LadyEllen
Posts: 10931
Joined: 6/30/2006 From: Stourport-England Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: RealityLicks Some here set themselves up as experts not just on areas of genetics of which they clearly know little but also as arbiters on how and what I can say. Picking an example at random, someone attributed great relevance to breeding programmes in the period of chattel slavery. Well, hardly any such activity took place until the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade - slaveholders relied on buying imported slaves. Only 60 years later, slavery was abolished - how many generations can be born and grow to puberty in that time? And affect genetic populations? There were slave-breeders, of course but they went for numbers first, in order to make as much money as soon as possible - and frequently impregnating these women themselves. That lack of rigour on one hand and the obvious racist motives of others makes real participation in the "debate" pointless. It was I who made that reference RL (you can attribute my posts to me you know?) and I'll be pleased to explain it. What I said was that commercial slavery effectively selectively bred the African descended population of the US. I did not go further with that because I thought it was fairly self explanatory and my post - refuting the argument of this thread - was already very long. So how did this effect occur? You're quite correct that no one in Africa was running breeding programmes, and that instead the ships were stuffed with whoever was available for sale to the slavers - numbers were what was important. The first stage of selection occurred on the ships, where its well known that much of the "merchandise" would die en route to the Americas - meaning that only the stronger would ever set foot in America. We therefore have already at this stage a genetic population which is superior to that which set out from Africa, and physically superior next to the European descended population which is the product of ordinary generational descent. On arrival in America, the slaves are sold, and taken for heavy work in awful circumstances. Again a proportion cannot withstand these circumstances and die off - further strengthening the remaining population. When it comes to reproduction, this is on the say so of the slave owners, who with an eye to the future permit only those relationships which are most likely to produce strong slaves in the future. One could be sold down the river for non compliance with such directives. So, at the end of the shipments from Africa, at the end of slavery as such, the African descended population in the US represented an effectively selectively bred population - whose descendants, coming from that population, could be expected to inherit the strength in terms of genetics, which that population had required to survive its bondage. That I used this argument to refute one aspect of the ridiculous white supremacist bullshit my acquaintance used to spout at me, makes me racist exactly how please? E
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In a test against the leading brand, 9 out of 10 participants couldnt tell the difference. Dumbasses.
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