----- Original Message ----- From: "Damon Agretto" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2004 1:43 PM Subject: Re: The Mercies of The Vatican
> > If a conquered community's offspring were mostly > > procreated by one man or > > one man and his immediate relatives, wouldn't this > > reduce the genetic > > diversity of a population and thus result in an > > evolutionary disadvantage? > > Probably. But then I bet the raper isn't thinking > altruistically about the Human Race, but rather > maximizing the spread of his genes. It's an > evolutionary advantage, but to HIM. > > I think the confusion here is the association of > rape=evolutionary advantage. I would posit the > evolutionary advantage rather is promiscuity. Rape is > merely a method in order to maximize that promiscuity. > I was specifically thinking about rape accompanying conquest. Lets simplify it. Take a system with thousands of tribes. There are attacks from time to time. The variables are such that each is as likely to wind the conquest as the other. 5% of these thousands of tribes have a gene that causes its males to take the females of the other tribe as concubines. 95% have a gene that causes its males to let old marriages stand. After a tribe has been conquered and absorbed , it eventually splits into two tribes simply because its more convenient to organize into relatively smaller groups. I'd argue that after a number of generations, the gene to take the women of the other tribe as concubines will dominate. If you look at descriptions of very ancient civilizations, based on families and tribes, you will see that this was taken for granted....the head of the house had a right to have children with the handmaidens of his wives. Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
