Dare To Ask Talk And News About Our Differences - This topic has 7 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 23 years, 10 months ago by
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I have noticed that women of Asian and Asian Indian heritage have very high-pitched voices, while people of African heritage, particularly women, often have lower-than-average voice pitch. This is also reflected in their physical body – Asians seem to carry more fat, and those of African heritage, particulary women, seem to have more muscularity. Are these phenomena related to a greater amount of testosterone in African women’s genetic makeup?
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Name : Steve-S27839, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, City : Reading, State : PA, Country : United States, Education level : 4 Years of College,You realize you’re assuming white should be the standard for what is ‘average’? Pretty strange, since whites make up less than 10% of the world’s population. Shouldn’t Asian be considered average, if any group should, since they are the majority of the world’s people? One thing you never thought of is that the culture may denote a way of speaking as feminine. In China and Japan, ‘high’ voices are considered very attractive for women. Notice that Asian-American women usually don’t have that same high voice. (Think of Lucy Lu’s deep voice.) And if you think Asian women are ‘fat’, I wonder if you’ve ever actually been to Asia or looked at news photos from there. 90-100 lbs. for women is pretty typical, and around 120-130 lbs. for the men. (I never realized how truly fat most Americans are until I visited Asia.) That has much more to with diet (not eating such ridiculous amounts of meat as Americans), lifestyle (actually walking everywhere instead of jumping in a car to drive four blocks), and habits of hard work and long hours, than genetics.
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Name : ACC25055, City : W Lafayette, State : IN, Country : United States,If you think about it, most Asians sound alike, with high-pitched voices. For African Americans, there is more of a variance in the voice, probably because so many African Americans have varied cultural backgrounds. I don’t think the level of testosterone has anything to do with the voice along cultural lines, nor does it have anything to do with the storage of fat. Africans had to adapt to the harshness of the sun and therefore developed bodies that burned more muscle than people who were not in the direct rays of the sun.
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Name : Angie24972, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Baptist, Age : 21, City : Nashville, State : TN, Country : United States, Occupation : college student, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,It’s interesting how you compare Asians and Africans with the ‘average’ or ‘norm.’ What norm are you basing this on? You could just as easily ask why white people generally have higher-than-average voices, or have lower-than-average muscle-to-fat ratios. I don’t know why white people have higher-pitched voices than black people, on average. The size and breadth of the larnyx is probably influenced by features of respiration that were probably shaped by climate as people migrated from Africa. The reason may also be partly cultural. High-pitched voices, even in women, are often seen as effeminate or ‘whiny’ by many African Americans.
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Name : TR, Gender : F, Race : Black/African American, City : Newark, State : NJ, Country : United States, Education level : Over 4 Years of College,Historical/pre-historical similarities among people of different ethnic groups tend to converge along latitudinal lines, meaning that people who lived along the equator, whether in Africa, Asia or South America, tended to have certain traits in common. For example, dark skin and broad noses to protect them from the sun and allow them to more efficiently extract oxygen from the less-than-ideal air, respectively. I think that there may be some truth in the original question/hypothesis. I don’t know of any studies that have found a higher concentration of testosterone in people of African descent, but I think it would help explain the differences you mention, which I too, have noticed. The first response mentioned that Africans had to adapt to the harshness of their environment, which is true, but she didn’t take the next stop in the connection, which is to say that part of that adaptation may have been an increased rate and level of testosterone production. Adaptation in this sense doesn’t refer to individual adaptation, like building a shelter; it refers to population adaptation, which, through genetics, happens over (long periods of) time.
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Name : Gregory H., Gender : M, Race : Black/African American, Age : 24, City : New York, State : NY, Country : United States, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class,T.R. – You are right! I was basing my opinions from my own ethnocentric viewpoint (unlike everyone else!). I think that we CAN notice the range of vocal ranges in the human species with some objectivity – going from the very low to the very high and the general prevalence of a particular pitch. For some reason I just seem to be more aware of the prevalence of very high voices in Asian culture (as featured in Indian, Chinese, and other Asian music) and the occassional low voices I hear from Black females. It may be a cultural bias, but I believe that each race has a predominance of a certain trait for whatever reason. Your comment about the ‘norm’ is true! A ‘norm’ often seems to originate from our cultural and family center!
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Name : Steve-S, City : Reading, State : PA, Country : United States,On your point that ‘so many African Americans have varied cultural backgrounds,’ what makes you think Asians don’t have varied backgrounds? I guess because you’re African American, it’s easier for you to notice differences among other African Americans, but all Asians are the same to you, whether they’re from China, India, the Philippines or wherever. Plus, many Asians are mixed with the nationalities of countries that colonized them in the past, such as the English, Spanish, Dutch, etc. So I don’t know where you get off making the statement you made. On the question of voice pitch, I think maybe it has to do with body sizes (shorter vocal cords = higher voices).
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Name : Raquel30236, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Asian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 24, City : Los Angeles, State : CA, Country : United States, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class,Just think about it. It really all has to do with where you produce the sound, and the language you’re speaking. For example, Latin languages are very light and nasal, while Germanic languages are very gutteral. Not much to do with high/low pitch.
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Name : Hurley, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 18, City : Berea, State : OH, Country : United States, Education level : High School Diploma, Social class : Middle class,
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