Ancestry

Harry Erwin (herwin@gmu.edu)
Sat, 12 Aug 1995 21:03:39 -0400

Sometime in the last year, an article was published in Nation or New
Republic that discussed some of the arbitrary legal distinctions that been
made in enforcing apartheid. The point was made that 'white' afrikaners
averaged about 60% European and 40% African ancestry, which made the
exercise more than a little difficult. A few days ago, Phil Rushton posted
an article to the Human Behavior and Evolution Society listserver that
more or less gloated about recent statistics showing that IQ tests of
'coloureds' averaged 15 points less than those of 'whites', and tests of
'black africans' averaged about 30 points less. When I asked "I believe
the figure for "whites' in South Africa is about 60% European ancestry and
about 40% African on the average. How does that affect the model?", it was
like I had hit some sort of hot button. In part, his words were: "Does
Erwin really believe what he wrote or did impetuosity overcome him? White
South Africans actually 40 percent Black, did he say? On what incredible
data base is he making that statement? . . ."

Peter Frost added: "I'd like to see the primary source for those figures.
I remember reading a study that said that the origins of Dutch-speaking
Afrikaners were one third Dutch, one third other European (mainly German
and French) and one third non-European (mainly Malays, Indians, and
Hottentot)."

Now, I'm leaving on an trip in two days. I looked around for the journal,
but my son said he'd tossed it, and I don't have time to chase it down
before I leave. Can a reader of this newsgroup provide either a citation,
or better yet a primary source?

-- 
Harry Erwin
Internet: herwin@gmu.edu
Home Page: http://osf1.gmu.edu/~herwin (try again if necessary)
PhD student in comp neurosci: "Glitches happen" & "Meaning is emotional"