Re: Biology of genocide

Randomly aiding a Hutu neighbor (Hamilton requires largess to be handed over
randomly)) who has 20 genes different on average (on strictly a gene-by-gene
fitness independent basis) only because one Tutsi wife differs 5 times more
(has 100 genes that are different on average) allows I Hutu stranger to be
worth 5 Tutsi wives (on just a balance of gene probabilities).
The example given was oversimplified. The numbers are entirely
imaginary. The mere counting of genes implies a "canalization" of
developmental pathways that probably doesn't exist. Genes that
represent enzymes interact. However, the idea can be valid for any
model of heredity which includes any form of canalization. It doesn't
change the idea if we substitute "epigene" for gene, or "developmental
loop" for gene, or "methylated gene" for gene, or even "tribal meme".
Hamilton's idea is quite general, and isn't tied to DNA per se. If

What you
have failed to consider is how many children each of these wives could have
reproduced if you had not of killed any of them.
If he thinks that his semiTutsi children stand a larger chance of
being killed, though they are real, than his anticipated pure Hutu
children, he may chose the anticipated children, even though they are
imaginary. The chance that he may be prevented from having more
children if he stays the course. He may be killed, or become so busy
fighting for his Tutsi family that he can't have more children, or goes
broke while running away with his Tutsi family. However, if he goes
along with the Hutu mob, then he may know that he can find a new wife
and start up again with very little trouble. Human beings specialize in
modeling the future. However, any animal faced with a cyclic
environment could evolve behaviors that anticipate reality.

If you murder all of your wives before any of them have reproduced at all
you only end up killing off your own _interdependent_ Darwinian fitness.
Murdering females always allows an UNACCOUNTED FOR inclusive fitness LOSS
because you can never know how many children she may have reproduced by you
if you had not killed her.
Please don't identify me with that Hutu father. I don't share his
values or live in his society. However, I do know how many more
children my wife wants (none), what she would do if she got pregnant
(abort it), and so I do know with a high probability how many children
my wife and I will have (none). In a similar way, I suppose the Hutu
father can also estimate odds as to his opportunities with and without
Tutu wife. I suspect that he is at least as smart as me, maybe smarter.
He lives with Hutu's and Tutsi's. He knows most of the people in the
village, including his wife

IOW they were never
EMPIRICALLY EQIVALENT fitnesses as Hamilton et al falsely assume that they
are.
I agree that it is only a model. It is definitely ambiguous and
oversimplified. Human behavior, and even animal behavior, is not that
simple. The behavior of many subcultures completely contradict this
model: the Shakers, the homosexuals, my family, etc.
My point was that kin selection model may have some truth in
it, even in the case of human genocide. Not the entire explanation,
just part of it The evidence cited earlier does not contradict the
model.>


.

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