Stone Age ‘gender bender’

[DonnaT]

What is hybrid vigor?

Genetic crossbreeding.

[Absaroka]

THis would mean that all the racial purity folks would be very upset to find that inter racial children are healthier. I'll have to remember that.

[Carolynn]

The offspring of two genetically closely related populations: Horses and burros, Zebras and horses, bison and cattle, dogs and wolves, squash and gourds, etc. The populations that can cross breed are usually related at the subspecific level at least. The resulting next generation are often stronger, larger, more disease resistant, and sometimes smarter. This is referred to as hybrid vigor.

The condition is known from human populations as well, mainly seen in hybridization of physical characteristics, stature, and disease resistance. It can backfire on occasion and produce less disease resistant individuals where two or more genetic weaknesses combine that would otherwise not be present.

Horse breeders look for hybrid vigor in making new specialized breeds, like quarter horses, and rose gardeners take advantage of the phenomena to make new varieties of roses and other plants, such as new varieties of corn or wheat.

[Anthony Simon]

THis would mean that all the racial purity folks would be very upset to find that inter racial children are healthier. I'll have to remember that.

You can maybe look at this the other way up too. Like, for the racial purity lot, the more closely related individuals are to some notional "purity of blood" the higher the quality of the offspring you get from them. Which kind of implies, for such individuals, that incest is a Really Good Idea.

[Oh dear. I might as well say this here. I'm a little bit concerned that CDF isn't get any new people in because of the block on new members.]

[Carolynn]

Uhmm, yeah. The purity argument would also result in the concentration of genetic defects in offspring, as has been demonstrated in breeding programs to make dog lines "stable" for AKC registration. Such problems are exemplified in human populations such as the ancient Egyptian royal line and in some of the royal lines of jolly old Europe in times past (where hemophilia was rampant for awhile). With purity arguments must come eugenics programs, with selective abortion based on genetic scans, marginalization and castration of those perceived as unfit to reproduce, and other emotionally disturbing acts.

The old Clarke Institute of Canada (now CAMNH, home to Blanchard and Zucker) advocate (in their less public writings other than in a Eugenics journal and occasional articles in other places) such procedures to remove gay and trans genes and other defects from the human genome. That's why they support geneticists work to find such genes. They have suggested screening of fetuses to search for defects that might make a child and its parents experience expensive difficulties in growing up/raising a child, and would abort any that show such defects.

Looking at population statistics, gay and other gender differences seem to be a consistent percentage in population after populations, which according to biologists indicates it is a normal variation, or alternatively a recessive genetic defect, one or the other. Depends on the point of view.

Carolynn