tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post5141863384462611578..comments2024-03-22T15:55:34.030-04:00Comments on Evo and Proud: Cognitive ability of indigenous Arctic peoplesPeter Frosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04303172060029254340noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-40478137811195247432022-05-03T07:12:00.071-04:002022-05-03T07:12:00.071-04:00I was just thinking that those who passed the impe...I was just thinking that those who passed the imperial exam were very few, but their families could benefit from a son passing it. If a person's relatives share more genes for intelligence, this would be eugenic fertility.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-74648167023679912642022-04-12T18:16:58.070-04:002022-04-12T18:16:58.070-04:00Very interesting. I always thought that it was a s...Very interesting. I always thought that it was a shame that so much of the current discussion about human intelligence suffers from tunnel vision, all about IQ/g factor, who's smarter than whom, as if intelligence was one simple thing that people have in different quantities, a misconception that both staunch racists (who want to believe that some peoples are simply cognitively superior to others in every way) and anti-racists (who insist that all peoples have the exact same cognitive potential in their DNA) refuse to abandon. It's much more interesting to identify the stark differences in cognitive traits and aptitudes, as this article does. Human cognition is an ensemble of a myriad of different parts working together and it's rather misguided to stubbornly try to reduce it to one number when it tells us so little of value.<br /><br />It's also crucial for understanding how to deal with non-European populations, mostly when it comes to education and employment. If we (wrongly) assume that all peoples have the same kind of intelligence but in different quantities, then we'll insist on using the same approaches for all peoples. But as this article makes clear, our ways of thinking and learning are far from universal, and imposing a style of education that only works well for us puts other peoples at an unnatural disadvantage due to our domination over them. Just as the Australian government wastes time, money and goodwill on building European-style houses for aboriginals who prefer to sleep under the stars, so do we waste time trying to teach calculus to people for whom abstract mathematics are innately incomprehensible. And in the case of the Inuit the issue of the inadequacy of the way we educate them is compounded by the formerly (presumably) evolutionarily advantageous tendency for suicide ideation from feeling useless.Michel Rouzichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09919422635955113599noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-70442637547555767622022-04-02T18:41:13.399-04:002022-04-02T18:41:13.399-04:00Santocool,
Innate cognitive ability probably vari...Santocool,<br /><br />Innate cognitive ability probably varies less, since these societies are not segmented by social class into smaller populations. They're also smaller, so it would be difficult to form endogamous subgroups.<br /><br />I touched on your second point (sort of). If slaves are continually imported into a society, the upper and middle classes cannot demographically replace the lower class. Instead of being replenished by the demographic surplus of the higher classes, the lower class is demographically replenished from external sources.<br /><br />Racism is not mentioned by suicidal Inuit as a reason for suicide. The most common reason is a feeling of uselessness that begins at school and continues after school. Young people, especially boys, are immersed in a virtual world (TV, "educational" materials) that seems totally foreign and offers no real role models.Peter Frosthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04303172060029254340noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-4236530235448583622022-03-31T08:29:57.739-04:002022-03-31T08:29:57.739-04:00''It must be said that the Inuit are ill-s...''It must be said that the Inuit are ill-suited to the Western model of education and, more broadly, to the Western model of sedentism, individualism, and asociality. Young Inuit feel useless in that kind of society, and all too many end up committing suicide.''<br /><br />racism...tooSantocoolnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-86904017934808877742022-03-31T08:19:32.227-04:002022-03-31T08:19:32.227-04:00''This cognitive evolution initially went ...''This cognitive evolution initially went farther in the Middle East. Then, sometime around the 16th century, that region seemed to hit a ceiling as the pace of social complexification slowed down. The slowdown had several causes. First, there was demographic stagnation and loss of food production, due to the cumulative effects of erosion, salinization, and overgrazing. Second, there were ideological constraints. Although Islam was not alone in seeking to limit the free expression of ideas, it was more effective than Christianity in preventing the rise of a secular intellectual class that could spur progress in science and technology. Third, a true market economy failed to develop in the Middle East. The concept of trade was widely understood, but production of goods and services remained mostly within the household, i.e., family members, servants and, more broadly, relatives and in-laws. As a result, the market could not replace kinship as the main organizing principle of society.''<br /><br />Considered continuing racial mixing in the region as a factor.<br /><br />Reading his texts, I remember when history was only an explanatory and not a critical discipline...<br /><br />Santocoolnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3734925856292601239.post-41884203256266971852022-03-31T07:58:05.633-04:002022-03-31T07:58:05.633-04:00I am particularly interested in how cognitive abil...I am particularly interested in how cognitive ability varies in these populations. My guess is that it is much lower than in a ''civilized'' society.Santocoolnoreply@blogger.com