cut
> I agree, we, in the U.S. do love statistics and do use them, sometimes
very
> manipulatively, sometimes very accurately. Please tell me how Yankees are
> genetically different from others - I would love to know.
It is quite obvious indeed.
The mixing of genes in the
US gene pool is different of other pools.
A simple example
(sorry for the poor or even wrong
english):
Falciforme anemia is much more common here
because we have more genes for it (more black
people in our origin) than yankees. Yankees have less
protective genes against melanoma (skin cancer)
than us (because yankees are less black than us, etc...
etc...). Moreover the *combination* of the same genes
in two different genetic pools EVER leads to different
phenotypes, life forms and behaviors.
hod
> I bet you loved
> the book "The Bell Curve" if you believe that. However, culturally, a lot
of
> the people who came and settled here were rebellious, protesters,
prisoners,
> along with very solidly religious persons such as the Quakers, Calvinists.
Here too -- but unfortunately only prisoners,
aristocracts, priests and black slaves and
only catholics. Less diversity and less culture
transference. We are more "insular".
hod
> The combined cultures of the early immigrants here would lend itself to
> rambunctious yet impatient people. Another thought: when looking at the
> history of humankind, humans were hunter-gatherers for millions of years
and
> industrialized for a little over 100. To expect children to sit in a
school
> for approximately 8 hours a day with breaks only for lunch and recess goes
> against millions of years where the boys hunted all day with the men
Not all the boys. Only the average boy and only
after an age-limit. Lots of boys die before to be
able to hunt.
hod
>and the
> girls followed their moms gather roots and berries. All of us descended
from
> hunter-gatherers, so what genetically would account for the difference in
> ADHD rates between the U.S. and Europe?
Are you kidding? We are not equal/different
only because we have/don't have common
ancestors! In this way of logic we should have
the same properties of an amoeba and nothing
more at all (same ancestor in cambrian explosion).
Finally here, you only re-estated the original
problem.
Of course the best answer to this problem
will come from neuroscience coupled with the
behaviorial genetics and not from the church
(left wing, right wind, conservatives, nuts...).
You also could note
that USA have not only more
and better stats/tests/science but
also a more intense and
recent and rapid population's growth
in big cities and slums
("rapid-fire expansion" of its own
gene pool). And "criminal" slums, for instance
(slums which produce wealth from criminal
violence and drug commerce -- here quite
well studied) have more problems, because
they have "panmictic-type" populations due to
continuous imbreeding and local selection.
Unfortunately, no chance to "nerds"
in our slums... They have almost no kids.
Can you imagine the type of personality
(we measured it) of status-males who have more
wives and kids in our favelas (slums) in Rio?
Regards from Brasil!
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