Red-haired people

Red hair, found is most commonly at both the west and eastern fringes of modern Europe, is often associated with those in Britain and Ireland (more specifically the Scots, Irish and North Western England); Scandinavia also has a significant redheaded population.

However, dark red or reddish-tinged hair is also found in other Caucasian populations in Central and Eastern Europe; in West, Central, and South Asia; in North Africa; and in certain of the Australasian islands.

Red hair can be found today from North India, Iran and Pakistan, where it can be found most commonly amongst those of Iranian descent, such as the Pashtuns, all the way to Japan.

Redheads, most common among the Celtic nations of Scotland, Ireland and Wales, currently comprise nearly eleven percent of the population of Scotland's Highlands region and about ten percent of the Irish population.

The red-haired populations of such European countries as Sweden, Denmark, England, and Russia are nearly five percent.

About four percent of ethnic Jews are redheads, and the number of redheads in the US is about two percent, representing well over two million people.The results of a 2001 study, by Oxford & Edinburgh teams of geneticists led by Rosalind Harding caused some to speculate that the gene responsible for red hair may have originated among the Neanderthals some one hundred thousand years ago.

Red-haired people would then be descendants of Neanderthal admixtures to Cro-Magnon, and would have spread from the area of Neanderthal-Cro-Magnon contact.

The extent to which Neanderthals interbred with Homo sapiens is still a matter of debate; but many modern humans carry up to four to five percent Neanderthal DNA.

Edinburgh geneticist J. Rees suggested in 2003 that the gene originated as recently as forty-thousand to twenty-thousand years ago in Europe, well after the human migration from Africa, so that the geographical distribution of red hair would be due to post-glacial expansions from Europe.Red hair is also found in extinct populations of Asia, notably among the Tocharians, whose second millennium BCE Tarim mummies in China were found with red and blond hair, tartan-like woolens (being pastoral) and conical, 'witch-style' hats.

The ancient Egyptians reportedly buried red-haired men alive.

The ancient Greeks believed red hair was a sign that the owners were mentally unbalanced because their humors were in the wrong proportions.

A fragment by Xenophanes describes the Thracians as blue-eyed and red-haired, and Herodotus described the "Budini" (probably Udmurts and Permyak Finns) as being predominantly redheaded.

The Berber and Kabylie populations of northern Algeria have occasional red heads.

In Roman comedy, slaves usually wore wigs of red hair.

Medieval Ukrainians thought red hair signified a vampire.

It is also an attribute of such sun gods as Surya (Vedic) and Cuchulain (Gaelic).

In China, witches were depicted with green eyes and red hair.

A number of the plaid-wearing mummies found entombed in the sands of China's Xinjiang province, who flourished as traders in the 2nd century CE, were redheads.

And is it really true that there has never been a saint with red hair?