Questions About Ember of a New World

by Ishtar Watson (Goodreads Author)

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Answered Questions (1)

Ishtar Watson I was not aware that the cover was freaky. What part of the cover appears freaky to you?

Ember is from the very early Neolithic period. Europeans had d…moreI was not aware that the cover was freaky. What part of the cover appears freaky to you?

Ember is from the very early Neolithic period. Europeans had darker skin tone as that time (the switch to lighter skin occurs later in the Neolithic period due to vitamin D issues), but she has green eyes and red hair. This striking combination is not normal to see now, but 7500 years ago it would likely have been come common.

Her face is painted with wood ash and oil-based paints representing per people. She is looking at the "camera" in a noble and respectful way.

A better answer I wrote for my website:

Ember appears on the cover of Ember of a New World wearing a stoic expression. What immediately catches many people off guard is her contrasting dark skin set with bright red hair and emerald green eyes. Is this really a valid portrayal of an early Neolithic woman? Did Europeans always have light skin? New research suggests that this is not true. Ember’s slightly odd skin coloring (as described in the book Ember of a New World, as well as portrayed on the book’s cover) were less the result of exposure to sunlight (tan) and more of a genetic feature. New research recently published in the scholarly journal, Nature, show the findings from sequenced DNA from a number of ancient individuals revealing that many Europeans likely had darker colored skin than previously thought. The genes which govern these coloring may have changed to adapt to the environment and the changing lifestyle of Europeans (Iosif Lazaridis, et al).

As the Mesolithic hunter-gatherer societies of Northern Europe gave way to the Neolithic period and start of farming, larger and larger portions of food were derived from cereals and less from hunting. The result of this shift was a change in how the bodies of these ancient people acquired vitamin D. Meat and organs from animals had been a primary method for vitamin D intake until the advent of farming shifted food intake towards grown cereals, such as wheat. At this point, sunlight became a more advantageous way of creating vitamin D and those who possessed the genes for lighter skin would have very suddenly had a much healthier life.

While those living closer to the equator or replying more heavily on animals and animal products could reap the benefit of darker skin’s enhanced ultraviolet protection, those in higher latitudes and those who ate mostly cereals rapidly shifted from darker to lighter. The fate of those who did not intake enough vitamin D can be deadly, to include Cancer, Asthma, and heart disease (Dunkin, A. M. & Magee, E. MPH, RD.). These ill effects would be impossible for ancient people to attribute to their rapidly changing food sources. Those who were lighter in skin would statistically have lived longer and had a greater chance of passing along their genes.

Ember’s Great River People were only barely Neolithic and continued to possess many Mesolithic traits, such as a higher reliance on animal products. Long before the research had been produced, Ember had been written with this skin coloring. The author had spent significant time considering the factors which seemed most likely and had come to the conclusion, though not empirically, that ancient Europeans would have quite possibly had darker skin. Science has all but confirmed that this supposition is true.

Citations

Iosif Lazaridis , Nick Patterson , Alissa Mittnik , Gabriel Renaud , Swapan Mallick ,Karola Kirsanow , Peter H. Sudmant , Joshua G. Schraiber , Sergi Castellano ,Mark Lipson , Bonnie Berger , Christos Economou , Ruth Bollongino , Qiaomei Fu ,Kirsten Bos , Susanne Nordenfelt , Heng Li , Cesare de Filippo , Kay Prüfer ,Susanna Sawyer , Cosimo Posth , Wolfgang Haak , Fredrik Hallgren , ElinFornander , Nadin Rohland , Dominique Delsate , Michael Francken , Jean-MichelGuinet , Joachim Wahl , George Ayodo , Hamza A. Babiker , Graciela Baillet ,Elena Balanovska , Oleg Balanovsky , Ramiro Barrantes , Gabriel Bedoya , HaimBen-Ami , Judit Bene , Fouad Berrada , Claudio M. Bravi , Francesca Brisighelli ,George B.J. Busby , Francesco Cali , Mikhail Churnosov , David E.C. Cole , DanielCorach , Larissa Damba , George van Driem , Stanislav Dryomov , Jean-MichelDugoujon , Sardana A. Fedorova , Irene Gallego Romero , Marina Gubina ,Michael Hammer , Brenna Henn , Tor Helvig , Ugur Hodoglugil , Aashish R. Jha ,Sena Karachanak-Yankova , Rita Khusainova , Elza Khusnutdinova , Rick Kittles ,Toomas Kivisild , William Klitz , Vaidutis Kučinskas , Alena Kushniarevich , LeilaLaredj , Sergey Litvinov , Theologos Loukidis , Robert W. Mahley , Béla Melegh ,Ene Metspalu , Julio Molina , Joanna Mountain , Klemetti Näkkäläjärvi , DesislavaNesheva , Thomas Nyambo , Ludmila Osipova , Jüri Parik , Fedor Platonov , Olga L. Posukh , Valentino Romano , Francisco Rothhammer , Igor Rudan , RuslanRuizbakiev , Hovhannes Sahakyan , Antti Sajantila , Antonio Salas , Elena B.Starikovskaya , Ayele Tarekegn , Draga Toncheva , Shahlo Turdikulova , IngridaUktveryte , Olga Utevska , René Vasquez , Mercedes Villena , Mikhail Voevoda ,Cheryl Winkler , Levon Yepiskoposyan , Pierre Zalloua , Tatijana Zemunik , AlanCooper , Cristian Capelli , Mark G. Thomas , Andres Ruiz-Linares , Sarah A.Tishkoff , Lalji Singh , Kumarasamy Thangaraj , Richard Villems , David Comas ,Rem Sukernik , Mait Metspalu , Matthias Meyer , Evan E. Eichler , Joachim Burger, Montgomery Slatkin , Svante Pååbo , Janet Kelso , David Reich , JohannesKrause. (April 5, 2014). Ancient human genomes suggest three ancestral populations for present-day Europeans. Accessed online March 16, 2015 at bioRxiv doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/001552. Now published in Nature doi: 10.1038/nature13673

Dunkin, A. M. & Magee, E. MPH, RD. (May 24, 2014 ). Vitamin D Deficiency. Accessed online March 16, 2015 at http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/vit...(less)

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Unanswered Questions (1)

I found this book in a Goodreads giveaway listed as LGBT, and I just read through a lot of reviews, but this wasn't mentioned. I was wondering if this was really an LGBT book, or if it was listed that way for more publicity, or if it was a simple mistake. I bought and plan to read both books soon regardless, I was just curious about the reason?

Answer

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