Re: [tied] irrelevence of race

----- Original Message -----
From: "Piotr Gasiorowski" <piotr.gasiorowski@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, June 02, 2003 12:30 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] irrelevence of race


>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Michael J Smith
> To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Sunday, June 01, 2003 9:37 PM
> Subject: [tied] irrelevence of race
>
>
>
> > Why do some still think Indo-European Speakers="Caucasians". I still
come
> across this way of thinking in books, and it seems many still make this
> connection.
>
> I'd be surprised if they hadn't been "Europoid" in a rathert general
sense,
> but all speculation about their pigmentation or lack thereof seems
> groundless to me. They were likely as mixed, racially, as most European
> ethnic groups are at present. Anyway, IE is a _purely_ linguistic concept,
> not a biological one.
>
> Piotr


The degree of genetic diversity changes in animal and plant populations in
time.
When a population is isolated some relatively rare genes fall out from the
common fund and diversity decreases. Such conditions are also favourable for
emergence different peculiarities (both adaptive and neutral). Apparently
these processes dominated when human races formed.

Paleolithic tribes can be well described as populations of large predators
or omnivorous animals (if the role of gathering is enough high) - like bears
or wild pigs. Their population density is stable until their forage reserve
is changed considerably due to external factors. Sexual contacts with
members of neighboring alien populations are minimal.

However in Neolithic the situation changes principally. The amount of people
who can get food on a territory unit increases dozens times and the later
the more. All the Neolithic and post-Neolithic populations have a tendency
to grow. There bigger is a community (a society, a nation) the better are
its chances in all post-Neolithic epoques. Generally it becomes more
advantageously to assimilate (to incorporate, to conquer) neighbors than to
kill them. Since this time the degree of genetic mixture should increase
progressively everywhere.

The exceptions could be only in well isolated populations. Indo-European
groups (at least in Europe) definitely were not isolated. Thus I guess that
modern ethnic groups inhabiting Europe are more genetically diverse than
their ancestors some thousand years ago.

Alexander