As I watched the closing ceremony of the Olympics, and the east and north African sweep of the marathon, I had pause to wonder why they are so dominant, compared to West African progeny in the sprints. That same day I got an email from a friend pointing to an article of the same topic.The gist of my agreement with the writer’s points (not all) is that natural selection, driven by environment, is responsible, in this Olympics case, for athletes with optimal physiology for these events. Because running in Olympic events is nearly identical to what humans have been doing for tens of thousands of years, unlike volleyball, we can more readily see the evolution and selection.
Furthermore, when we see the dark-skinned Africans, including West African slave descendants, we are looking at Africans who spent the longest time, of any one group, in their respective single geographies, yielding the most consistent influence to specific traits for speed or endurance in running. White, yellow, and brown ‘Africans’, the progeny of earlier black Africans who departed the continent, display a wider range of physical traits as a result of the demands of diverse geography around the planet.
No doubt that thousands of years ago Jamaican superman Usain Bolt would have had many wives and children, as well as riches, for his prowess, as would gold medal record-holding Michael Phelps, in locales where swimming fed the kiddies. In one sense these athletes are anomalies, but at the same time they point us towards wondrous notions of genetic adaptation and natural selection, upon which our survival and advancement as a species is totally dependent.
James C. Collier
HT: Mangan's Miscellany
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Fished out of Ernst Rüdin
ReplyDeleteOchyming: I cringe at the association you imply between this post and a monster like Ernst Rudin. They have nothing in common! It is this type of response that stops even the most simple and educating discussions on our differences and similarities.
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Furthermore, when we see the dark-skinned Africans, including West African slave descendants, we are looking at Africans who spent the longest time, of any one group, in their respective single geographies, yielding the most consistent influence to specific traits for speed or endurance in running. White, yellow, and brown ‘Africans’, the progeny of earlier black Africans who departed the continent, display a wider range of physical traits as a result of the demands of diverse geography around the planet.
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... Eugenics rhetoric [predate national socialist party] surged from these same kind of thinking!
That is What I was implying, great reason for discussion?
I think so!
With all respect, I see no difference.
Is THAT an insult?
I am not afraid of looking stupid or to say stupid things, I fear not IDEAS.
Anyway Nowadays most thing we say are not ours!
... Just tell me HOW WRONG I am I'll be grateful, Ideas KILLs no one!
Ochyming: There will always be people who try to use science to perpetrate evil. The study of genetics, heredity, natural and sexual selection, mutation, and adaptation cannot be off-limits because it invites eugenics hijackers. The bare mention of men like Rudin places eugenics radioactivity at the center of the discussion, effectively silencing anyone who fears the threat of association, however misapplied. The leap you describe, from one to the other, happens most easily in vaccums of ignorance, protected by hyperbole.
ReplyDeleteOkay..I see this point.
ReplyDeleteIn the major endurance sports (marathon, Tour d' France, Triathlon), why is it that the quality to endure fails to translate to the other deciplines?
I look at distance swimmers (usually more body fat), Tour riders (huge quads but little muscle mass anywhere else) and the East African runners (short and small frames)and can see the traits needed for each dicipline.
The article also points out the financial benefits and incentives that influence natural selection
(Many of the fastest runners opt for the NFL).
God appeared to me and said that She planned evolution to affect everyone equally, regardless of geography or climate, therefore I know that anyone like Mr. Collier has got to be wrong, because to think otherwise is... well, it's really bad. Everyone knows that every human group is completely equal to every other in every quality.
ReplyDeleteAlso, when Steve Sailer wrote that "people related to Usain Bolt genealogically, men of West African descent, made up all 56 qualifiers for the finals of the 100 meter dash in the last seven consecutive Olympics", he's just serving up propaganda. That can't possibly be true!
ReplyDeleteWell, I keep coming HERE to discuss/learn.
ReplyDeleteDiscording does not mean that I do not want to discuss!
We all learn more from those WHO goes different ways!
How genetics and environment works and influence each other?
You just fail to prove any difference from eugenics!
@dennis mangan
Hope you are not being IRONIC about my post, if so you GOT it wrong!
And I believe/hope the author knows how to defend his views.
This kind of irony is cowardice btw.
As I said hope NOT.
ochyming: You say you come here to discuss and learn, yet the first thing you wrote claimed that the ideas presented here by Mr. Collier were Nazi-like. That's not discussion, that's shouting down the opposition as evil. Really, people who believe that evolution proceeded at exactly the same pace and in the same way everywhere are creationists.
ReplyDelete"The article also points out the financial benefits and incentives that influence natural selection"
Particularly good was the line about fast runners in East Africa getting multiple wives, while the slow ones got a spear in the back. Evolution in action, and it's culturally-driven.
@dennis mangan
ReplyDeleteI said NAZI?
As was the Swastika HE was endorsed by the NAZIS [HE was already falling of grace, Of course HE used THEM too].
I only pointed out that THIS kind of thinking did led to what we all know!
That is WHAT my post suggested THAT it is just too simplistic, I know NOTHING about sport, so I did not wrote ABOUT.
Because of ITs simplicity I or anyone can TURN what he wrote into something else easily, that is WHAT bother me NOT the IDEA [I am not an expert after-all]!.
I wrote fished out.
"The article also points out the financial benefits and incentives that influence natural selection"
Did not pointed HOW these people private themselves of many things JUST in order to focus into their GOAL!
For me that is the main thing, TO teach the kids if you want it FIGHT for it! No natural inclination or talent will serve you if you do not sacrifice, is that ... financial benefits and incentives .. ?
Particularly good was the line about fast runners in East Africa getting multiple wives, while the slow ones got a spear in the back. Evolution in action, and it's culturally-driven.
Oh yeah?
Know that much about women?
I do not!
And to have many wives [having mistress isn't the same?] Do you need to be THAT fast?
Having some cows does that!
Half of all world wide Chess Masters have been Jews. More than 20 percent of Nobel Prize winners in the hard sciences are Jews.
ReplyDeleteYou can't have it both ways. Mozart was a child prodigy. It wasn't just environment that made him what he was.
Look up almost any cutting edge research program and it will be headed by a male.
PC liberal guilt will destroy the US.
I wasn't making the claim that it is all genetic but that is certainly a part of the puzzle. If both of your parents are PHD math greats you will have a greater chance of being one as well unlike if both of your parents are section 8 loafers. Not saying it is a one to one match but I would think that most people if given the choice of parents would chose the two math whizzes.
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