Keith, I'm not sure at all that "we all know what the pecking order is within any particular group" when the "pecking order" could be defined by the colour of the plummage, the capacity to scuffle for grain, the inteligence to follow up more smartly on the hint of a woodgrub or whatever... There are hierarchies but my understanding is that the studies show that those shift through time depending on function and other factors... The issue of hormonal levels is not something I know anything about but it seems to me that you are somehow attributing what is likely at best a statistical association with some sort of causality which is by most measures a (social) scientific no-no of the first order... mostly because one can never be sure which way the causality actually is running... and then there is the issue of causality itself which gets murkier and murkier the closer one gets into it (including or especially Darwinian "causality"... The same can/should be said for intelligence... and as for race... hmmm... To be completely specious and ad hominem here... having lived in the UK for several years right at the belly of one of the major status discrimination points I can see why you would want to say what you are saying... it universalizes what is in fact a very pernicious and long-lasting feature of UK society... but to generalize those observations to the world at large is another matter altogether. Mike
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Keith Hudson Sent: Thursday, September 08, 2011 12:19 PM To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, ,EDUCATION Subject: Re: [Futurework] 2NYTimes.com: Where the Jobs Aren't For some reason my reply to Mike Gurstein's last posting refuses to be sent by my software. I think it may be Mike's typefafce or colour. So I'm sending my reply by itself. It's in answer to Mike's first paragraph. Keith Yes, status is hard to define but we all know what the pecking order is within any particular group, at least at the top end before it merges downwards into a middling sort of equality. Of course, status can shift somewhat in some situations requiring special skills but social status levels in any fairly permanent group can also be given more precisely by hormonal levels. (In a voluntary group, the hormonal levels and correlated traits give rise to the status level; in an imposed hierarchy, say in a multi-ranked bureaucracy, hormone levels will adjust to the ranks that have been chosen for them.) Intelligence is similar to status (that is, within the context of a particular group). In fact, they are highly correlated. Race is quite different. Races differ for reasons of different distinctive bunches of gene mutations within the standard set of genes (of which all races have precisely the same number and main functions -- thus making all races inter-fertile). (It is for this reason that geneticists have been able to trace the various migration routes of man since we left Africa.) The differences lead to different abilities in some highly specialized activities (such as running 100 metres) but they are, of course, quite trivial in comparison to the overwhelming commonalities of all races. Keith Keith Hudson, Saltford, England http://allisstatus.wordpress.com/2012/08/
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