On Tue, 5 Feb 2002, Dan Minette wrote: > > Lets look at > > > one popular attempt to ground morality in biology: considering things as > > > evolutionarily favored or disfavored. Isn't it an evolutionarily > favored > > > behavior to wipe out groups that have the maximum variation from one's > own > > > genes and taking over their slots in the ecosystem. Isn't it also > genocide > > > and evil? > > > > Yeah, and I imagine it would lead to prodigious inbreeding and a tendency > > to show up in movies with "Deliverance" in the title. ;-) > > Taken to extremes, sure. But, the size of the gene pool for the "Master > Race" in the '30s and '40s was much larger than needed to avoid this. > Indeed, I'd guess that the mixing of genes through much of history was > smaller than one might imagine. Yes, one often married from the next > village, especially if one's village was very small. But, my memory is that > there are many cases were there were practically isolated gene pools in the > thousands or lower for much of human history. Does anyone have better data > on that?
Ok, so much for humor. Nazi ideology aside, I think that the behavior you've posited may not confer quite the evolutionary advantage you imply. First, I'll grant that when you find yourself competing for resources with those from outside your local gene pool, then yes, it's to your evolutionary advantage to win that particular competition. On the other hand, it probably isn't to one's evolutionary advantage to aggressively seek to eliminate other gene lines within one's own species. There's bound to be a point of diminishing returns for this kind of aggression for the species as a whole because the environment is not static, and adaptatability is enhanced by variety. I think the agression of this sort that we see in nature depends on a lot of factors (birthrate, amount of food and habitat available, etc.). In most mammals, for instance, we rarely see families going out of their way to try to extinguish other families unless resources are pretty scarce, AFAIK. They fight for food and mates but rarely embark on campaigns of extermination. That's mostly a human trait and owes more to ideology than biology. Marvin Long Austin, Texas
