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To: longtermmemmory
I am baffled by your assertion that politics has anything to do with this. It has nothing to do with feminism, nor PC.

I do geneaology as a hobby. Some people don't have children, and so their branch on the genetic tree dies off. Maybe they died young. That doesn't mean that the ones who have children are better people.

We're all descended from a long, long line of people who survived long enough to procreate. If you trace the genes back far enough, they're all related to one woman who lived about 120,000 years ago, probably in Africa, and one man who lived about 60,000 years ago, probably also in Africa.

The disparity in time suggests that human beings almost died out for some reason we can only imagine.
66 posted on 02/02/2004 11:06:26 AM PST by CobaltBlue
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To: CobaltBlue
If you trace the genes back far enough, they're all related to one woman who lived about 120,000 years ago, probably in Africa, and one man who lived about 60,000 years ago, probably also in Africa. The disparity in time suggests that human beings almost died out for some reason we can only imagine.

It may not indicate a bottleneck. It may just mean that male lines are more subject to being snuffed out, as in warfare. When one tribe conquers another, the defeated men may be killed (or perhaps castrated). The women may be kept alive, as they are less of a threat and otherwise good to have around. Therefore, an unbroken female line can be very long indeed, compared to most -- if not all -- male lines.

72 posted on 02/02/2004 11:58:07 AM PST by PatrickHenry
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