Re: Class based societies and inbreeding?
- From: William Morse <wdmorse@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 13:42:30 -0400 (EDT)
"Ron O" <rokimoto@xxxxxxx> wrote in news:e6k8em$15ov$1
@darwin.ediacara.org:
to
John Wilkins wrote:
kramer <kodream@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I can't help but wonder, are class based societies inherently prone
apparentinbreeding?
Is there any evidence of this in literature. Other than mental
retardation are there any other physical signs that could be
to distinguish an inbred society?
Inbreeding among the upper classes is pretty common - they even used
animal husbandry notions of "good stock" and so forth. But there was a
continuous introgression across classes.
--
John S. Wilkins, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Biohumanities Project
University of Queensland - Blog: evolvethought.blogspot.com
"He used... sarcasm. He knew all the tricks, dramatic irony, metaphor,
bathos, puns, parody, litotes and... satire. He was vicious."
It was also done in certain societies to keep the wealth in the family.
Inbreeding in Japan wasn't so much for social class, but due to the
constraints of an agrarian society. The oldest son inherits
everything. You can't split the family farm and expect it to remain
viable. It was common for this brother to give his daughters in
marriage to the less fortunate male sibs also first cousin matings were
common for the same reason.
My guess is that it worked that way in many cultures.
The low genetic load found in humans (around 2.5) may be the result of
recent inbreeding. Heck just a few centuries ago most humans probably
never even went to the next town or village let alone across the globe
to a melting pot like the United States.
My recollection is that research on Y-chromosome DNA has shown that men
remain fairly stationary (not surprising given that most cultures are
patrilocal), but that mitochondrial DNA shows that women move much
farther - so that inbreeding may not be all that common. And did you ever
wonder what the real purpose of the county fair was?
Yours,
Bill Morse
.
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- Class based societies and inbreeding?
- From: kramer
- Re: Class based societies and inbreeding?
- From: Ron O
- Class based societies and inbreeding?
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