In article <69qp14lhgcfqg1v14m1dgf4np95k17h6j1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
jaimie@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(Jaimie Vandenbergh) says...
> On Sat, 3 May 2008 15:30:53 -0700, Larry Caldwell
> <firstnamelastinitial@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> >In article
<f0jp145shtjut25vffcjrvhjjkipr3sve2@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
> >jaimie@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(Jaimie Vandenbergh) says...
> >> On Sat, 3 May 2008 13:20:44 -0700, Larry Caldwell
> >> <firstnamelastinitial@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >>
> >> >In article <KYKdnWgBK8vL5YHVnZ2dnUVZ_hynnZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
mstephen@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >> >(Mark Stephen) says...
> >> >
> >> >> is this sort
> >> >> of selective breeding with humans actually impossible, or merely
> >> >> unethical and kinda disgusting?
> >> >
> >> >Unethical, certainly, since breeding for traits involves inbreeding
and
> >> >rigid culling of anything that doesn't meet breed standards.
However,
> >> >the Hawaiians bred a royal family of 7' tall geniuses that way.
> >>
> >> Gosh. Can you give references for that? Sounds fascinating, and I've
> >> never heard of it.
> >
> >http://www.transatlantica.org/do***ent525.html
>
> Thanks, good cite.
>
> Cheers - Jaimie (off into research mode)
There is a lot to research, and the socially sensitive nature means you
probably won't find it in one spot. For instance Queen Liliuokalani,
the last ruler of Hawaii, was over 6' tall, a marvel for a woman in the
19th century. Among other things, she was the composer of "Aloha O",
which is still sung today.
The Hawaiians were not the only ones with a breeding program. The Incas
and the Egyptians had something going on. I'm still looking for a
reference that I happened across over 30 years ago, which was an account
of the desecration of the Roman Temple of Vesta by the Christians. The
Christians burned all the temple books, to the accompaniment of great
wailing and distress among the priestesses. The writer thought that was
strange, because the contents of the books were only genealogies.
Another interesting comment was by one of the early Greek philosophers,
who went into adolescent raptures about winning the games at Delphi, and
being granted "the favor of the goddess." I took that to imply that he
got laid a lot. Unfortunately, I have mislaid my copy of _Early Greek
Philosophers_, so I can't give you his name.
I had a long talk with Frank Herbert about this in about 1971. He was
aware of quite a bit of it, and modelled the Bene Gesserit after the
ancient practice of trying to breed heroes.
I have never found any indication that the ancient world had any
understanding of Mendelian inheritance. The technique used by animal
and plant breeders is that you outcross to introduce characteristics,
then inbreed to fix those characteristics. You have to cull any
specimen that exhibits any undesirable traits. That technique removes
any defective genes from the breeding line, while fixing double
recessives, some of which can be very desirable. A single generation
outcross can then give you some interesting, though unpredictable,
hybrid characteristics.
When it comes to social change, Darwin is a piker compared to Mendel.
The 19th century may have rejected Darwin, but they embraced Mendel.
The logic of racism was rooted in pea plants.
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