I am very much open to correction on this, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that the Aryan Indo-European speaking invaders, although darker-skinned than N. Europeans, were lighter-skinned than the original Dravidian inhabitants of India. Since the Aryans were now the ones with power, their physical characteristics became desirable.
Also, as a general principle, rich people don't spend time working in the fields and incidentally getting sunburnt, so if you want to look as if you're a rich high-status person lighter skin is an advantage.
See the next verse from our Biblical text:
5I am black and beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon. 6Do not gaze at me because I am dark, because the sun has gazed on me. My mother's sons were angry with me; they made me keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept! (added in edit)
Last edited by Bingley; 12/01/05 01:37 AM.
