenital disorders. In some recent debates, the alleged absence of the fold in some depictions and descriptions of humans from Chinese and Indian history has led some Afrocentric historians to claim an African origin of at least some aspects of Indian and Shang dynasty Chinese culture.

In addition to Asians and eastern subarctic and arctic Eurasians, some native American peoples (especially those of Middle America and some populations in South American lowland areas), the Capoid local race of southern Africa, and some of the composite racial groups of Pacific island peoples have high incidence of developed epicanthic folds. The fold occurs less frequently in Southeast Asian populations and in North American Indian groups but occurs occasionally in some European groups, for example in some Scandinavians and Poles.

While epicanthic folds occur more frequently in Asiatic groups and those peoples genetically linked to Asia, its presence is not universal in these peoples and it occurs less frequently in other groups. The incidence of epicanthic folds varies widely among the nine major geographic races and their local races. Attempts to define racial groups by the presence or absence of such features, by phenotype, rather than by genotype and specific inherited traits, are historically problematic and scientifically unreliable. There is substantial variation in phenotype within geographic races and subraces produced by the gene flow inevitable in an aggressively mobile species such as our own, by environmental conditions, and simply by individual variation due to a number of causes, including genetic mutation and the ‘small-sample’ effects of isolated population groups. Modern genetics rejects the notion of a ‘pure’ race; while the historical origins of some geographic groups are obscure, contemporary racial groups are mixtures of the gene pools of many geographic races. Thus, the presence or absence of a developed epicanthic fold, while an indication of one of a number of genetic origins and an important diagnostic feature of certain genetic disorders, cannot bear the cultural freight often bequeathed to it by history, pseudo-science, and prejudice.

The association of the epicanthic fold with Mongolians and Asians more generally served to reinforce notions of racial and cultural supremacy in nineteenth and early-to-mid twentieth century European physical anthropology, physiognomy, and racial theory. Humans with the genetic anomaly now known as Down's syndrome, caused by having three copies (trisomy) of chromosome 21, have limited physical growth and mental retardation of varying severity, and an increased risk of other serious physical problems. Down's syndrome is one of the more common chromosomal defects, occurring on average in 1 in 900 live births. The Down's syndrome infant is quickly recognized by both facial and more general cranial characteristics, including a rounded head, short neck, thin and usually fine hair, flat nose, small mouth, and, especially, slanting eyes with pronounced epicanthic folds.

John Langdon Haydon Down first described this syndrome in 1866 and termed it ‘mongolism’ because of the eyefold and other facial features that Down believed linked the European children he observed to geographic races with a high incidence of such features, including the Asian geographic race (of which the Mongolian people constitute a local race). Down's report on this condition is an important example of the influence of cultural assumptions both on reading facial features and on the construction of anthropological theories designed to categorize and judge peoples: his comparison of European children born with a chromosomal disorder with the normal features of many Mongolians was both scientifically inaccurate as an analysis of the condition and a patronizing mischaracterization of Mongolians. Down argued that these children represented a degeneration of the superior (European) human type, stating that ‘A very large number of congenital idiots are typical Mongols.’ The racial theories used by Down and others have been decisively rejected by modern science, but it is only recently that the descriptions of Down's syndrome as ‘mongolism’ or ‘mongolian idiocy’ and persons with Down's syndrome as ‘mongols’ or ‘mongolian idiots’ have begun to fade from view.

In addition to Down's syndrome, epicanthic folds occur in other, less common genetic disorders, including Trigonocephaly ‘C’ syndrome and two types of ‘Blepharophimosis, Ptosis, Epicanthus Inversus Syndrome’ (BPES). In the latter condition, the epicanthic fold is inverted, extending from the lower eyelid up the side of the nose. Folds also occur in certain congenital conditions, including fetal alcohol syndrome. While the facial anomalies of infants with fetal alcohol syndrome are usually less pronounced than those of a Down's syndrome child, some of the same features occur, including a flat nose and nasal bridge, and developed epicanthic folds.

— Jeffrey H. Barker


Mosby's Dental Dictionary: epicanthic fold

A characteristic crease in the eyelid; seen in persons with Down syndrome.


Wikipedia on Answers.com: Epicanthic fold

Epicanthic fold, epicanthal fold, slant-eye, epicanthus, or simply eye fold are names for a skin fold of the upper eyelid, covering the inner corner (medial canthus) of the eye. Other names for this trait include plica palpebronasalis and palpebronasal fold. One of the primary facial features often closely associated with the epicanthic folds is the nasal bridge; all else equal, a lower-based nose bridge is more likely to cause epicanthic folds, and vice versa. There are various factors influencing whether someone has epicanthic folds, including geographical ancestry, age, and certain medical conditions.

Factors

Geographic distribution

Epicanthic fold is typical in many peoples of Eastern Asia and is common among Central Asian populations. Epicanthic folds are characteristic of Bushmen populations in Southern Africa. It is also found in significant numbers among Indigenous Americans. Additionally, European ethnic groups that tend to have epicanthus relatively frequently are Scandinavians, Samis, Poles, Germans, the Irish and British. They are most prominent in women and children and tend to become less distinct with age.

Age

Humans initially develop epicanthic fold in the womb. Some fetuses lose their epicanthic folds after three to six months of gestation or before birth. In other young children it is visible before the nasal bridge elevates.

Medical conditions

Epicanthic fold is sometimes found as a congenital abnormality.Medical conditions that cause the nasal bridge not to mature and project are associated with epicanthic folds. One of the characteristics of a number of people with Down Syndrome is prominent epicanthic folds. In 1862 John Langdon Down classified Down Syndrome and due to his perception that children with Down syndrome shared physical facial similarities (epicanthic folds) with those of Blumenbach's Mongolian race, used the term mongoloid, derived from prevailing ethnic theory. While the term "mongoloid" (also "mongol" or "mongoloid idiot") continued to be used until the early 1970s, it is now considered pejorative and inaccurate and is no longer in common use.

In Zellweger syndrome, epicanthic folds are prominent.Other examples are fetal alcohol syndrome, phenylketonuria, and Turner syndrome.

Evolutionary origin

It is hypothesized that epicanthic folds are caused by climatic factors and it may have originated more than once during human evolution. Sexual selection may have also influenced the evolution of the trait. The genetic basis of the adaptation is not well known.

source

[Atlantic Islander]

Fascinating. This is from Wikipedia, but it mentions no other source.

It's common amongst most babies and young children until their nasal bridge is fully formed, not just scando babies.

[WOOHP]

Fascinating. This is from Wikipedia, but it mentions no other source.

Apprentely changed

Additionally, European ethnic groups that tend to have epicanthus relatively frequently are Scandinavians, Samis,[7] Poles, Germans, the Irish and British.[citation needed] They are most prominent in women and children and tend to become less distinct with age

People see what they want to see and what they think they are seeing.
There's nothing strange about the eyeshape of Northern Euros. Not even Middleeasterners here in Sweden have that much of bigger eyes than native Swedes.

[Atlantic Islander]

Not even Middleeasterners here in Sweden have that much of bigger eyes than native Swedes.

What does eye-size have to do with anything?