EURASIA TRADE BROUGHT TOGETHER MANY CIVILIZATIONS
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From:           	HowlBloom@aol.com
Date sent:      	Mon, 22 Feb 1999 02:34:51 EST
In a message dated 99-02-21 17:28:48 EST, Ed Miller writes:


<< 1. Much of the current human variation in intelligence is genetic.
  2. Intelligence is affected by a large number of different genes.
   3. There has been unidirectional selection for intelligence in much, if
   not
all, of the world.
  4. It can be presumed that each individual has an equal probability of
experiencing an intelligence raising mutation (regardless of the
population they live in).  >>


Here's a brief alternative to Ed Miller's gene-based argument.  The 10,000
mile stretch of Eurasian landmass (with Africa's Egypt tossed in) not only
shared a common latitude and hence was conducive to the spread of
agricultural and other forms of innovation, but provided innumerable
microenvironments in which separate cultures could develop their
differences.  These cultures were often in either trade or combat
competition.  Competition forces a culture to absorb the tricks of its
rivals then to outdo them.  A wide variety of cultures--Chinese, European,
Mongol, Aryan, Middle Eastern, etc.--kept throwing new innovations into
the mix.  Put several innovations from widely dispersed cultures together
(the Chinese compass with the Arab lateen sail and the hull of a
Baltic-style cargo ship) and you've got a major breakthrough.  A profusion
of new cultural and techological twists accelerates the rate at which a
given culture must run very hard to stay in place and run even harder to
get ahead of the pack.  Hence Eurasia hit the fast track hard.


Africa and the Americas lacked this mix of cultures competing for similar
niches.  Aztecs had no interest in taking territory in North America--it
was a climatically alient wasteland in which their cultural adaptations
would have failed miserably.  The Aryans, Greeks, Romans, Mongols, Huns,
Celts, Franks, Jews, and Arabs, on the other hand, found niches via trade
or conquest thousands of miles from their original homelands.  (So did the
Incas, whose empire may have been over a thousand miles long, but it was
only roughly 40 miles wide.)  Even the Chinese and Russians have been
underrated on this list for their territorial hunger.  Unlike Portugal,
Spain, Holland, and England, the Chinese and Russians built land empires. 
But those empires were enormous, and digested numerous previously
independent cultures.


The empires of Africa and mesoamerica never had the privilege of
incorporating this scale of territorial, environmental, and cultural
diverisity.  If intelligence is a collective property, Africa and America
suffered from cultures whose geography kept them microcephalic.  Howard
---------- Howard Bloom founder: International Paleopsychology Project;
member: New York Academy of Sciences, American Association for the
Advancement of Science, American Psychological Society, Academy of
Political Science, Human Behavior and Evolution Society, European
Sociobiological Society; board member: Epic of Evolution Society,
Executive Editor-- New Paradigm Book Series


International Paleopsychology Project
www.paleopsych.org
705 President Street
Brooklyn, NY 11215
phone 718 622 2278
fax 718 398 2551
e-mail howard@paleopsych.org


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The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of History,
see www.bookworld.com/lucifer