Keloids and Sexual Selection

Incidence of soft‐tissue cancers in blacks and whites in New York State

“…It is noteworthy that scarification practices have been widespread in Africa (Franklin et al, 1981;Murdock 1934); enhanced wound-healing and protection against possible subsequent infection may have been adaptive. Others have speculated that a tendency toward enhanced woundhealing and scarring (especially keloids) may have conferred higher fertility (Bohrod, 1937) through sexual selection, as intimated by Charles Darwin (in 1871, cited in Moulton-Levy et al, 1984). Whatever the mechanism, it may be hypothesized that certain genes involved in response to injury and protection against infection may have been at a selective advantage in certain African populations.…”