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etc., etc., etc.,.... So, besides these "etc." and a few misused quasi-scientific words, what did you really say in your post?

I should have used the html for etc.,etc.,etc.,.....<./smirk.>. I've always liked that line from "The King and I."

Just in case you missed my meaning, this is what I intended to convey: whether you choose to call it "environment" or something else, everything, that happens, everything that can effect they lives of individual people can have a direct or indirect effect on the gene pool. The future of the gene pool is affected by the life or death of individuals. The point I was making was that there are simply too many factors (if you like that word better than environment) that are all coming into play at the same time to predict what factors will have a greater impact on future generations. Some of the factors are cultural, like marriage customs; some factors are what you might agree to be environmental, like the geograpical conditions; some factors come out of sharing the environment with other life forms, like being exposed to desease, or other preditors, or competition for food with other humans. The list of factors at any given time period could fill an encyclopedia.

Thank you for the clarification; it helps. I agree with you that, when it comes to prediction, the task is hopeless. However, I was raising the question of analysis rather than that of prediction. Although there are many factors influencing the gene pool, the peoples who live in the same area for millennia are, for that same period of time, subject to largely the same factors. One has to observe similarities, and I did not see many emerging.

Rgards, TQ.