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Yes, that's what I'm not sure about. For instance, many Neanderthals had red hair, but it was a different allele conferring red color than what we see in a few modern H. sapiens populations.
It's possible the blue eye allele brought from Africa disappeared, and the one from the Baltic is different, or it could even be the same mutation again. But it's also possible the earlier paper didn't look at a large enough population, or their methods may be out of date now. All this genetic information we get is still being revised and modified, and it's a best guess a lot of the time, based on statistics.
As for dogs, there are genetic analysis kits you can get, sort of like a canine 23 and me. They tell you likely breed composition (for adopted dogs), predisposition to certain diseases, and even find close relatives. But people I know have gotten slightly, even dramatically different, results from different companies' kits. I did one called Embark with my dogs, and the results were plausible, pretty much what I'd guessed, but there was still a small amount of uncertainty for a small portion of their DNA for each of them (they say this may mean a distant ancestor who was a "supermutt," but since various breeds are also related if you go far enough back, there's still some uncertainty. I'm guessing this is true for humans too. And they haven't isolated genes for every trait, not by a long sight.
Back to the OP, though. I agree with the others who say it's important to write the story you are comfortable writing. I imagine there are still plenty of white, cishet guys out there for whom wish fulfillment means escaping to a world where only white, cishet guys have any power or do anything of consequence, and where other variants of human either don't exist or are in the background as chattel or highly marginalized aberrancies that aren't mentioned at all. If there is a market for this, there will be agents and editors who will publish such work.
Just don't argue that this is how fantasy stories "have" to be to be believable or that it is only people from other groups who are engaging in wish fulfillment with regards to the kinds of characters and worlds they want to see portrayed.
It's possible the blue eye allele brought from Africa disappeared, and the one from the Baltic is different, or it could even be the same mutation again. But it's also possible the earlier paper didn't look at a large enough population, or their methods may be out of date now. All this genetic information we get is still being revised and modified, and it's a best guess a lot of the time, based on statistics.
As for dogs, there are genetic analysis kits you can get, sort of like a canine 23 and me. They tell you likely breed composition (for adopted dogs), predisposition to certain diseases, and even find close relatives. But people I know have gotten slightly, even dramatically different, results from different companies' kits. I did one called Embark with my dogs, and the results were plausible, pretty much what I'd guessed, but there was still a small amount of uncertainty for a small portion of their DNA for each of them (they say this may mean a distant ancestor who was a "supermutt," but since various breeds are also related if you go far enough back, there's still some uncertainty. I'm guessing this is true for humans too. And they haven't isolated genes for every trait, not by a long sight.
Back to the OP, though. I agree with the others who say it's important to write the story you are comfortable writing. I imagine there are still plenty of white, cishet guys out there for whom wish fulfillment means escaping to a world where only white, cishet guys have any power or do anything of consequence, and where other variants of human either don't exist or are in the background as chattel or highly marginalized aberrancies that aren't mentioned at all. If there is a market for this, there will be agents and editors who will publish such work.
Just don't argue that this is how fantasy stories "have" to be to be believable or that it is only people from other groups who are engaging in wish fulfillment with regards to the kinds of characters and worlds they want to see portrayed.
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