Ecological factors in skin color variation among Papua New Guineans

An EEL reflectance spectrophotometer was used to measure the skin color of the inner upper arm and the forearm of 913 Karkar Islanders (Madang District) and 684 Lufa villagers (Eastern Highlands District). The samples were subdivided to study sex, age, and population variation against a background of ecological observations, including sunlight exposure, clothing, and erythemally effective wavelengths of ultraviolet light (Robertson, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, 1974). Population differences in sex and age variation in upper arm skin color may largely be attributable to the effects of culturally associated clothing differences. Not only do the Lufa villagers wear substantially less clothing than the Karkars, but also their arms are exposed more frequently to ultraviolet light during heavy manual work in unshaded gardens. For the melanin content of the forearm skin there are similar patterns of age variation in both populations; however, the populations differ in mean percentage of reflectance throughout most of the age span. These between-population differences are interpreted as a consequence of greater average daily exposure to sunlight and the higher intensity of ultraviolet light in the highland environment. On the forearm the percentage of reflectance at 685 nm decreases more rapidly with age in the prepubertal and adult age groups, a result attributed to endocrine changes superimposed on cumulative changes in the melanin pigmentary mechanism.