Category: Civilization, History, and Anthropology

LIKE I SAID IT’S CLASS SIZE, ADMIXTURE AND MIGRATION – NO MATTER WHAT GROUP

Compare:

FLIGHT FROM FAMINE

—“Ireland (92) and Scotland (97) also have lower averages, which Prof. Lynn attributes to selective emigration: Men of better-than-average intelligence managed to leave during famines and other crises.”—

FLIGHT FROM PROSECUTION

—“Prof. Lynn finds that Israelis have a weighted average IQ of about 95, with figures of 103 for Ashkenazim, 91 for Sephardim, and 86 for Arabs. Jews tended not to breed with the people among whom they lived, but were not completely endogamous. Prof. Lynn attributes intelligence difference between Ashkenazim and Sephardim to admixture from host populations. Ashkenazim in the United States and Britain tend to score in the 107 to 115 range, considerably higher than Israeli Jews. Prof. Lynn suggests that this is because only the more intelligent were able to come west to escape persecution in Russia and Eastern Europe. Emigration has been easier since the creation of Israel, which has been the more recent destination for Ashkenazim.”—

RETENTION OF EXCEPTIONAL ABILITIES

—“At the same time, Australian aborigines, with an IQ of 62, score 119 — well above the white average of 100 — on a spatial memory test that requires them to study 20 objects for 30 seconds and memorize their locations. This ability is thought to have evolved in the Australian desert, where hunters must remember even the slightest geographic features, and aborigines have excellent reputations as guides and trackers. This ability is still found in aborigines who have lived in cities for several generations, which suggests it is a genetic trait. Aborigines have quite small brains, but with disproportionately large right hemispheres, which is the area that handles spatial memory.”—

Note that chimps are frighteningly better at the same kind of task than humans, and put even aborigines to shame. They can remember incredibly complex patterns in short term memory, from just a glance. Our representational ‘memory’ degrades really fast, with a half life of something on the order of half a second.