Without going too far back in time, let's say until the 1970's, everyone and particularly people more exposed to sun - tyically peasants, farmers, fishermen and similar - would have been fully clothed (long sleeve shirts, long trousers) and would always, and I mean always, wear a hat when outdoors.

The whole idea of sun bathing is as well relatively recent, I believe going back to the early years of the past century and was anyway limited to very few.

And, as anecdata only - in the '70's - I was a child/kid and when we went to the seaside there were a few rules (carved in stone) by my granny:

1) you get to the beach no later than 8:00

2) you get out of the beach no later than 11:00

3) you can optionally go back to the beach no earlier than 16:00

4) for the first 15 days of holidays you stay under the tent/umbrella at all times except when taking a bath

Neatly avoids peak UV hours, certainly.

Clothing. Part of the issue is we have a bikini-body culture and the money to spend on sunscreen.

But if you look at people who spend a lot of time in the sun professionally, they rely on long sleeve shirts and pants to protect themselves.

> But if you look at people who spend a lot of time in the sun professionally, they rely on long sleeve shirts and pants to protect themselves.

And hats!

Aye, I don't wear sunscreen as it tends to irritate my skin. Long sleeves and pants do the job just fine, usually; but the fabric matters! Ie, a thin cotton T will provide a little protection, but you'll still get burned eventually.

Dying before you grow old enough to get cancer does the trick. Remember to reproduce before that.

Ancient Rome gives you something like a life expectancy of 50 years if you survived being a baby.

But I also think ancient Romans would not lay in a tanning booth, or be indoors for 10 months and then take a 7 day trip to Mexico and burn to a crisp on the beach.

Today, the average age of Melanoma diagnosis is 63, so they very well may have still died by large before typical onset.

https://www.curemelanoma.org/about-melanoma/melanoma-statist...

Also, 50 is pretty young. Skin cancer would probably not get most people before they were 50, even with a lot of sun exposure. I bet some did die of skin cancer younger than 50, too.

MRNA treatments should be able to handle this soonish.

This doesn't seem connected to the question of how people historically have avoided dying of skin cancer?

People lived up to reasonable ages if they reached adolescence.

The idea that everybody died young is a myth.

Not on average, the odds of living to be 70 where quite low in primitive societies compared to today. That said sure some people live to be 90+.

This. Thanks.

Nearly everyone's skin color/melanin-level was adapted to where they were born.

Dark skin gives you some protection from sun, but not nearly enough - somewhere around SPF 10 IIRC.

Increased melanin level helped, but didn’t solve the problem. It’s evolution driven, so it gave people living in more sunny places enough of protection, so they can reproduce.

Except East Asians, who according to my information (...I couldn't find a reference quickly) descended not-so-long ago from something like Inuit or Siberians. At least they can get tanned, it seems, as easily or better than Central Europeans.

Maybe we didn't! I recall reading about Egyptians using jasmine and rice-based sunscreen.

We survived winters without fur. Perhaps sunscreen isn't much different. Mud slathered on our bodies to avoid painful sunburns in Summer could've worked fine for 300,000 years just as animal hide and straw worked to avoid freezing to death in Winter.

But there may be more to it. I wonder if the intensity of the Sun and/or the strength of Earth's magnetic field could fluctuate more than current science has been able to determine.

Also all kind of hats and clothing to protect from the sun. Desert dwellers wrapped themselves as best as they could.

Mankind made it a long way without antiseptics, antibiotics, or electricity. I'm not sure what your point is.

People didn't travel to sunny areas every summer to sun bath, I don't think sun bathing was even considered an enjoyable activity until very recently.

Mankind evolved locally to handle sun, the problem is when your average pale as fuck northerner decides to go to Mallorca for 2 weeks in July

I love reading all the speculative answers you're getting. Can anyone give something more solid? Like maybe an anthropoligist's POV?

I will give my own : I believe skin cancer and hayfever are diseases of 'modernity' ( I don't have the proper English term right now ). Office life.

If I just go outside often enough as soon as it is nice ( March, April ), I get no sunburn nor hayfever.

Given that animals can also get skin cancer from excessive sun exposure, I think your basis for this belief is flawed.

Also not burning in the sun doesn't indicate anything, not everyone gets sunburn and it doesn't mean your skin cells DNA are not being damanged and increasing the chance of cancer.

Prehaps more relevant to modern life is the ozone layer was vastly stronger in the past which filtered out the damaging frequencies.

Stay out the sun!

I always hear this about allergies and I vehemently disagree. I grew up on a rural acreage a half mile from my grandfathers farm. Between home and the farm I was constantly exposed to all the allergens someone can be exposed to - horses, cows, cats, dogs, pollen, you name it, I spent a bunch of time with it starting from birth. I was and still am allergic to all of it.

I got a big floppy sun hat like you see the ultra-runners or toddlers at the beach wearing. I look like a dork but I can take the kids out all day riding bikes, fishing, playground and don't need sunscreen.

I still sunscreen the kids because they take their hats off all the time.

People did and do wear clothing that covers all of their skin when outside for any period of time.

because after a few weeks at the beginning of summer getting horrific burns you would tan enough for it to stop being too bad (and the eventual skin cancer would historically be the least of your concerns)

Skin cancer typically hits way after the age that most people have kids

Surviving is a low bar