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Re: Reply to Rindos re genetic drift
wilkr (wilkr@INDIANA.EDU)
Wed, 18 May 1994 11:05:41 -0600
Just a short note; I seem to remember from a research paper on genetic
drift I wrote as a grad student, that Wright actually demonstrated
mathematically that drift could work in quite large populations, as long
there is little selective pressure on two alleles. The math was quite
elegant and simple.
Rick Wilk
>
> Sorry, Dave. But then, drift as genetic or evolutionary process just
> is not like the kind of drift you're talking about in flowers.
>
> Footnote of sorts: In 30 years of teaching introductory anthro, in
> places ranging from small community colleges to big ten universities,
> genetic drift is one of the things I've had the hardest time teaching
> because my students have almost no knowledge of statistics. I can
> make Hardy-Weinberg makes sense; I can get across some idea of what
> cross-cousin marriage might mean; I can even sometimes get my stu-
> dents to accept the fact that their culture(s) can be just as
> strange and arbitrary as any others. But genetic drift never seems
> to get through to them.
>
> mike salovesh anthropology dept, northern illinois univ
> <t20mxs1@niu.bitnet> OR <t20mxs1@mvs.cso.niu.edu>
>
> "Anthropologists just don't count in this world. If we could
> count, we'd be economists. But if we understood economics we sure
> as hell never would have chosen to be anthropologists!"
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