Did the slave trade effect natural selection among its victims?
January 5, 2012 7:21 PM   Subscribe

This post was deleted for the following reason: This looks like linkbait trolling honestly. -- jessamyn



 
What?
posted by jokeefe at 7:23 PM on January 5, 2012 [1 favorite]


"However, the authors have not been able to identify the specific benefits these genes may have conferred to the ancestors of modern blacks."

Am I misreading it, or is the article just a truism with lots of fluff?
posted by verb at 7:25 PM on January 5, 2012


Trolling is an important part of creating linkbait. For example, the writer of the story hedges everything towards the end of the article:

Wilk emphasized that the study also may not be plausible since it is based on the assumption that the people exported from Africa as slaves were all from the Yoruba people -- a West African ethnic group. The study ignores the vast genetic and environmental diversity of Africa.

Basically, the writer, while beginning the story as a serious attempt to discuss research results, finishes by demolishing the study itself.

What a dumb article.
posted by KokuRyu at 7:28 PM on January 5, 2012 [2 favorites]


How can one off events like this have any affect on natural selection?
posted by schwa at 7:30 PM on January 5, 2012


Here's the final 2 paragraphs of the article (which totally contradict the lede):

"This is another example of over-reaching by people in the field of medical genetics who seem to have no understanding of population genetics, or of the historical events they seek to explain," he said. "Africa is the most genetically diverse place on earth for humans -- so the very idea that you can easily separate out 'European' genes from 'African' ones is not founded in good science, or good history."

These conclusions suggest that the methods used by the team at the Chinese Academy of Sciences were not thorough. By contrast, because evidence of natural selection is subtle, the Shanghai team asserts that scientists in the future will need to analyze many thousands of genomes to make their exploratory research more conclusive.

posted by KokuRyu at 7:30 PM on January 5, 2012


Quick, get Jimmy the Greek on the phone...
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 7:30 PM on January 5, 2012


Came here to say almost exactly what KokuRyu just said. This is essentially a non story
posted by edgeways at 7:31 PM on January 5, 2012


How can one off events like this have any affect on natural selection?

Founder effect
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 7:31 PM on January 5, 2012


Here.. I'll make it even simpler: This is another example of over-reaching by people in the field of medical genetics who seem to have no understanding of population genetics,
posted by edgeways at 7:32 PM on January 5, 2012


It's possible that the harsh journey on the slave ship may have caused a genetic bottleneck and the effects of it can still be seen, but natural selection? I doubt it.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 7:33 PM on January 5, 2012


« Older Blame it on the beasts   |   Alan J. Pakula's "The Parallax View" Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments