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Race seems to be an important factor in human biology and medicine these days, not to mention sociology, so I want to explore the idea with one or two thought experiments. Anyone interested can help correct or clarify.
in Jewish culture of a century ago, we are told, there was a community figure called the Yenta who made sure that a nice Jewish boy married a nice Jewish girl. The desire for endogamy (mating within the group) can be symbolized by this semi-mythical woman the Yenta
in an analogous way there are Scotsmen who are passionate about protecting the breed of Border Collies and find any unregulated exogamy unacceptable.
In rare cases I suppose exceptions can be made in order to breed some particular excellence into the line.
It occurred to me today that genetic engineering offers a very strange possibility----namely of modifying the number of chromosomes so as to produce an offshoot species. that is to create fertilized ova, for implantation in volunteers, which mature into individuals who look exactly like the rest of us and have the same difficulty remembering where they put the car keys but who cannot produce fertile offspring except within their own group.
this prospect might have appealed to many a frustrated Yenta because the nice children would have quite limited choices beyond the approved----exogamy would preclude grandchildren.
the same opportunity seems to present itself to the Dog Breed enthusiast.
If they really care all that much about the desired characteristics "breeding true" and keeping the pedigree straight and all that, well they can go and genetically modify their Border Collies and create a new species.
At this point you could tell me that the human version of this had already been the subject of someone's admonitory SciFi story called "The Yenta Gene". In which some people split their breeding population off, and isolate their gene pool, from some other people---and eventually, perhaps because the larger population becomes resentful, or perhaps because SciFi writers like to show the horrible consequences of our ideas, tragedy ensues.
That is the idea of admonitory stories, the moral is "dont try it look what will happen!". It is so pat it could have happened on Star Trek.
anyway, with your permission I want to think about these things, what is race what is species what is cultural pseudo species what is culture
why is the human race so polytypical (when you think about it it is is really a crazy racial quilt----but there are many kinds of beautiful women in the world including a Japanese lady I know and I always thank the nonexistent god of evolution for this. and so there is compensation for all the suffering we, by our nature, endure.
in Jewish culture of a century ago, we are told, there was a community figure called the Yenta who made sure that a nice Jewish boy married a nice Jewish girl. The desire for endogamy (mating within the group) can be symbolized by this semi-mythical woman the Yenta
in an analogous way there are Scotsmen who are passionate about protecting the breed of Border Collies and find any unregulated exogamy unacceptable.
In rare cases I suppose exceptions can be made in order to breed some particular excellence into the line.
It occurred to me today that genetic engineering offers a very strange possibility----namely of modifying the number of chromosomes so as to produce an offshoot species. that is to create fertilized ova, for implantation in volunteers, which mature into individuals who look exactly like the rest of us and have the same difficulty remembering where they put the car keys but who cannot produce fertile offspring except within their own group.
this prospect might have appealed to many a frustrated Yenta because the nice children would have quite limited choices beyond the approved----exogamy would preclude grandchildren.
the same opportunity seems to present itself to the Dog Breed enthusiast.
If they really care all that much about the desired characteristics "breeding true" and keeping the pedigree straight and all that, well they can go and genetically modify their Border Collies and create a new species.
At this point you could tell me that the human version of this had already been the subject of someone's admonitory SciFi story called "The Yenta Gene". In which some people split their breeding population off, and isolate their gene pool, from some other people---and eventually, perhaps because the larger population becomes resentful, or perhaps because SciFi writers like to show the horrible consequences of our ideas, tragedy ensues.
That is the idea of admonitory stories, the moral is "dont try it look what will happen!". It is so pat it could have happened on Star Trek.
anyway, with your permission I want to think about these things, what is race what is species what is cultural pseudo species what is culture
why is the human race so polytypical (when you think about it it is is really a crazy racial quilt----but there are many kinds of beautiful women in the world including a Japanese lady I know and I always thank the nonexistent god of evolution for this. and so there is compensation for all the suffering we, by our nature, endure.
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