The "purpose" of a trait like eye color could be translated to the evolutionary advantage of eye color. I'm not 100% sure we've determined an evolutionary advantage of brown eyes, though some have suggested that the darker the eyes, the more resistant to sunlight they are. This is to some extent supported by the idea that albinos are more photosensitive than non-albinos. This might be true in humans, but not in all mammals. It has been proven, for instance, that albino ferrets are not more photosensitive than non-albino ferrets. So there may or may not be anything to the idea that dark eyes make you less photosensitive.
In any case, it is possible that, in addition to it being a recessive trait, lighter eyes have an evolutionary disadvantage, rather than brown eyes having an evolutionary advantage. As with Waardenburg's Syndrome, which is common in many types of mammals, the possibility exists that mammals with lighter eyes are less likely to also possess certain other survival traits, like the ability to hear. Among humans and other domestic mammals, this becomes less of an issue, because there is protection from predators, but in the wild, such animals simply would not survive.
There are probably lots of theories, but I'm not sure any one really knows what the "purpose" of eye color is, let alone the reason why most mammals have brown eyes.
Jan 18 2004, 2:55 PM