Last weekend when I was doing my first post on Pirates of the Caribbean (go see the movie if you haven’t), I was doing some research on Wikipedia about the origin of the phrase "Dead Man’s Chest." I knew it was from a sea shanty, but I didn’t remember the full lyrics of it.
TURNS OUT IT APPEARS TO BE FROM A SHANTY MADE UP BY ROBERT LOUIS STEPHENSON IN TREASURE ISLAND.
Though it may be based on a real-life event involving Blackbeard the pirate.
That got me to thinking: There have been quite a number of pirates known by the color of their beards, but I couldn’t remember which of them were real and which were fictional. (I’m not much of a pirate expert, I’m afraid.)
I remembered hearing about "Bluebeard," for example (I think in a Scooby-Doo cartoon I saw as a kid or something), but I couldn’t remember if Bluebeard was real or fictional. So I Wikipediaed him.
Turns out he was a fictional aristocrat rather than a pirate.
I also remembered that there was a movie about pirates called Yellowbeard (though I never saw that and suspect I wouldn’t like it).
And there’s a comicbook character called Redbeard.
"Just how far does this go?" I wondered. "There can’t be many more pirate characters with colored facial hair designations."
So I typed in "greenbeard" and, sure enough, there was no such pirate.
BUT THERE WAS A SCIENTIFIC CONCEPT KNOWN AS "THE GREEN BEARD EFFECT."
The basic idea is that there might be sets of genes that cause an organism to have a particular characteristic and to be altruistically disposed to other organisms that share that characteristic, even if they are otherwise unrelated. The gene set would thus promote its own replication apart from a close family connection.
For example, suppose that there were a gene set that caused certain humans to have green beards. Such people might form a kind of mutual defense league.
Supposedly they’ve actually documented the green beard effect in, of all things, red fire ants.
I don’t know if they need to look that far, though.
I don’t want to give away any secrets of the Red Headed League, but I’ve noticed that women who are or who used to be red heads often seek to engage me in what I can only describe as "red-head mutual bonding conversations" (e.g., complimenting my hair color, observing that it’s a darker red on the sides of my head than on the top, telling me about their hair color and things they may have done to maintain or accentuate it). Guys don’t do this, but then guys don’t generally talk much about their hair color in my experience (except to complain about gray).
Being a guy, I don’t have much to say in such conversations, but I’ve been struck by the number of times present and former red heads start them with me, and there’s a definite, positive "Hey, we’re two of a kind" vibe that comes across, even from women old enough to be my grandmother and whose hair is now white.
I also suspect that this effect–if I understand it correctly–is all over the place in biology, even across species.
For example, it’s often been remarked that the reason we find puppies and kittens so cute is that they, like our own offspring, have big heads and big eyes compared to their mature forms. Mammals that have big heads and big eyes in infancy get perceived by us as cute and we want to take care of them, which promotes their survival. They trigger the parenting instinct in us.
There thus may be a set of genes that produce the quality of having a big head and big eyes in infancy and that foster altruism toward those organisms that have this quality, even in other species.
It never ceases to amaze me how interest in a particular subject can lead to learning about another (seemingly) unrelated subject. I do this all the time. If I open a dictionary, I could get lost for an hour, easily!
Cool post, Jimmy!
BTW, there was a doc on Blackbeard on the History channel (or was it Discovery?) over the weekenend. I caught a promo for it. It as along the lines of “Blackbeard: Truth or Fiction” though not quite that . . . silly.
Oh heck, what does science know?
Redheads are attracted to redbeards because they KNOW that here is a wicked good blend of the passionately fiery and a Huck Finn simplicity.
(Unless one is Howdy Doody.)
“Have you ever considered piracy? You’d make a wonderful Dread Pirate Roberts.”
Okay, this is going to show the geek in me!
I have done a lot of research on genetics and hair color is fascinating and extremely complex. The most complex hair color – you guessed it – red! This is because in addition to being recessive, there are two genes specifically for red hair that have to be inherited recessively and “turned on” to get the typical bright red hair. These genes can also turn on and off at different points in life, usually toddlerhood or adolescence.
This is why red hair is actually becoming much less common as people travel and mate different ethnic backgrounds. Some even estimate that in another 100 years, you may not see much red hair at all, even though there will be carriers still out there.
“It’s all part of piratin’, lad!”
I can’t believe that JA made a presumption about a film based on a wikipedia entry!
Jimmy, if you like Monty Python humor, you’ll appreciate Yellowbeard. Yes, it’s got some bawdy humor in it, and it makes fun of the Spanish Inquisition by casting Tommy Chong as a Spanish priest, but the movie itself is pretty funny.
(chief of secret service to a spy, who happens to be blind)
Chief: Did you see… (to first mate) he’s blind you stupid twit!
Spy (with Cockney accent): I may be blind, but I `ave acute `earing.
Chief: I’m not interested in your jewelry…
Rent it from Lackluster, if you like Monty Python at all.
but I’ve noticed that women who are or who used to be red heads often seek to engage me in what I can only describe as “red-head mutual bonding conversations”
Don’t knock it. Who knows, it may give you a head start to the future Mrs. Jimmy Akin.
I believe that redheads are getting rarer. My father’s hair was bright red, my mother’s strawberry. 2 out of 3 of their children inherited the bright red of our father. Out of 7 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren, there are no redheads. My son was born w/ red hair but when his baby fuzz was replaced, he was white blond. His beard was red when it first came in but by the time he was 30, it was the same dark blond as his hair. I didn’t like having red curly hair as a child. Hated the catcalls and teasing. Now I enjoy the difference – and not needing perms.
I used to have a lot of red in my mustache. Now, the red is a different color, which is why I don’t have a mustache any more. (The brown seems to be holding its color, even now in my fifties).
The red haired gene is definitely *not* dying out in my family. Two of my kids have very red hair, and third is more of an auburn. What really upsets me, though, is that my hair has lost a lot of red the last few years, shifting more towards brown. It’s gotten to the point that people that didn’t know me ten years ago ask me, “Where does she (my daughter) get that bright red hair?!?? Does her father have red hair?” Waaaah…
There was a real Barbary pirate called “Redbeard,” only he wasn’t a redhead. His arabic name was Italianized into Barbarossa.
My mom and I both have hair as red as it gets (hers is turning very slowly to white), but none of my 4 kids have it. Maybe one of my future kids will inherit it.
As far as the red-headed kinship thing goes, I had a funny experience when we visited Italy and the gentleman working at a hotel we were staying in was thrilled to encounter another red-head (must not be too many there?) that he kept calling me “My brother!”
Mike P. – It could have been a red-headed brotherhood thing, or… When I was in Rome, though, they called me “Mother” in a sort of affectionate way and I had/have no idea why. I’ve got fair Nordic-Anglo coloring/features. “Mother” to me sounds so matronly and I’m 33 and look even younger; not exactly “matronly” the way I think of it anyway. I found it charming but perplexing.
Like others, I used to be a redbeard. My question is about the grey beard effect.
Some years ago there was an advertisement on TV by the Montreal Canadiens hockey legend Maurice “Rocket” Richard for a product called “Grecian Formula”.
Now, as Roman Catholic, as opposed to a Byzantine, is a “Grecian Formula” permitted or should I be looking for a “Roman or Latin” Formula?
However, I do notice that the Kyrie is in fact Greek. So I am confused.
Any suggestions?