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Human evolution, genetics, genomics and their interstices
Category: Culture
There was recently a conference on evolution in Egypt. Some interesting numbers: Dr Guessoum, who is a Sunni Muslim, said that in countries such as Tunisia, Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan and Malaysia, only 15 per cent of those surveyed believed Darwin's...
Posted by Razib Khan at 5:47 AM • 11 Comments •
Category: Anthroplogy
The relationship between language families and historical population genetics has a long history. In the 19th and early 20th centuries anthropologists were wont to substitute and synthesize the connections discerned in linguistic relationships with those of presumed biological affinities. This...
Posted by Razib Khan at 5:38 PM • 6 Comments •
Category: Anthroplogy
Tom Rees, Income inequality drives church attendance: ...we find that attendance rates are particularly high in countries with more socioeconomic inequalities and fewer social welfare expenditure. This effect equally applies to both poor and rich people, which is in line...
Posted by Razib Khan at 3:37 AM • 5 Comments •
Category: Genetics
In reviewing a paper which sketches out the boundary conditions under which group-level natural selection would result in the emergence of altruism as a genetically encoded trait, I stated: ... I would look to cultural group selection, because there are...
Posted by Razib Khan at 8:39 AM • 6 Comments •
Category: Anthroplogy
Ruchira Paul has a post up, "Religious, superstitious, nonsense" and other harsh words. The point at issue is the fact that a teacher who expressed anti-Creationist views in harsh tones was sued. Ruchira asks somewhat rhetorically as to the sort...
Posted by Razib Khan at 6:51 AM • 6 Comments •
Category: Anthroplogy
I've discussed menopause as an adaptation and the grandmother effect before. I was also pleased to see the responses of Larry Moran's readers when he presented his standard anti-adaptationist line of argument. I don't want to retread familiar ground here,...
Posted by Razib Khan at 6:02 AM • 2 Comments •
Category: Genetics
The Spittoon points to a new paper, Drawing the history of the Hutterite population on a genetic landscape: inference from Y-chromosome and mtDNA genotypes, which I've been meaning to look at more closely. Unlike some attempts to use genetics to...
Posted by Razib Khan at 5:15 AM • 4 Comments •
Category: Anthroplogy
Eric Michael Johnson is doing some serious science blogging. Worth checking out....
Posted by Razib Khan at 6:57 PM • 2 Comments •
Category: Anthroplogy
If you're at ASHG, a session you might want to attend, Scale Effects and Recent Brain Evolution: Theory and Preliminary Evidence. Here's the abstract: What forces have driven human evolution since the grand human diaspora? In this paper, I argue...
Posted by Razib Khan at 9:29 AM • 60 Comments •
Category: Culture
In the comments of this post I mildly disagreed with Eric Michael Johnson that humans are "polygynous" and the relevance of the fact that "estimates range between 5-10% that all children have been sired by men other than a woman's...
Posted by Razib Khan at 11:47 PM • 6 Comments •
PZ Myers 11.19.2009
PZ Myers 11.14.2009
Tim Lambert 11.18.2009
Ed Brayton 11.20.2009
James Hrynyshyn 11.20.2009
