Human Evolution Seems to Be Accelerating (Jews evolved from "financing!")

AP via Fox News ^ | 12-11-07

[squireofgothos]

above-average intelligence in Ashkenazi Jews — those of northern European heritage — resulted from natural selection in medieval Europe, where they were pressured into jobs as financiers, traders, managers and tax collectors.

Those who were smarter succeeded, grew wealthy and had bigger families to pass on their genes, they suggested. That evolution also is linked to genetic diseases such as Tay-Sachs and Gaucher in Jews.

The new study was funded by the Department of Energy, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Aging, the Unz Foundation, the University of Utah and the University of Wisconsin.

[From many - one.]

Completely irrelevant to the point I was making.

Once speciation has occurred, the interbreeding finally stops.

The “macro-evolution” folk say changes cannot ever reach that stage.

I want to know their proposed mechanism for stopping.

[wideawake]

A genetic study out of Canada, perhaps out of McGill, a few years back demonstrated that Jews whose families are Kohanim actually do share an allele that is traceable back to a common ancestor in the region of ancient Israel - pretty much dynamiting the old Khazar theory.

The Jews are distinctive in that their matrilineal identification enabled converts to integrate into the gene pool (unlike other closed religious groups like the more recent Druze, Yezidis and the Zoroastrians), in that they were still pretty dedicated to intermarriage up until the 1800s, and in that within the Jewish population there is Kohanim/Levite population that also practiced internal intermarriage.

Plus, it's such a large sample.

[Clioman]

“Rather odd that this phenomenon had a greater impact on a subset of Jews than other parts of humankind.”

I was thinking along the same lines — so that perhaps a corollary of this thesis would be to ask why the Arabs ceased to evolve about 800 years ago...

[Alouette]

If Ashkenazi Jews have such superior intelligence, how does that explain the retards running the Israeli government?

FReepMail to be added or removed from this pro-Israel/Judaic/Russian Jewry ping list.

Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.

[From many - one.]

No, the whole point of the invented “macro-evolution” is that changes cannot accumulate far enough that the new popuation has lost its ability to interbreed with the ancestral one.

[allmendream]

Actually in almost all mammals there is a gene that turns off the lactase gene that makes the lactase enzyme to digest lactose the sugar in milk. There is a common allele that is a mutation of this inactivating gene, such that lactase is constitutively expressed throughout life. This allele is most common in Northern European populations, who have apparently ‘evolved’ to drink milk.

If you adopt an African or Asian child and insist on feeding it milk past infancy you will notice a large amount of intestinal distress, an no amount of ‘inculturation’ into our milk drinking culture is going to inactivate his gene that inactivates the lactase gene.

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

Oh, I don't know . . . maybe it has something to do with a little thing called the human soul???

Of course, if you think that the human soul is actually just biochemical reactions in the brain . . .

Actually, I'm quite big into the human soul. I also know that the human soul doesn't have anything to do with the genetics that determine our physical and related traits. After all, we KNOW from experience that there are some people who are just plain smarter than others. This doesn't mean that they have "better" or "bigger" souls than the other, however. Our soul is immaterial. Intelligence IS biochemical and physiological, as well as being partially environmental. Intelligence doesn't equal "the soul", however.

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

No, the whole point of the invented “macro-evolution” is that changes cannot accumulate far enough that the new popuation has lost its ability to interbreed with the ancestral one.

Well, I hardly think macro-evolution is "invented", since we see evidence for it all around us, every day.

[wideawake]

The “macro-evolution” folk say changes cannot ever reach that stage.

Probably because there are no documented examples of one species becoming two - only guesses regarding such already differentiated species as horses and donkeys.

Presumably if evolution is moving at the breakneck speed alleged by this study, there should be clear examples of species that were one, say in the year 1000, that are two non-interbreeding species now.

[blam]

GGG Ping.

Nearly Half Of Ashkenazi Jews Descended From Four 'Founding Mothers'

"ScienceDaily (Jan. 17, 2006) — Some 3.5 million or 40 percent of Ashkenazi Jews are descended from just four “founding mothers” who lived in Europe 1,000 years ago. The mothers were part of a small group who founded the Ashkenazi Jewish community, which was established in Europe as a result of migration from the Near East."

[From many - one.]

It is populations that evolve, not individuals.

Let me give an example

East to West Squirrels

OK, we have lotso squirrels living all over the place from east to west. Small, but no vast empty spots (deserts, mountains).

Squirrels don’t migrate and don’t wander far from home. Mutations that occur in the east just keep piling up, as do all the others all the way to the west, but the extreme eastern ones and the extreme western ones are different.

So, eventually, the western squirrels are larger, mate only in the dry season, have black tails, etc. The eastern squirrels are smaller, have grey tails, but black ears, mate only in the fall and gestate during hiberation.

Because of the size difference they cannot mate successfully. New species

[wideawake]

Interesting. Of course, there were plenty of Ashkenazi Jews living in the Rhineland in the 800s - so I assume the other 60% of Ashkenazim cannot be accounted for by four women who lived two centuries or more after the community was founded.

[Woolly Bear]

I am 50 years old and I love milk. I suddenly became lactose intolerant two years ago. A week in the hospital and a couple units of blood taught me to leave the stuff alone.

[Verginius Rufus]

So are Jews today with the surname Kagan descended from the Khazars, and the rest from the ancient Israelites?

[From many - one.]

Actually, there are. Google it.

[wideawake]

Because of the size difference they cannot mate successfully. New species

LOL!

Then presumably Shetland ponies and Clydesdales belong to different species.

And Chihuahuas and Great Danes are also different species too.

[From many - one.]

That’s plain, garden variety evolution.

[Sherman Logan]

A more likely explanation is that the type of intelligence that Ashkenazi Jews developed due to evolutionary pressures during medieval and early modern periods just happens to be a type that fits in very well with success in the modern world.

Other types of intelligence may be more effective at aiding survival and reproduction in other environments.

For instance, stubborn independence would be a highly disadvangageous trait for slaves, however admirable by today’s standards. Challenge the master too many times and win a Darwin Award.

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

So are Jews today with the surname Kagan descended from the Khazars, and the rest from the ancient Israelites?

Probably not. I would suspect that the Jewish surname Kagan is related to the Kohanim-group names (Cohen, Kahn, Kohn, Kahane, etc.) Linguistically, it is possibly for a velar fricative (i.e. h) to become a velar stop (i.e. g), so this phonemic change probably what accounts for the name Kagan.

[Scythian]

IT SURE DOES