What do you think about societies who have the custom of "dowries"? Don't know what that means? In some societies a girl will not be accepted by a potential husband unless the girl has enough wealth so that she is not a burden on the potential husband. Sounds like an awful custom, but it exists in many societies. What would you think if you had a girl rather than a boy? Having a girl could bankrupt a family by the process of dowry that would be required to get her married off. As you might guess, in many societies, the birth rate for girls is "much" lower than that for boys. As strange as this custom is, I see it as something that needs to be analysed. What impact does such a custom have on the characteristics of people who have lived under the rules of dowry over a long period of time? That is what I want to explore.
As you might have guessed, the custom of dowry has a big impact on birth rates. It is actually a form of birth control. If a family can not come up with an adequate dowry, their daughter my never marry and thus never have children. She does have one other alternative and that is to marry someone with a much lower social and economic standing. The net affect of this process is to assure that families that are not economically successful that their children will marry others who are in a similar situation.You may be starting to ask, "What has this to do with Darwin"? I think, a lot.
If economically successful people marry others who are also economically successful, it would stand to reason that any inherited characteristic that would aid in that economic success would be pass along and concentrated. Like wise, if the unsuccessful similarly marry and have children, their characteristics would also be concentrated. I am not going into detail on what I think the different characteristics are, but you would have to agree that this process of dowry does have an affect over time.
A little side note on how important mating patterns can have, let me tell you about modern milk cows. Today, we have cows that produce much more milk than did cows just a few generations ago. We would all have to say, "that is good", but did you know this? The ability of cows to produce such large amounts of milk is the result of selective breeding over many generations. If, however, we let these great cows breed randomly, the amount of milk produced would go down about 10% per generation. That means we could lose all the progress from years of selective breeding in just a few years. A key point is that the progress can be lost at a much faster rate than it was produced. Got that?
Darwin has been working to help us humans deal with the problems of the world and survive since the beginning of time. Like the practice of dowry that encouraged those who were successful in dealing with the problems of the world to reproduce, Darwin did the same thing. All this is a build up to the realization that us humans have been canceling out Darwin's efforts and that from the custom of dowry. The reason that I am so concerned about recent changes in human behavior is that, as with the milk cows, the work that took Darwin thousands of years can be lost in just a few generations. I do not claim to know what all those characteristics that Darwin was able to concentrate in us humans are to help us deal with the problems of the world, but I do know that they are being lost.
We may have modern medicine, but we are not healthier than we were just a few generations ago. We have more health problems today than we did a few years ago. The only difference is that the modern medicine allows us to survive. We may live longer, but it is not because we are healthier.
How about SAT test scores? They have been going down. Do you know why? Is it because we do not spend enough on education? I don't think so. Remember that taking Darwin out of milk cow breeding can cause milk production to go down as much as 10% per generation.
I know that it is not PC to discuss genetic factors unless it has to do with some known health problem. If genetics can affect basic health, why would you not expect it to affect other aspects of human existence? Like I said earlier, I don't know what the factors are, but I know that they are not "zero". I am not blind and I hope that you are not either. Look at the size of families today compared to a few generations ago. Notice that there is a very large difference in the size of families based on
cultural factors and economic success. Seems the wealthier a family is, the fewer children they have and the poorer a family is the more children they have. Some families don't even have both a mother and a father supporting their children. To not think this action does not have an affect on the genetics of our population is to be "blind" or stupid.
Watching grass grow has more action than human genetics, but that does not mean it is more significant. Keep your eyes and mind open because some very big things are happening and I don't think they will turn out to be good.
