BS: Ancient Racism

Subject: BS: Ancient Racism
From: Donuel
Date: 06 Jul 20 - 03:59 PM

Advancements in genetic sequencing has allowed genomic research to flourish. DNA sequencing is now much faster, cheaper and accurate than ever before, and we’re only now beginning to reap the rewards. It’s the first step to a complete understanding of our bodies. The Human Genome Project, once finally completed, mapped and identified all the genes of the human genome. This helps us get an idea of where are, but to understand how we got here, we also need to peek into ancient DNA. For instance, a recent study found that Tibetans share at least one gene with the ancient Denisovans, an ancient human species that interbred with the Tibetan homo sapiens ancestors. Ironically, the Denisovans’ extinctions was pushed by the homo sapiens presence.
You know what Neanderthals looked like and can imagine what a throwback would look like today. But Denisovans could look like Liam Nielson or a big Mel Brooks. They interbred with Neanderthals at two seperate epochs between 20 to 60 thousand years ago. Denisovan mixed offspring would lose some stature but Neanderthal mothers had babies with such huge heads many would die in childbirth. It is possible modern humans evolved from the mutation prone Denisovans. The ancient interbreeding between species occured in Europe but mostly in China and Asia but not in Africa. Africans are the most pure breed if you will. Racism is more of a recent cultural development in my eyes probably an outgrowth of Empire building.

Subject: RE: BS: Ancient Racism
From: Mrrzy
Date: 06 Jul 20 - 04:23 PM

Nope. Ingroup-outgroup differentiation, coupled with favoring the ingroup, is basic social mammalian perception. Older than humanity, definitely.

Subject: RE: BS: Ancient Racism
From: Donuel
Date: 06 Jul 20 - 06:33 PM

You sound like an anthropologist. What primates cross species but discriminate on same species color?

Subject: RE: BS: Ancient Racism
From: Mrrzy
Date: 07 Jul 20 - 12:15 PM

Any mammal, or any animal for that matter with color vision, has pretty colors that (usually) females use their perceptions of to judge worth for mating. You think a peahen judges by the content of character?

Subject: RE: BS: Ancient Racism
From: keberoxu
Date: 07 Jul 20 - 03:50 PM

Apropos the peahen. The peahen is, of course, a FOWL
and not mammalian in nature.

And if our scientist friend Steve Shaw were here, he would point out
that birds have reptilian brains and nervous systems,
and that our peahen has the brains of a dinosaur,
which is to say, nothing much.

Move over to that special area of mammals, however,
who bear their young in utero,
and there we get the animal origin of jealousy,
which -- my studies are modest, but I recall this much --
is about shielding a pregnant female, in the interest of
insuring the propagation of the species.
A whole other can of worms?

Subject: RE: BS: Ancient Racism
From: Mrrzy
Date: 07 Jul 20 - 03:51 PM

I did say Or any animal...

Subject: RE: BS: Ancient Racism
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Jul 20 - 06:05 PM

I have a soft spot for warm blooded vertebrates. Just because they have some scales and are egg bearing doesn't mean they are primitive or feeble minded. Take a Parrot for example. Snakes turtles and lizards are different in nervous systems.

Interspecies copulation still goes on with sheep goats and cows so Denisovans should not be judged too harshly. ":^>

Subject: RE: BS: Ancient Racism
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Jul 20 - 06:47 PM

The brains of dinosaurs sustained them for over 150 million years. In fact, since birds are actually theropod dinosaurs in all respects, we can bolt on another 66 million years to that. Therefore, "nothing much" doesn't exactly cut it. And dinosaurs are the innocents of the planet, as in those hundreds of million years they haven't threatened the earth via irresponsible actions. We've managed that in less than three hundred years. And it would be a great idea to refrain from referring to human "breeds."

The animal kingdom includes vertebrates and invertebrates, not just cuddly mammals or cute dickiebirds. You might need to kill a cockroach that's invading your kitchen, or a squirrel invading your roof, or a house fly threatening to contaminate your plate of ham. But if you get a chance you should first contemplate the beauty of the synergy of form and function in those beasts. And the beauty of the diversity of life on earth that got to be there without the need for a magic being. All it needed was four billion years of evolution, a time scale almost too terrifying to contemplate. It's all good, but if that cockroach is threatening your patch it still has to die, regardless of that four billion years that made it what it was.

Subject: RE: BS: Ancient Racism
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Jul 20 - 08:36 PM

The best way to win a war against cochroaches is to move.
Good Job mentioning the symbiotic cooperative nature of evolution.
An aspect of ancient racism is probably tribalism.