Ideal Citizenship Law (III)

Jason Malloy writes in the comments of the previous entry:

I want immigration to be based on the value of the person, not the "group" he comes from, b/c the individual is what I personally value.

I am currently reading The Closing of the American Mind, and one of the themes in that book is the critique of the "value-choosing" modern belief with the "truth discovering" traditional one. So, the above phrase caught my eye.

So, Jason Malloy values the "value of the person" when it comes to immigration, while MX Rienzi (to which the above is a response) values "white Europeans" for immigration.

In a society where values are "chosen", what can be said about the two positions? If the only important thing is what we "personally value", then why is one position better than the other? Or, for that matter, why is my position, that "citizenship should be conferred to the children of at least one citizen, and to people who are parents and spouses of citizens" any better?

Surely, there has to be some objective criterion that will allow us to judge different propositions such as the above. Let's take two extreme positions that someone could potentially value: "1) Only people from the American continent should migrate into the USA", "2) Visually impaired people should not be allowed to migrate into the USA". These hypothetical positions would probably strike most of us as ludicrous. But, if we define the good as that which we personally value, how can we say that these ludicrous policies are wrong?

La colonisation de l' Europe

Guillaume FAYE

LA COLONISATION DE L'EUROPE
DISCOURS VRAI SUR L'IMMIGRATION ET L'ISLAM

Link

zipped pdf here

Parallels

Comparison of 16-picture composites of classical and modern Greeks (click for larger picture)

NB: Some of the landmarks are difficult to determine, e.g., the gonia and the pogonion are covered in the heavily bearded Ancient Greek composite, as is the vertex in both modern and ancient (with different average hair styling for the two periods), while others are weakly defined, e.g., the eyebrows.

"The Racial basis of Civilization: a Critique of the Nordic Doctrine"

Frank Hankins' thorough critique of Nordicism is available online. You can read it both for the historical information and for its value in debunking the common fallacies of Nordicism. Unlike the 1920s when the book was first published, Nordicism is no longer a theory given any credence in serious circles. It continues to be advocated by derivative "white nationalist" Nordicist authors, such as Arthur Kemp.

The Average Ancient Greek

16 marble portraits of classical Greeks rolled into one.

Pictures were taken from here and include the following Greeks:

Aristotle, Epicurus, Hermarchus, Karneades, Plato, Metrodorus, Socrates, Theophrastus, Aischylus, Euripides, Sophocles, Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Aischines, Demosthenes.

New Issue of the Occidental Quarterly

With articles by Kevin MacDonald, Alain de Benoist and others for some interesting reading.

Vol. 3 No. 2

mtDNA and Y chromosomes of Yakuts

MtDNA and Y-Chromosome Lineages in the Yakut Population

V. P. Puzyrev et al.

Russian Journal of Genetics
39 (7): 816-822, July 2003

The structure of female (mtDNA) and male (Y-chromosome haplotypes) lineages in the Yakut population was examined. To determine mtDNA haplotypes, sequencing of hypervariable segment I and typing of haplotype-specific point substitutions in the other parts of the mtDNA molecule were performed. Y haplogroups were identified through typing of biallelic polymorphisms in the nonrecombining part of the chromosome. Haplotypes within haplogroups were analyzed with seven microsatellite loci. Mitochondrial gene pool of Yakuts is mainly represented by the lineages of eastern Eurasian origin (haplogroups A, B, C, D, G, and F). In Yakuts haplogroups C and D showing the total frequency of almost 80% and consisting of 12 and 10 different haplopypes, respectively, were the most frequent and diverse. The total part of the lineages of western Eurasian origin (“Caucasoid”) was about 6% (4 haplotypes, haplogroups H, J, and U). Most of Y chromosomes in the Yakut population (87%) belonged to haplogroup N3 (HG16), delineated by the T–C substitution at the Tat locus. Chromosomes of haplogroup N3 displayed the presence of 19 microsatellite haplotypes, the most frequent of which encompassed 54% chromosomes of this haplogroup. Median network of haplogroup N3 in Yakuts demonstrated distinct “starlike phylogeny”. Male lineages of Yakuts were shown to be closest to those of Eastern Evenks.

mtDNA of Scytho-Siberian Skeletons

American Journal of Physical Anthropology (to appear)

Published Online: 28 Jul 2003

Genetic analysis and ethnic affinities from two Scytho-Siberian skeletons

François-Xavier Ricaut et al.

We extracted DNA from two skeletons belonging to the Sytho-Siberian population, which were excavated from the Sebÿstei site (dating back 2,500 years) in the Altai Republic (Central Asia). Ancient DNA was analyzed by autosomal short tandem repeats (STRs) and by the sequencing of the hypervariable region 1 (HV1) of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region. The results showed that these two skeletons were not close relatives. Moreover, their haplogroups were characteristic of Asian populations. Comparison with the haplogroup of 3,523 Asian and American individuals linked one skeleton with a putative ancestral paleo-Asiatic population and the other with Chinese populations. It appears that the genetic study of ancient populations of Central Asia brings important elements to the understanding of human population movements in Asia.

Link (requires access)

Social Attitudes and Language Use, Not Cognitive Ability in Spouse Choice

Assortative mating for cognitive abilities, personality, and attitudes: Offspring from the Hawaii Family Study of Cognition

Nagoshi, Craig T; Johnson, Ronald C; Honbo, Kelly A

Personality & Individual Differences. Vol 13(8), Aug 1992, pp. 883-891

Conducted a follow-up of 59 spouse pairs of Caucasian ancestry, 37 spouse pairs of Japanese ancestry, and 50 spouse pairs of mixed ethnicity who completed a set of personality, social attitude, and language use measures. Spouse correlations were essentially zero for cognitive abilities and low for personality measures, but were substantial for social attitudes and language use. Findings are discussed in terms of the importance of cultural factors in assortative mating.

Asian Intermarriage

Trends in Asian American racial/ethnic intermarriage: A comparison of 1980 and 1990 census data

Lee, Sharon M; Fernandez, Marilyn

Sociological Perspectives. Vol 41(2), 1998, pp. 323-342

Uses data from the 1990 census to compare patterns of 18-64 yr old Asian American's intermarriage with those reported by S. M. Lee and K. Yamanaka (see record 1990-22338-001). Lee and Yamanaka used data from the 1980 census on Asian American racial and ethnic intermarriage, and found that one-quarter of married Asian Americans were outmarried; of these, 90% were married to non-Asians. Variations by gender and nativity were also observed. Women and the native born were more likely to be outmarried. The current authors expected to see a decline in Asian American intermarriage since 1980 because of high levels of immigration, growth of the Asian population, and increased social distance between Asian Americans and Whites. Main findings from the 1990 census data show that: (1) the overall outmarriage rate has declined, (2) Asian American inter-ethnic marriages (that is, marriages between 2 Asian Americans of different Asian ethnicities) have increased; and (3) social distance, measured by an Index of Intermarriage Distance, between Asian Americans and other racial and ethnic groups has widened. The authors conclude by discussing some implications of the findings for the role of racial and ethnic intermarriage as an indicator of intergroup relations.

-----

Ethnically heterogamous marriages: The case of Asian Canadians

Tzeng, Jessie M

Using the Family Public Use Microdata Sample file (PUMS-F) of the 1981 and 1991 Censuses of Canada, this paper examines patterns and changes in propensities to intermarry for Asians in Canada from 1981 to 1991. A logistic response model is used to explore the relative importance of couples' individual characteristics and SES on intermarriage. An upward trend of Asian intermarriage in the past 2 decades was not evident in the Canadian data. Multivariate analyses suggest the individual's achieved socioeconomic characteristics have become more critical in the process of interracial assortative mating over time. More specifically, educational and employment heterogamous couples are more likely to be intermarried, especially when the wife's achievement exceeds that of the husband's.

Interfaith and Interracial Couples

Risk factors for marital discord among interfaith and interracial couples

Kohn, Carolynn Susan

Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences & Engineering. Vol 61(8-B), Mar 2001, pp. 4410

The purpose of this investigation was twofold. The first objective was to examine clinical and theoretical explanations for intermarried couples' greater risk of divorce compared to homogeneous couples. It was hypothesized that compared to homogeneous couples, intermarried couples would report less family support, more severe problems with religion and family, more discrepant marital role beliefs, and greater discrepancies in acculturation. It was further hypothesized that intermarried couples' greater discrepancies in marital role beliefs would be associated with greater discrepancies in acculturation. The second objective was to examine for theoretical and clinical assumptions that intermarried couples with greater differences between the partners (i.e., interfaith/interracial couples) experience more distress and difficulties compared to intermarried couples with fewer differences between the partners (i.e., interfaith-only or interracial-only couples). Finally, exploratory analyses examined whether group status (intermarried versus homogeneous) would moderate the association between family support or communication/problem-solving skills and relationship satisfaction. Participants were 150 heterosexual couples (75 intermarried and 75 homogeneous couples), engaged or married less than 18 months, who completed a set of self-report measures. Results indicated that intermarried couples reported less family support, more severe problems with religion, and greater discrepancies in acculturation levels. Contrary to the hypothesis, no association was found between intermarried couples' acculturation and marital role belief discrepancies. In partial support of the hypothesis, results indicated that among intermarried couples, interfaith-only couples reported less distress and difficulties compared to interfaith/interracial couples. Contrary to the hypothesis, interfaith-only couples also reported less difficulties compared to interracial-only couples. Moreover, no differences were found between interracial-only and interfaith/interracial couples. Exploratory analyses revealed that group status moderated the association between communication/problem-solving skills and relationship satisfaction, such that communication/problem-solving skills were highly associated with relationship satisfaction among homogeneous couples only, and not among intermarried couples. These findings suggest that differences between couples at higher-risk versus lower risk for divorce, as well as the differential impact of culture and ethnicity on relationships, may have important implications for models of marital functioning and divorce prevention programs. Implications and limitations of these findings were discussed and recommendations for future research were made.

Intermarriage Rate of Arab Americans

Patterns, determinants, and implications of intermarriage among Arab Americans

Kulczycki, Andrzej et al.

Journal of Marriage & Family. Vol 64(1), Feb 2002, pp. 202-210

Examined Arab American intermarriage using 1990 US Census data. Results indicate high rates of intermarriage consistent with an assimilation perspective. Over 80% of US-born Arabs had non-Arab spouses, implying a diminishing ethnic identification. Logistic regressions show that for both sexes, those with part Arab ancestry, the US born, those with strong English-language ability, and the highly educated were significantly more likely to out-marry, as were Arabs of Lebanese ancestry. It is concluded that the cultural and structural assimilation of Arab Americans is facilitating intermarriage, with indicators of acculturation being the strongest predictors, especially for women. This article further discusses ethnic options for children of intermarried couples. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)

The average Greek female

Average of 8 Greek women from here

Eurasian Nations

CIA World Factbook entries for a few nations which are largely inhabited by a hybrid Caucasoid-Mongoloid population. The wide geographical region from the Urals to the frontiers of China is largely inhabited by a population of mixed stock, formed in prehistoric times and later, with movements of Iranic tribes to the east, Turkic-Mongolian tribes to the west and more recently Europeans (mainly Slavs) to the east.

Kazakhstan
Uzbekistan
Tajikistan
Turkmenistan
Kyrgyzstan

Some pictures from Corbis:

Uzbek woman of hybrid type:

Turkmen women of Caucasoid type:

Kazakh woman of predominantly Mongoloid type:

The average Greek male

Created by averaging 8 Greek soccer players from here. I will hopefully add another 8 soon... facial averaging is really boring.

Update: I've added 8 more Greeks to the average.. So, this is the average of 16 individual Greeks.

Pure or Mixed?

Vote in the poll and get others to vote too.

Current Results

Use the comment box to give a more precise vote, e.g., "I am Eskimo and I like Australoid women", or to say anything really.

The Mediterranean Face (VIII)

Greek model Evelina Papantoniou is a typical example of the Aegean local form of the Mediterranean race.

"Perfect" Faces

Prototypical Attractive Faces

Prototypical Unattractive Faces

" This result confirms on the one hand the 'attractiveness is averageness' hypothesis (Langlois & Roggmann, 1990); on the other hand, the attractiveness of the original faces included in a compound image itself influences the overall attractiveness of the compound face, i.e. the more attractive the original faces, the more attractive the resulting compound face (r=0.75** for female and r=0.68** for male faces). Thus, not simply the number, but also the attractiveness of the original faces influences the average attractiveness rating of compound faces."

...

"The results of our symmetry experiments show a clear but only weak relationship between facial attractiveness and symmetry: very asymmetrical faces are rated unattractive, but unattractive faces don't need to be asymmetrical. Vice versa, very symmetrical faces don't need to be very attractive, and very attractive faces may show remarkable deviations from ideally symmetrical proportions. In summary, symmetry seems only to be a weak factor to explain facial attractiveness. "

...

"For female faces, it could be shown that babyface attributes - such as large, round eyes, a large domed forehead and small, short nose and chin lead to a rise in attractiveness values. Only very few (9.5%) of the test subjects found the original adult faces most attractive. Most of the test subjects (90.5%) preferred faces with 10%-50% the proportions of the babyface scheme. This means: Even the most attractive female faces can become more attractive when their proportions are altered towards more babyfaceness. It needs to be explicitly stated, however, that not only male, but also female test subjects found babyface pictures more attractive, and we could not observe any inherent preference of babyfaced pictures in our male test subjects. Again, it is surprising that the most attractive faces do not even exist in reality. "

...

"By calculating prototypic very attractive vs. unattractive faces for each gender, we were able to show that these faces are remarkably different in their attributes, such as skin texture, proportions etc. Additional surveys showed that attractive female faces are narrower than unattractive ones, and that they possess a brown skin and full, well looked-after lips. The distance between the eyes is larger, eyelids are thinner, there are more, longer and darker eyelashes, darker and narrower eyebrows, higher cheekbones, and the nose is narrower than in less attractive female faces. Surprisingly, more or less the same is the case for attractive male faces: they, too, have a browner skin, a narrower face, fuller lips, thinner eyelids, more and darker eyelashes, darker eyebrows, and higher cheekbones than the less attractive ones. Attractive male faces can furthermore be characterized by a more prominent lower jaw and chin. "

Link

Selected Sex Ratios

Some sex ratios (male/female) in the 15-64 age bracket from CIA World Factbook

India 1.07
China 1.06
Pakistan 1.05
Nigeria 1.04
Germany 1.03
Turkey 1.03
Egypt 1.02
UK 1.02
Spain 1.01
Iran 1.01
Canada 1.01
Ethiopia 1.01
Greece 1.00
France 1.00
Argentina 1.00
Italy 0.99
Poland 0.99
USA 0.98
Brazil 0.97
Mexico 0.95
Russia 0.94

Male Female Differences

Nature 423, 825 - 837 (19 June 2003); doi:10.1038/nature01722

The male-specific region of the human Y chromosome is a mosaic of discrete sequence classes

HELEN SKALETSKY et al.

"Genetic and biological differences between males and females It is commonly stated that the genomes of two randomly selected members of our species exhibit 99.9% nucleotide identity. In reality, this statement holds only if one is comparing two males, or two females. If one compares a female with a male, the second X chromosome (160 Mb, or roughly 3% of the diploid DNA content) is replaced by the largely dissimilar Y chromosome (60 Mb, or 1% of the diploid DNA content). This common substitution of the Y chromosome for the second X chromosome dwarfs all other DNA polymorphism in the human genome. In decades past, and with the important exception of X-linked recessive diseases, biologists often judged this genomic dimorphism to be of limited functional consequence, especially because of inactivation of the second X chromosome in females and the presumed paucity of genes in the Y chromosome. Now we must begin to reconsider this position, given the unanticipated number and variety of MSY genes, many of which are expressed throughout the body, and the fact that many X-linked genes are expressed from both X chromosomes in female cells47. The present sequence of the MSY, and the emerging sequence of the X chromosome, offer the near prospect of a comprehensive catalogue of genetic and sequence differences between human males and females. Translating this knowledge into an understanding of the myriad differences between the sexes in anatomy, physiology, cognition, behaviour and disease susceptibility presents a monumental challenge, but surely one of broad significance and interest."

Link (requires access)

Ideal Citizenship Law (II)

The ideal citizenship law which I had previously written about has surfaced in a discussion over at gnxp.com where the "other" position, citizenship based on ideology, is argued.

Chinese Racial Types

A mini-gallery of the three main subtypes of the Chinese branch of the Mongoloid race.

Albinism

Am. J. Hum. Genet., 73:000, 2003

Report

MC1R Mutations Modify the Classic Phenotype of Oculocutaneous Albinism Type 2 (OCA2)

Richard A. King et al.

The heterogeneous group of disorders known as oculocutaneous albinism (OCA) shares cutaneous and ocular hypopigmentation associated with common developmental abnormalities of the eye. Mutations of at least 11 loci produce this phenotype. The majority of affected individuals develop some cutaneous melanin; this is predominantly seen as yellow/blond hair, whereas fewer have brown hair. The OCA phenotype is dependent on the constitutional pigmentation background of the family, with more OCA pigmentation found in families with darker constitutional pigmentation, which indicates that other genes may modify the OCA phenotype. Sequence variation in the melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R) gene is associated with red hair in the normal population, but red hair is unusual in OCA. We identified eight probands with OCA who had red hair at birth. Mutations in the P gene were responsible for classic phenotype of oculocutaneous albinism type 2 (OCA2) in all eight, and mutations in the MC1R gene were responsible for the red (rather than yellow/blond) hair in the six of eight who continued to have red hair after birth. This is the first demonstration of a gene modifying the OCA phenotype in humans.

Link (requires access)

Shyness and Eye Color

Shyness and little boy blue: Iris pigmentation, gender, and social wariness in preschoolers

Coplan, Robert J et al.

Developmental Psychobiology. Vol 32(1), Jan 1998, pp. 37-44

Examined the relation between eye color, social wariness, and gender in a sample of preschool aged children. 84 blue-eyed and 68 brown-eyed Caucasian 3.5-5.5 yr olds were compared in terms of parental and teacher ratings of social wariness, social play, and aggression. A significant interaction between eye color and gender was found in terms of indices of social wariness; blue-eyed males were rated as more socially wary than brown-eyed males, while blue- and brown-eyed females did not differ in this regard. These results support the notion that eye color is a marker variable for social wariness in young children.

Donor Choices of Israeli recipients of donor insemination

Hegemony and homogeneity: Donor choices of Israeli recipients of donor insemination

Birenbaum-Carmeli, Daphna et al.

Journal of Material Culture. Vol 7(1), Mar 2002, pp. 73-95

This article explores the relevance of hegemony theory to choices of sperm donors made by Jewish Israeli recipients of donor insemination (DI). The context is the objectification of 'the Natural' through hegemonic images of mass consumption. The study, which was conducted in a major Israeli hospital, examined physiological features (height, eye color, skin color) of the most popular donors. In the highly familistic society of Israel, recipients' choices conformed to images of their own 'natural family'. Within the limits of the family's looks, choices revealed a convergence of specific type of physiognomy-- that of the hegemonic Ashkenazi man. While recipients tended to reproduce their own appearance they often 'compromised' it towards the kind of looks constructed as desirable in the mass media. The choice of donors by DI recipients presents an extreme case in which people construct their own family by incorporating hegemonic ideals of mass consumption.

Light eyes/hair and Holocaust Survival

Lethal stereotypes: Hair and eye color as survival characteristics during the Holocaust

Suedfeld, Peter et al.

Journal of Applied Social Psychology. Vol 32(11), Nov 2002, pp. 2368-2376

Abstract
Notes that in spite of many false negatives and false positives quite familiar to the people of Nazi-dominated Europe, dark hair and eyes were salient among the physical stereotypes of Jews that the Nazis promulgated along with psychosocial ones. Many narratives of the Holocaust refer to someone surviving because he or she "did not look Jewish," and others being caught and killed because they did. A quantitative test of the validity and impact of this attribution showed that a higher proportion of Holocaust survivors than of a North American Jewish control group had light-colored hair, eyes, or both during the relevant period. The paper discusses possible reasons why these were survival characteristics under the conditions of the Holocaust, the possible short- and long-term effects of such selectivity, and implications for stereotyping in other situations of ethnic persecution and genocide.

Update:

I haven't read the full article yet, and I wonder if it considers the other possibility, namely that the self-selected immigrant control group was darker-eyed and darker-haired than the Jewish population at large.

Phylogeny of East Asian mtDNA

Am. J. Hum. Genet., 73:000, 2003

Phylogeny of East Asian Mitochondrial DNA Lineages Inferred from Complete Sequences

Qing-Peng Kong et al.

The now-emerging mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) population genomics provides information for reconstructing a well-resolved mtDNA phylogeny and for discerning the phylogenetic status of the subcontinentally specific haplogroups. Although several major East Asian mtDNA haplogroups have been identified in studies elsewhere, some of the most basal haplogroups, as well as numerous minor subhaplogroups, were not yet determined or fully characterized. To fill the lacunae, we selected 48 mtDNAs from >2,000 samples across China for complete sequencing that cover virtually all (sub)haplogroups discernible to date in East Asia. This East Asian mtDNA phylogeny can henceforth serve as a solid basis for phylogeographic analyses of mtDNAs, as well as for studies of mitochondrial diseases in East and Southeast Asia.

...

"Since there is no positive evidence yet that the East Asian haplogroups would share any mutations with the West Eurasian or South Asian haplogroups other than those defining M, N, and R (Kivisild et al. 2002), it seems that the first modern humans carried exactly the root haplotypes of the three Eurasian macrohaplogroups into Southeast Asia. The founder age for the three root haplotypes that are based on the set of 48 coding-region sequences is then estimated as 65.4 ± 3.8 ky"

Link (requires access)

Ethnolysis

Jason Malloy points out that the use of the word "genocide" should not refer to miscegenation:

Genocide is the murder by force of indivuals who want to live, while "miscegenation" is men and women forming absolutely voluntary relationships of their own preference.

I propose the term ethnolysis (like catalysis, dialysis), from ethnos (people, nation) and luein (to loosen, dissolve, destroy) to describe the dissolution of an ethnic group via any method, including miscegenation, genocide, oppression, ethnic cleansing, etc.

Khoisan and Socrates

Richard Poe wonders whether Socrates had a "Khoisanid" nose.

Socrates

Nuclear and Mitochondrial Analysis of ancient Mongolian sample

Am. J. Hum. Genet., 73:000, 2003

Nuclear and Mitochondrial DNA Analysis of a 2,000-Year-Old Necropolis in the Egyin Gol Valley of Mongolia

Christine Keyser-Tracqui et al.

Abstract

DNA was extracted from the skeletal remains of 62 specimens excavated from the Egyin Gol necropolis, in northern Mongolia. This burial site is linked to the Xiongnu period and was used from the 3rd century B.C. to the 2nd century A.D. Three types of genetic markers were used to determine the genetic relationships between individuals buried in the Egyin Gol necropolis. Results from analyses of autosomal and Y chromosome short tandem repeats, as well as mitochondrial DNA, showed close relationships between several specimens and provided additional background information on the social organization within the necropolis as well as the funeral practices of the Xiongnu people. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study using biparental, paternal, and maternal genetic systems to reconstruct partial genealogies in a protohistoric necropolis.

...

"Although the mtDNA sequences obtained could not be assigned with certainty to mtDNA haplogroups (since they encompassed only the HVI of the control region), three (A, C, and D) of the four major haplogroups observed in Native American (Torroni et al. 1993) and Siberian (Starikovskaya et al. 1998; Schurr et al. 1999) populations were detected in the ancient samples tested (with haplogroup D being the most prevalent). A few sequences belonging to subclusters B4b, D5 or D5a, F1b, J1, G2a, U2 or U5a1a—and some that probably belonged to cluster M—were also observed (Richards et al. 2000; Yao et al. 2002). No member of the major European cluster H, which occurs in >40% of most European populations (Richards et al. 1996) was found. Interestingly, some of the haplotypes reported here are similar to those found in previous studies of the area (Kolman et al. 1996; Comas et al. 1998)."

...

"A majority (89%) of the Xiongnu sequences can be classified as belonging to an Asian haplogroup (A, B4b, C, D4, D5 or D5a, or F1b), and nearly 11% belong to European haplogroups (U2, U5a1a, and J1). This finding indicates that the contacts between European and Asian populations were anterior to the Xiongnu culture, and it confirms results reported for two samples from an early 3rd century B.C. Scytho-Siberian population (Clisson et al. 2002)."

Link (requires access)

Mitochondrial Analysis of 3rd c. BC Saka

Int J Legal Med. 2002 Oct;116(5):304-8

Genetic analysis of human remains from a double inhumation in a frozen kurgan in Kazakhstan (Berel site, Early 3rd Century BC)

Clisson I, Keyser C et al.

"The discovery of a big barrow of the Saka period in eastern Kazakhstan between the Russian and the Chinese borders provided the opportunity to excavate a frozen burial site. In the burial chamber, there was a wooden sarcophagus with two human bodies. The skeletons of these two individuals, a man and a woman, were well preserved. A genetic study based on STRs and mitochondrial DNA analyses was undertaken in order to determine whether these human remains belonged to close relatives. Results were obtained for all the markers. Nevertheless, nuclear STRs did not allow a clear conclusion concerning the relationship, but analysis of mitochondrial DNA showed that these skeletons were not close relatives."

...

"Following these results on mtDNA, the origin of the
man (subject 1) cannot be established although the reference
sequence is the most frequent in Europe. Nevertheless,
the woman (subject 2) may have an Asian origin,
since 16223T and 16362C are the most frequent mutations
in eastern Asian population with around 52% and
35%, respectively (Comas et al. 1998)."

Why is the West Successful?

A discussion over at Gene Expression with some of my comments.

Gene Flow in the Western Mediterranean

Annals of Human Genetics
Volume 67 Issue 4 Page 312 - July 2003

Joining the Pillars of Hercules: mtDNA Sequences Show Multidirectional Gene Flow in the Western Mediterranean

S. Plaza et al.

Summary

Phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) performed in Western Mediterranean populations has shown that both shores share a common set of mtDNA haplogroups already found in Europe and the Middle East. Principal co-ordinates of genetic distances and principal components analyses based on the haplotype frequencies show that the main genetic difference is attributed to the higher frequency of sub-Saharan L haplogroups in NW Africa, showing some gene flow across the Sahara desert, with a major impact in the southern populations of NW Africa. The AMOVA demonstrates that SW European populations are highly homogeneous whereas NW African populations display a more heterogeneous genetic pattern, due to an east-west differentiation as a result of gene flow coming from the East. Despite the shared haplogroups found in both areas, the European V and the NW African U6 haplogroups reveal the traces of the Mediterranean Sea permeability to female migrations, and allowed for determination and quantification of the genetic contribution of both shores to the genetic landscape of the geographic area.

Comparison of mtDNA data with autosomal markers and Y-chromosome lineages, analysed in the same populations, shows a congruent pattern, although female-mediated gene flow seems to have been more intense than male-mediated gene flow.

Link (requires access)

Nature of Order

A NY Times article on Christopher Alexander's Nature of Order. Also Nature of Order website.

Sex Tourism in Jamaica

...

Clinton is one of hundreds of young men working the beach and, like most of the "beach boys", he is desperately poor. His primary income comes from accompanying lone female travellers who want sex with Jamaican men.

...

UK researchers Jacqueline Sanchez Taylor and Julia O'Connell Davidson found that the usual analysis of sex tourism does not allow for the possibility of women as buyers of sexual services, because "prostitute-users are, by definition, male, and this assumption is shared by many researchers and theorists". The two researchers interviewed 240 women holidaying in Negril and two similar resorts in the Dominican Republic. Almost a third of the interviewees had engaged in sexual relationships with local men in the course of their holiday. Though 60% admitted to certain "economic elements" to their liaisons, they did not perceive their sexual encounters as prostitute-client transactions, nor did they view their sexual partners as prostitutes.

...

In the Irie bar, Anna (not her real name), a 40-year-old businesswoman from East Anglia, sways to the loud reggae coming from the huge sound system, her hand resting on the knee of BB, a Jamaican from nearby Green Island. The list of cocktails on sale includes Big Bamboo, Dirty Banana and Jamaican Steel. She would describe herself as an "accidental sex tourist". "I was reading all about the sex stuff in Lonely Planet on the way here, and thought, 'Oh my God, I didn't realise it was like that!' I suppose it made me curious." She had already developed an interest in African and Caribbean culture through hanging out with her Nigerian boyfriend back home. "But I didn't only come here because I wanted to shag the pants off some Jamaican guy." Anna met BB on the beach, just hours after she arrived on the island, and had sex with him that day. "I knew he was angling to do it without a condom, but I don't know him well enough for that."

...

Debbie, a 43-year-old tour operator from Canada, has been coming to Jamaica twice a year since she was 20, and is a veteran sex tourist. Brash, loud, overweight and striking, she is keen to recount her success with Jamaican men. The guys have always approached her, she says. "They are very upfront. They come up to you and say, 'I like you and want you', and then you pick and choose which one you like and which one you want. It's so simple. I think, OK, I like that one because he's got locks, or I like him because his teeth are white, or he's got muscles."

...

"They are always nice to me, whatever I do," says Chloe, a 50-year-old sports instructor from Yorkshire. "It's their job to be nice to women." Chloe has been coming to Negril for five years, since she discovered that her husband was having an affair with a friend from her aerobics class. "I thought, great, I've devoted 25 years of my life to this arsehole, and put up with his habits, boring sex and bringing up his children. Now it's my turn to have fun." Like so many others, her inspiration to come to Negril was the 1998 film How Stella Got Her Groove Back, in which Stella, a divorced black woman in her 40s, takes time off work to travel to Jamaica, where she meets and falls in love with Winston, a local man who is half her age.

The Guardian - Link

Peoples of the Ancient World

A small gallery of racial types depicted in Apadama, Persepolis has been placed here.

Trailer for Mel Gibson's Passion

here about 23MB quicktime .MOV), looks quite impressive.

Attitudes towards Technology

I distinguish three basic attitudes towards technology:

1. The technolaters see technology as a wonderful thing, and have an almost religious devotion to it.For example, the Singularity Action Group:
   The mission of the Singularity Action Group is to promote a Singularity for the good of mankind through public education and direct action in the development of Singularity technologies. We believe that everyone can help make the Singularity a success. As our name implies, talk is good but action is better... he Singularity Action Group was formed to address the social transition of the Singularity. The Singularity will herald the beginning of a new age in which physical and mental perfection will be the norm along with unimaginable wealth and freedom. These benefits will accrue not just to the current privileged classes but to every human being.

   
   
2. The technophobes dislike technological progress and in some cases even advocate undoing technological civilization. For example, the Coalition against Civilization:
   
   
   We are a loose coalition of anarchists for the destruction of civilization and for the defense of wildness. We exist to help strengthen the strictly antiauthoritarian anarchist movement and work with all other like-minded organizations. We feel that society in general is in a crucial point where the overall disgust for daily life is reaching a new high point everyday. It would seem that antiauthoritarian would be all the more appealing to larger majorities, so the widening of our reach as anarchists requires more efforts to spread information and more ways to keep up on current debates as well as information regarding direct actions.
   
   
   
3. Finally, there are the technoneutralists who assert that technology is neither good nor bad, but becomes so depending on our use of it. This attitude is often expressed with the knife argument:
   
   
   Those who believe that technology is neutral argue that "guns don't kill people, people do", or that a knife can be used to "cook, kill, or cure."
   
   
   

I don't like any of these three positions:

• Technolaters strike me as bizarre, too narrowly focused on the direct effects of technology, e.g., "cars allow one to go from A to B faster", without considering the philosophical foundations of "why going faster is good", or the necessary conditions of technology (i.e., the whole system which has to exist in order to produce and maintain some technology), or its impact on the future (e.g., antibiotics save people now, but may lead to more virulent strains later on).

• Technophobes are often utopianists, who (a) have an idealized vision of the pre-technological past, or (b) have little feeling for all the suffering caused by the lack of certain technologies. The key questions here are "Why is natural equivalent to good?", and "Try living without technology for a week and see how you like it".

• Technoneutralism is the dominant position, and one is tempted to say the most prudent position, at least until some broad consensus is finally reached as to what technology actually is and what its effects, for good or ill, are. But, technoneutralism has two important problems: (i) it fails to acknowledge that while a technology may be used in various ways, it is often used overwhelmingly in one particular way. For example, I would wager that knives are used far more for cooking than they are for killing, while P2P systems are used most of the time to share bootleg MP3s/movies rather than for other types of files. Also, (ii) technoneutralism leads to a regulatory outlook, whereby the "good" things about technology (defined by intellectual or popular consent) are promoted, while the "bad" things are suppressed. This fails to take note though, that consent does not equal good, and that suppression does not mean extinction.
  

Technology is rapidly solidifying its position both in affecting more and more people worldwide, but also in affecting more aspects of their lives. At the same time, the anti-technology current has never ceased to exist, having been born even as the Industrial Revolution was getting off the ground. The main tension between the technolaters and technophobes will continue to exist, with most people continuing to take a technoneutralist position.

We must not believe though that this comfortable co-existence of the three tendencies will go on forever. Long-term prediction is difficult, but it is conceivable that many of the upcoming technologies will lead to a permanent splintering of mankind: the technolaters might get fed up with the regulatory outlook of the majority and decide to break off from social norms, creating an alternative society; the technophobes might get fed up with the same outlook that leads to a constant increase in technological dependence, breaking off from society in the opposite direction. And, most terrifying of all, an unanticipated event might shift the balance drastically to either of the two extremes, perhaps bringing about the Next Big Thing in the social evolution of our species, whatever that is.

Sex Differences in Intelligence

According to the following "There was a more marked excess of boys at the extremes, with approximately 1.4 boys to every girl in the IQ 50 to <60 and 130 to <140 bands."

Population sex differences in IQ at age 11: the Scottish mental survey 1932

Ian J. Deary et al.

Intelligence, in press

Abstract

There is uncertainty whether the sexes differ with respect to their mean levels and variabilities in mental ability test scores. Here we describe the cognitive ability distribution in 80,000+ children -almost everyone born in Scotland in 1921- tested at age 11 in 1932. There were no significant mean differences in cognitive test scores between boys and girls, but there was a highly significant difference in their standard deviations (P<.001). Boys were over-represented at the low and high extremes of cognitive ability. These findings, the first to be presented from a whole population, might in part explain such cognitive outcomes as the slight excess of men achieving first class university degrees, and the excess of males with learning difficulties.

Link (requires access)

Even more Troy

It looks like this is going to be a fantasy movie... I only have to wonder that if they could find a Negroid actor suitable to play the part of a Greek hero, how they could not find a single Greek-looking individual to cast as a Greek... Let's hope no one in this production ever claims that they tried to be "authentic".

Ajax

Cast

More Troy

Part of the cast of Troy, or how Nordicism is alive and well in Hollywood depictions of the classical world: Helen, Paris, Patroklos, Odysseus.

And a glimpse of Odysseus...

And one of Paris and Helen

And Achilles on his cell-phone...

Male/Female Differences in Writing

A team of computer scientists has developed an algorithm that predicts whether a text has been written by a man or a woman with an 80% probability of success.

Link

The same technique could also be used to determine whether different racial groups write differently as well. Will anyone try that experiment?

Also note that the authors achieved this result by using only simple features of text, like the frequency of personal pronouns, etc. One wonders how the precision could be augmented by looking at the higher aspects of language, especially at the semantic level.

Chronology of Indo-European

An article in PNAS dates Indo-European to 8100 BC ± 1,900 years.

Toward a phylogenetic chronology of ancient Gaulish, Celtic, and Indo-European

Peter Forster * and Alfred Toth

*McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3ER, United Kingdom; Junge Akademie, 10117 Berlin, Germany; and Phonogrammarchiv der Universität Zürich, CH-8032 Zürich, Switzerland

Edited by Henry C. Harpending, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, and approved May 6, 2003 (received for review February 27, 2003)

Indo-European is the largest and best-documented language family in the world, yet the reconstruction of the Indo-European tree, first proposed in 1863, has remained controversial. Complications may include ascertainment bias when choosing the linguistic data, and disregard for the wave model of 1872 when attempting to reconstruct the tree. Essentially analogous problems were solved in evolutionary genetics by DNA sequencing and phylogenetic network methods, respectively. We now adapt these tools to linguistics, and analyze Indo-European language data, focusing on Celtic and in particular on the ancient Celtic language of Gaul (modern France), by using bilingual Gaulish-Latin inscriptions. Our phylogenetic network reveals an early split of Celtic within Indo-European. Interestingly, the next branching event separates Gaulish (Continental Celtic) from the British (Insular Celtic) languages, with Insular Celtic subsequently splitting into Brythonic (Welsh, Breton) and Goidelic (Irish and Scottish Gaelic). Taken together, the network thus suggests that the Celtic language arrived in the British Isles as a single wave (and then differentiated locally), rather than in the traditional two-wave scenario ("P-Celtic" to Britain and "Q-Celtic" to Ireland). The phylogenetic network furthermore permits the estimation of time in analogy to genetics, and we obtain tentative dates for Indo-European at 8100 BC ± 1,900 years, and for the arrival of Celtic in Britain at 3200 BC ± 1,500 years. The phylogenetic method is easily executed by hand and promises to be an informative approach for many problems in historical linguistics.

Link

The Greeks in the Levant before Alexander

Alexander the Not So Great?
Greek Culture Reached Middle East Ahead of Alexander

By Lee Dye
Special to ABCNEWS.com

June 19
— Way back in the fourth century B.C., a young Alexander the Great thundered across what is now the Middle East in a bloody mission that ranks among the most brilliant military conquests in history.

And according to almost any textbook, Alexander, though barely out of his teens, paved the way for the rapid spread of Greek culture throughout that tortured land.

But according to some intriguing research, the young Macedonian's achievements may not have been as great as his name implies. The evidence suggests quite strongly that Greek material culture, at least, flourished as far away as the coast of what is now Israel at least a century before Alexander's conquests.

The findings dispute the widely held belief that Hellenization, or the spread of Greek culture, "went into high gear" on the heels of Alexander's military exploits, says Andrew F. Stewart, an art historian and archaeologist at the University of California, Berkeley, who is heading up an international team of experts investigating the matter.

"What we think we can prove is that's not true," Stewart says.

The evidence also suggests that Greek culture did not increase, at least in that area, under Alexander.

"If anything there was a bit of retrenchment," Stewart says.

Artifacts Suggest Earlier Greek Culture

Why should anyone care, other than a bunch of art historians? Simply this. It may seem logical to assume that military victories in places like Iran, Afghanistan, Israel and other hot spots will lead to the spread of the culture and values of the conquering forces. But beneath a small mound overlooking two ancient sand-filled harbors, archaeologists are uncovering evidence that "decouples material culture from military conquest," Stewart says.

For nearly two decades Steward has been digging into the sandy soil where a Phoenician town once thrived on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, in what is now Israel. The site is extraordinarily rare in that it has remained relatively undisturbed for two millennium.

No modern city rose on the ruins of Dor, as has happened in so many areas of archaeological interest, and the nearest village was an Arab settlement just to the south, abandoned in 1948 after the Israeli war of independence. It was replaced by a kibbutz, Nachsholim, a popular retreat for beach lovers who flock to the white sands carried along the Mediterranean shoreline by the northward thrust of the Nile River.

Stewart and other researchers from Berkeley, as well as Hebrew University in Jerusalem and several other American, Canadian and South African universities, have recovered more than 100,000 artifacts from the site, mostly pottery. They tell a graphic story of how that community changed from a Phoenician culture steeped in boat building and seamanship to a veritable outpost of Greek material culture by 400 B.C., well before Alexander's exploits began in 336 B.C.

Stewart refers to it as "material" culture because there is no evidence yet of literary, or political, Greek culture spreading into that area. The artifacts show only that the people who lived there, or the people who moved there, were deeply involved in the production of material items, like pottery, that was clearly Greek in nature.

Military Man

And they were into it big time.

"It tells you that the community on that site was buying lock, stock and barrel into Greek material culture, as opposed to merely sporadically importing stuff," Stewart says.

That's significant because it shows that these people were Greeks, or really wanted to be at least partly like Greeks, long before they had heard of Alexander. So "Hellenization" didn't come in with Alexander. It was there to greet him when he first arrived.

But does that mean Alexander was overrated by historians? Not necessarily. His military might was something extraordinary.

The young Alexander, who had been tutored by Aristotle, ascended to the throne of the Macedonian region when his father, Phillip II, was assassinated in the summer of 336 B.C. Surrounded by enemies, he moved quickly to gain control of the rest of Greece, although he was not yet 20 years old.

Historians consider him a brilliant military tactician with an exceptional ability to rally his troops in the face of what might have seemed overwhelming challenges. With 35,000 troops he overcame armies many times that size, although many experts believe the strength of the opposition has been greatly overestimated by historians. But whatever the odds, in three years time he blazed a trail from what is now Turkey to Egypt, dismantling the Persian Empire.

He fell ill in Babylon in 323, and died there at the age of 33.

Greeked-Out?

There is no doubt that Greek culture became deeply entrenched in the major cities under his rule, many of which he named Alexandria, but the story in the hinterlands, where "most people lived" is still unclear, Stewart says.

It was well established at Dor long before Alexander's rule, but the archaeological record is so incomplete that it's impossible at this point to say whether Dor was the exception or the rule. It seems likely that the same cultural transition happened throughout much of the area, but no one knows for sure.

What is clear is that on the heels of Alexander's triumphs, some of the people of Dor grew disenchanted with all things Greek. Some artifacts show that "sometimes the locals were trying to reach back to their roots," rejecting both the style and substance of Greek pottery.

They probably grew tired of Alexander and his generals.

"After all, the Macedonians were pretty harsh overlords," Stewart says.

Yet Greek culture refused to go away. The researchers have pieced together one extraordinary piece of a mosaic floor. At the center of the mosaic is a mask worn by a young Greek man in comic theater, complete with an intricate headband of various colored glass and pottery. It is believed to have been created in Dor around 100 B.C., most likely by an itinerant artisan from Greece.

"Everything about it is Greek," Stewart says.

The centerpiece is the young man in the mask.

"We call him the Young Dandy of Dor," Stewart adds.

And he, too, is very Greek.

He came along after Alexander, but he was preceded for centuries by less spectacular Greek artifacts, revealing that the spread of culture was not entirely dependent on military conquest. It's much more complex than that.

Link