Re: Bi-racial people are more attractive
Henry T Robertson (htrst1+@pitt.edu)
3 Feb 1995 05:47:30 GMT
In article <3gs1f5$pm2@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>,
Sima Desai <sd9236@ehibm5.cen.uiuc.edu> wrote:
>I was of the feeling that the propagation of the 'good' gene depended more
>heavily on the strenght of its adaptive advantage than its 'dilutabilty'
>due to out-breeding. Acquiring the chance at as many good gene as possible
>into the local pool would be ideal, and let the yukky fooey genes fall out
>over time.
That assumes a static environment. Environments even in the same location
change all the time. What are the genes most suited to thriving in a
modern society? Well, it so happens that intelligent people usually don't
have as many children as stupid people. Poor people usually have more children
than rich people. So, purely in terms of population genetics it may pay
to be poor and dumb. The intelligent rich person will probably lead a
happier life, but as long as we have things like welfare poor people are not
in danger of becoming an extinct species.
>>The effect breeding population for almost any species is much smaller than
>>the total population, and therefore you get subspeciation rather than
>>homogenization through more wide-spread gene mixing. Through time these
>Uhm.. I think we're drifting over my head, but I'll try to stay on.
I think the person meant effective breeding population? The number of
individuals necessary to have a community that does not suffer from inbreeding
is much less than the total number of individuals of that species.
Humans living on different parts of the planet have inbred within their
ethnic communities for millenia, but there have not been epidemics of
mass mental retardation or anything like that. If the argument of hybrid
bigor is true, then it ought to be true that mixed-race individuals are
all geniuses. Are Latin Americans all "geniuses"?
>>survive and others die off. If, however, from the very beginning the entire
>>population of the original species were able to interbreed, tossing those
>>genes into a species-wdie waring blender and ensuring complete random mixing,
>>the whole species might die off during the subsequent environmental change.
>This is all true and possible, but isn't it also possible the entire species
>might survive becasue they all had access to the 'good' gene? Besides,
>it would seem to me the low-gene-mixing-and-subspeciation-can-be-good
>statements you make immediately above apply solely in the case of
>environment shift. Given a stable envivironement such a benefit would not
>be realized.
Over the history of evolution, species have evolved because of isolation.
The monkeys that stayed up in the trees became the chimps, and the monkeys
that decided to hunt on the ground became the humans. Because our kin in
the trees have been genetically isolated from us for so long, we have entirely
different bodies, and cannot even produce children between us anymore.
If we could, soc.couples.intercultural might be a considerably more intersting
place. :) What do ______ (insert ethnicity here) men/women think of
chimp men/women? I'm about 1/8 gorilla, 1/2 human, 3/8 lemur and
I'm proud of my heritage! Primate power!
There were several different competing subspecies of hominids earlier in
evolution, and it so happened that the homo sapiens clan had the best
combination of traits and luck. Neanderthals and gigantipithicus never had
such luck. If they did, the world would be a considerably more diverse place
today. Basketball would be an unfair game indeed if some of us were 9 feet
tall. Neanderthals would have an unfair advantage in bench pressing if
their pectorals are twice the width of them sapiens. Olympics would be
more dull.
>next question is: Is the human race under changing environmental conditions
>enough to warrant preference for outbreeding or inbreeding? I bet people
>are going to get really mad that I asked that publicly.
I assume those "changing environmental conditions" will at times favor
inbreeding, as in the case of Inuit in Northern Greenland, and at other
times favor outbreeding to make peace with the White man. We have the
situation in modern Native American societies where half-breeds often become
mediators for their communities.
|