Wait a minute! Isn't epigenetics a little like the Lamarkian theory that
acquired characteristics are inheritable, a theory long driven off the stage by
geneticists beginning with Gregor Mendel. The following is from Wikipedia:
Lamarckism (or Lamarckian inheritance) is the idea that an organism can pass
on characteristics that it acquired during its lifetime to its offspring (also
known as heritability of acquired characteristics or soft inheritance). It is
named after the French biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829), who
incorporated the action of soft inheritance into his evolutionary theories. He
is often incorrectly cited[citation needed] as the founder of soft inheritance,
which proposes that individual efforts during the lifetime of the organisms
were the main mechanism driving species to adaptation, as they supposedly would
acquire adaptive changes and pass them on to offspring.
After publication of Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection, the
importance of individual efforts in the generation of adaptation was
considerably diminished. Later, Mendelian genetics supplanted the notion of
inheritance of acquired traits, eventually leading to the development of the
modern evolutionary synthesis, and the general abandonment of the Lamarckian
theory of evolution in biology. In a wider context, soft inheritance is of use
when examining the evolution of cultures and ideas, and is related to the
theory of Memetics.
I believe the Russians tried to apply Lamarkian principles to agriculture after
the revolution. But all of this is beyond me, so I'll quit here lest I risk
and attack from Chris.
Ed
----- Original Message -----
From: Ed Weick
To: Keith Hudson ; RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION,EDUCATION
Sent: Saturday, November 06, 2010 3:07 PM
Subject: Re: [Futurework] Epigenesis -- was Indian prejudice
Interesting, Keith. What you are suggesting is that the catastrophic
collapse of Indian civilizations, such as happened in Guatemala, would have
given a dark coloration to the personalities of subsequent generations. There
may have been no genetic changes from one generation to the next, but the
epigenetic control factors that determine how genes are marshaled in the
creation of new people would have darkened when large numbers of people died
and everything was seen to fall apart.
The people I worked with in Costa Rica a few years ago were of Spanish or in
a few cases Moorish descent. However, there were small groups of Indians
living in small villages in out of the way places. I was told that they kept
to themselves and preferred not to interact with the overall population. While
I haven't seen the data, I would suspect that the original population of Costa
Rica underwent a collapse similar to that of Guatemala.
Ed
----- Original Message -----
From: Keith Hudson
To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION,EDUCATION
Sent: Saturday, November 06, 2010 11:21 AM
Subject: [Futurework] Epigenesis -- was Indian prejudice
Ed,
The puzzling aspect of modern African-Americans is why they haven't done
much better in the professions, business and politics since slavery was
abolished. James Flynn, among others, has pretty conclusively proved that it's
nothing to do with inferior intelligence -- they are as much up to the mark as
white Americans. The same could be said for the Dalits of India or the Buraku
and Ainu of Japan. Even though in both countries the 'untouchable' castes have
had full constitutional rights since the 50s, and although much is made of the
few exceptional individuals, they hardly feature at all in any important sphere
of life.
The same could be said for the castes at the other end of the social scale
-- the Brahmins of India or the upper middle-class of the UK (which, via
Cambridge and Oxford Universities, still almost completely dominates business,
politics, professions and much else that's important ever since this new class
rose during the 19th century). (America is still supposed to be an
equal-opportunity society but it is becoming obvious that an elite Harvard-Yale
class is already growing fast in America, similar to the UK -- and the same in
France and Germany.)
The new and fast-growing field of epigenetics in biology is now beginning
to give us the reasons why social status, high or low, perseverates for
generations, and which can't be adequately explained on the basis of genes, or
nutrition, or education alone. This is the major discovery that emerged from
the Human Genome Project from 2003 onwards. It isn't genes alone (or their
potentiation alone) which is inherited, but also the particular ways that genes
are "set" in order to work in coalition with others. In fact, without these
epigenetic coalitions the genes couldn't do their job at all. The agents that
decide on these genetic settings lie in the DNA but outside the genes
themselves. In effect these agents act rather like cowboys -- they lasso genes
that lie at far distances from one another on the DNA (sometimes on different
chromosomes) and bring them together so the coalition-gene can do its stuff
efficiently.
There are two important points to this: firstly, epigenetic settings are as
much involved in propensities of behaviour as much as physiological effects;
secondly, the settings can be inherited for many generations, or even thousands
of years, before they might re-set themselves -- but feeling their way back to
what was the original "standard" setting may take several generations. If we
consider that culture can be considered as a social collectivity of behaviour,
then epigenesis is beginning to explain several mysteries, not only those of
long persistence of social status mentioned above but also why some
cultures/nations cannot manage their economies in the same way as the West. For
example, Argentina was the fourth most prosperous country in the world at the
turn of the 20th century when it was selling vast quantities of grain and meat
to Europe, but somehow they couldn't consolidate this in their financial
institutions and politics -- it has defaulted on its government loans and
issued new currencies several times since its peak.
Epigenetics is probably the fastest growing sub-field within biology
(because gene-coalition propensities are also involved in many diseases such as
type 2 diabetes and many cancers) but what fascinates me is that this may
finally explain many puzzling features of social castes but also economic
development of this country or that.
Keith
At 09:15 06/11/2010 -0400, you wrote:
Pete, you say "I rather suspect the primary reason for using African
slaves was the convenient skin marker that made it impossible for the labour to
ever be free of pursuit." That may have been a reason, but not likely the
primary one. In building up their plantations, Europeans tried to use native
Indian labour, but soon found that the Indians were not immune to European
diseases and thus died off in large numbers. People from west Africa were
generally immune and were brought in to replace the indigenous slaves. The
chart below illustrates what happened in Guatemala.
Ed
----- Original Message -----
From: "pete" <[email protected]>
To: "RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION,EDUCATION"
<[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, November 05, 2010 8:57 PM
Subject: Re: [Futurework] Indian prejudice
> On Fri, 5 Nov 2010, Christoph Reuss wrote:
>
>> Malcolm Blackmore wrote:
>> > The MacGregor side of my
>> > family were evicted at gunpoint from the Highland croft they rented
and
>> > forcibly placed on a boat at Aberdeen to be sent as indentured
labour to
>> > America.
>>
>> Interesting. Are you saying there was __white slavery__ in America?
>
> Pretty much. although indentured labour was supposed to be paid, and to
> terminate upon completion of the debt obligation, in many cases it was
> contrived in such a way that it was a life sentence. The main
> distinctions between it and true slavery were that 1) children weren't
> the property of the employer, to sell out from their parents, and 2) if
> a labourer escaped, and got far enough away, he/she could blend in with
> the white population and disappear. In fact, I rather suspect the
> primary reason for using african slaves was the convenient skin marker
> that made it impossible for the labour to ever be free of pursuit.
>
> See also the "home children" of Canada, shipped out from England, who
> were child slave labour, provided with only room and board, and confined
> to work, usually as farm labour, for their "guardians" til they were
18.
> Some lucked out and were treated as well as the guardians' own children
> might have been, but others suffered horrendous conditions, only to
> be turned out on the streets malnourished and destitute upon reaching
> adulthood.
>
>> Methinks the MacGregors would have had the option to return to Europe
>> soon. And before being evicted, they would have had the option to get
>> rich. ;-}
>
> I imagine Malcolm can set you straight here, but the answer is generally
> no. Getting back to europe was pretty much out of the question, but
> making a new life in the new world and having success, was a possibility
> if not for the labourers, then at least for their children. That is,
> if they survived long enough...
>
> Another very interesting story along these lines is the saga of the
> crofters who were subject of rescue attempts by Lord Selkirk, who tried
> to provide them with homesteading land in southern Manitoba, in the very
> early years of the 19th century, when there was no overland route from
> the east coast, and the ships were to deliver 1000 settlers via
> Churchill in Hudson's Bay. The many attempts by fur-trading companies,
> principally the Northwest Company, to thwart his rescue plans on two
> continents, including fraud, bribery, intimidation, and finally murder
> by wholesale massacre with a mercenary militia, make a very eye-opening
> story of the brutality of life two centuries ago.
>
> -Pete
>
>
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Keith Hudson, Saltford, England
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