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The Twists and Turns of History, and of DNA
NY Times Week in Review ^ | March 12, 2006 | NICHOLAS WADE

Posted on 03/12/2006 4:38:20 AM PST by Pharmboy

Edited on 03/12/2006 2:16:46 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]

EAST ASIAN and European cultures have long been very different, Richard E. Nisbett argued in his recent book "The Geography of Thought." East Asians tend to be more interdependent than the individualists of the West, which he attributed to the social constraints and central control handed down as part of the rice-farming techniques Asians have practiced for thousands of years.

A separate explanation for such long-lasting character traits may be emerging from the human genome. snip...

If so, scientists and historians say, a fresh look at history may be in order. Evolutionary changes in the genome could help explain cultural traits that last over many generations as societies adapted to different local pressures.

snip...

But like phrenology, a wrong idea that held a basic truth (the brain's functions are indeed localized), the concept of national character could turn out to be not entirely baseless, at least when applied to societies shaped by specific evolutionary pressures.

In a study of East Asians, Europeans and Africans, Dr. Pritchard and his colleagues found 700 regions of the genome where genes appear to have been reshaped by natural selection in recent times. In East Asians, the average date of these selection events is 6,600 years ago.

Many of the reshaped genes are involved in taste, smell or digestion, suggesting that East Asians experienced some wrenching change in diet. Since the genetic changes occurred around the time that rice farming took hold, they may mark people's adaptation to a historical event,


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Germany; Japan; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: behavior; genes; genetics; nature; nurture; psychology
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Seems too fast and recent...but must await more data.
1 posted on 03/12/2006 4:38:21 AM PST by Pharmboy
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To: thefactor; blam; aculeus; SunkenCiv; CobaltBlue; martin_fierro

Genes/DNA/behavior PING...


2 posted on 03/12/2006 4:40:03 AM PST by Pharmboy (The stone age didn't end because they ran out of stones.)
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To: AnalogReigns; caryatid; CobaltBlue; Emmalein; grey_whiskers; Jessarah; Ol' Sox; Old Student; ...
Genetic
Genealogy
Send FReepmail if you want on/off GGP list
Marty = Paternal Haplogroup O(2?)(M175)
GG LINKS:
African Ancestry
DNAPrint Genomics
FamilyTree DNA
mitosearch
Nat'l Geographic Genographic Project
Oxford Ancestors
RelativeGenetics
Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation
Trace Genetics
ybase
ysearch
The List of Ping Lists

Mysteries of the Genome.

3 posted on 03/12/2006 4:49:16 AM PST by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: Pharmboy

More reasonable than many think. Essentially we are domesticated critters with very high, and until recently localized, selection pressures.


4 posted on 03/12/2006 5:03:19 AM PST by From many - one.
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To: Pharmboy

So, the NYT discovers little brown brothers in a bowl of rice.
And it turns out rice converted Uncle Ben. Made him less independent, more cooperative.
Quittin' tiiiiiiime!!


5 posted on 03/12/2006 5:07:20 AM PST by Graymatter (J31-F28-M31...why not J30-F30-M30?)
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To: Pharmboy

Because of the NYT agenda, I have to assume that this is their latest attempt at justifying socialism. i.e., the Chinese are communists because they are genetically programmed to be communists.... and the stuff about the Jews is too creepy.


6 posted on 03/12/2006 5:09:24 AM PST by Mercat (I trust my President)
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To: Pharmboy
post-coffee consumption mark
7 posted on 03/12/2006 5:09:34 AM PST by True Capitalist
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To: Pharmboy
The way this started out, I had to double-check that this was really the NY Times and not from a white supremacist web site. But as someone who believes that behavior is nature and nurture, this is going to be a hard sell to the millions of American kids who are taught in college with absolute certainty that humans are born as a clean slate and that there is no such thing as "human nature" -- well except sexual orientation and gender, of course. They are taught that's inborn. But everything else is a blank slate.
8 posted on 03/12/2006 5:25:15 AM PST by Question_Assumptions
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To: Pharmboy
Remember: This is from the New York Times; so ?????????
9 posted on 03/12/2006 5:49:02 AM PST by Savage Beast (9/11 was never repeated--thanks to President George W. Bush!)
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To: Pharmboy
The normal population exhibits an inherited allergy to seafood or fish in about 48% of its members. The Norwegian population exhibits the same allergy in about 2% of its members.

This allergy can be fatal ~ particularly to humans living North of 30 degrees where cows can't. Fish then become almost the only source of vitamin D.

So, one might ask, just how rapidly did the fish allergy gene variant get worked out of the human system in this environment? Was it 7,000 years ~ the date of the oldest Sa'ami petroglyphs, or was it 10,000 years ~ the date of the last big glacial meltdown? Could it have been earlier even?

These numbers are pretty much consistent with the numbers cited in the article.

10 posted on 03/12/2006 6:05:25 AM PST by muawiyah (-)
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To: Mercat

BTW, the "creepy" stuff is actually pretty dreadful if you are the younger sister in a family that wants you to marry your uncle so the family fortune can be protected in the next generation.


11 posted on 03/12/2006 6:07:24 AM PST by muawiyah (-)
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To: muawiyah

I would not argue generalities about what you said, but a few specifics: no way is allergy to fish 48%; and, we do not need much sunlight to make vit D in our skin, which, by the way, is more effective than the dietary D. So, even the Danes or Swedes with a bit of exposure to the sun make all the D they need. We did have a rickets problem in Chicago almost 100 years ago, but that was only among African Americans.


12 posted on 03/12/2006 7:56:05 AM PST by Pharmboy (The stone age didn't end because they ran out of stones.)
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To: Pharmboy
Yup, fish allergies are 48%. There are "mild" to "severe" reactions. Not everybody gets hospitalized, nor is the reaction the same every time. Sometimes it's just a disturbing bowel movement.

The whole business is genetic. Still, it's a serious enough problem in the higher latitudes that there is, in fact, a human population where it has been almost completely eliminated by the process the Evolutionists refer to as the demigod "Natural Selection".

13 posted on 03/12/2006 8:04:06 AM PST by muawiyah (-)
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To: Pharmboy
As far as using sunlight to make Vitamin D, that's very true. However, at 30 degrees North you have half a year without sufficient sunlight to do the job even if you ran around naked, and it's too cold to do that.

Cows need grass, and there's little forage in those areas. Reindeer can eat lichens and mushrooms, of course, that it takes a gazillion of those critters to support a handful of people.

BTW, the Swedes, for the most part, are NOT the same people as the Norwegians. They just happen to speak the same language!

14 posted on 03/12/2006 8:06:36 AM PST by muawiyah (-)
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To: muawiyah

Nope--no way. You have bad information. I have been in health care for 35 years and this would be considered a reasonable source. I am sure there are others:



1: J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2004 Jul;114(1):159-65. Related Articles, Links


Comment in:
J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2004 Jul;114(1):127-30.

Prevalence of seafood allergy in the United States determined by a random telephone survey.

Sicherer SH, Munoz-Furlong A, Sampson HA.

Elliot and Roslyn Jaffe Food Allergy Institute, Division of Allergy and Immunology, Department of Pediatrics, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY 10029-6574, USA. scott.sicherer@mssm.edu

BACKGROUND: Seafood allergy is potentially severe, but the prevalence of this group of food allergies in the US population has not been determined. OBJECTIVE: To estimate the prevalence of seafood (fish, shellfish) allergy in the United States. METHODS: We performed a nationwide, cross-sectional, random telephone survey by using a standardized questionnaire. Criteria were established in advance to define seafood allergy by report of convincing symptoms and physician evaluation. RESULTS: A total of 5529 households completed the survey (67.3% participation rate), representing a census of 14,948 individuals. Fish or shellfish allergy defined by established criteria was reported in 5.9% (95% CI, 5.3%-6.6%) of households and among individuals as follows: 2.3% (95% CI, 2%-2.5%) for any seafood allergy, 2% for shellfish, 0.4% for fish, and 0.2% for both types. Seafood allergy was more common in adults compared with children (2.8% vs 0.6%; P <.001) and in women compared with men (3.6% vs 2%; P <.001). Recurrent reactions were reported by 58%, dyspnea or throat tightness was reported by more than 50%, and 16% were treated with epinephrine. Despite this level of acuity, only 8.6% were prescribed self-injectable epinephrine. The rate of reactions to multiple fish among those with any fish allergy was 67%; for Crustacea the rate was 38%, and for mollusks the rate was 49%; only 14% with crustacean allergy reported a mollusk allergy. CONCLUSIONS: Physician-diagnosed and/or convincing seafood allergy is reported by 2.3% of the general population, or approximately 6.6 million Americans. Affected individuals typically report recurrent and sometimes severe reactions, indicating that seafood allergy represents a significant health concern. Copyright 2004 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology


15 posted on 03/12/2006 8:10:47 AM PST by Pharmboy (The stone age didn't end because they ran out of stones.)
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To: muawiyah

The more you write, the worse it seems to get. The Norwegians and Swedes speak different languages, but are close genetically. It is the Finns that are not Scandinavians, perhaps that is whom you were thinking of. And, while sunight is down low about 4 months/year, we make D and store it in the liver--fair skinned people do not need much exposure.


16 posted on 03/12/2006 8:14:15 AM PST by Pharmboy (The stone age didn't end because they ran out of stones.)
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To: Pharmboy
Yup, dug it up on the internet from reputable sources. You should be able to do the same in less than 5 minutes.

I was surprised that the gene most associated with seafood reactions was in 48% of the population, but all that means is that it isn't all that important ~ that the demigod "Natural Selection" is neutral when it comes to that gene.

On the other hand, the demigod changes his mind up in the Northernmost latitudes.

There, when your primary dietary substance is a dead fish with an occassional reindeer, a fish allergy of any degree is definitely a problem ~ a fatal one too.

BTW, I have not found any information of a clinical nature concerning Eskimo fish allergies. Possibly no one bothered to look.

17 posted on 03/12/2006 8:16:39 AM PST by muawiyah (-)
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To: muawiyah

I posted a peer-reviewed source from the allergy literature. If you can't back up your claim, I understand.


18 posted on 03/12/2006 8:22:01 AM PST by Pharmboy (The stone age didn't end because they ran out of stones.)
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To: Pharmboy
Actually, Pharmboy, there are THREE official versions of your basic Old West Gothic current in Norway, plus 9 extant versions of the Sa'ami languages, with 2 others either extinct or spoken only in a handful of families.

However, Old West Gothic has other variants. One is in Iceland. One is in Sweden. One is in various parts of Finland. And one of them is in Denmark (or maybe two since one of them has a tremendous German vocabulary) Old West Gothic as spoken in United Kingdom is extinct.

These guys humor themselves that Old West Gothic has changed into mutually unintelligible languages. Whenever I've needed a translation (of any version of Old West Gothic) into English (where I could not figure it out myself) I've tossed it to a Norwegian, Swede or Dane to work it out.

Still, when you take a look at the origins and lifestyle of the people in the various countries, the Norwegians stand out in several respects. One is that they have the highest percentage of Sa'ami ancestry, and the lowest percentage of Norse ancestry.

Norwegians also have had a very high percentage of the population engaged in whaling and fishing for dozens of centuries ~ and there's little farming as you and I would know it that can take place in the greater part of the country where people live.

Norwegians eat fish. Other people eat other things. Norwegians eat fish. That's what they had for a very long time. Even the Sa'ami are supposed to carry around a frozen fish in their jackets as an emergency ration. I don't know how true that is, but every book about the Sa'ami always notes the fish in the jacket.

19 posted on 03/12/2006 8:28:05 AM PST by muawiyah (-)
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To: Pharmboy
I've read your peer reviewed material too ~ it's based on clinical observations in an American population, right? That's what it says it is. And it looked for "convincing" symptoms of a fish allergy.

Later research available in Scandinavian publications (on the net, in English) concern genes associated with fish allergies.

Not everybody with the gene shows a reaction ~

20 posted on 03/12/2006 8:31:18 AM PST by muawiyah (-)
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