The Master Race
on Anthony Lovat in Bolgatanga (Ghana), 19/May/2011 15:19, 34 days ago
Jonathan is a typical Philippino - short and with rounded, stocky features, he is polite, softly spoken yet forthright. Jonathan, as with seemingly all Philippinos, loves good food and loves talking about food. He is practical and hard-working. How many of these traits are down to Philippino genetics and how many are down to cultural norms and expectations?Jonathan is a VSO volunteer science teacher in the Upper West Region. He visited me yesterday to start a science quiz competition in the Upper East Region - the winner of which will compete against the Upper West Region in a grand final. As we were driving to the venue, we talked about our experiences of science teaching in Ghana and some of the challenges involved. We discussed the poor attitude that teachers show to their profession, the apathy towards education at all levels of society, the insistence on rote learning and‘chalk and talk’ methodology, the way teachers routinely beat students, the inability to apply scientific knowledge in any practical way and the tiresome way that everyone needs a financial ‘motivation’ to go above and beyond.After a good moan, Jonathan asked a massively controversial question - a question that has been a taboo in Europe since the Second World War:“I wonder how much all of these problems are due to genetics?”Research indicates that character traits and personality are at least partially due to our genetics. This has been clearly demonstrated in dogs where different breeds have wildly different personalities - some breeds are quick tempered whilst others are easily trained; some breeds are neurotic and others are good with children. Although there is clear variation of personalities within any breed and every dog is different, the trends are indisputably there.Different selective pressures on human beings in different parts of the world over the course of tens of thousands of years have resulted in different populations of human beings with different skin colours. The mutation that resulted in the loss of sub-cutaneous melanin from European people enabled them to manufacture vitamin D more efficiently from the feeble northern sun - an evolutionary advantage in the European environment but, as my burned forearms painfully demonstrate after a long motorbike ride yesterday, a definite disadvantage in the intense African sun.I have also noticed how Africans do not have so much body hair. Children are obsessed with touching my hairy forearms. Most African forearms, even on big beefy men, are totally smooth. Even Laura once had a girl who, without any invitation, could not resist the temptation to stroke the (very little) hair on her arms.Far more dramatically, in just the few thousand years since the development of domestic dairy cattle farming, human beings have evolved the ability to produce lactase - the enzyme that breaks down lactose in milk. Most people in the Far East have not evolved this ability and are lactose intolerant. Similarly, whilst the Chinese and Japanese have been sterilising water by boiling it and adding tea leaves over the past few thousand years, other parts of the world have sterilised water by fermenting alcohol to kill any bacteria. As a result, populations in the Far East are not able to break down alcohol as easily. These are physiological differences between populations that have evolved through selective pressure. Human beings are still evolving - albeit over many generations.Sickle Cell Anaemia, the genetic disorder that changes the shape of red blood cells thereby limiting their ability to carry oxygen, is almost exclusively found in black people from Africa. To be a carrier of this disease (not having the disease but potentially passing it on to your children) protects one from malaria. As malaria is such a big killer in West Africa, sickle cell anaemia has given a selective advantage for individuals in this part of the world despite the fact that most children born with sickle cell die very quickly.Similarly, recent research appears to indicate the evolution of resistance to AIDS within certain areas of Africa where the selection pressure is so unimaginably intense. In a few individuals with the HIV virus, AIDS symptoms are not developing. This could lead to new and innovative methods of treatment.With every top class 100m sprinter for as long as anyone can remember being black, it may well be that black people have some genetic physiological advantage for running quickly. It may also be that people from the highlands of Kenya and Ethiopia have evolved a greater ability for endurance running.These are all physical traits - evolution of the body. Evolutionary psychology is a fascinating and relatively new branch of science that explores the possible mechanisms whereby human character traits may have evolved - evolution of the mind. Language and intelligence set us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom and hypothesising how these traits evolved is both enlightening and fun. Evolutionary psychology becomes far darker, however, when research is undertaken into what psychological differences may exist between human populations, most easily defined as ethnic groups, and to what extent these are determined genetically. This is the question that Jonathan was asking.Research into this question can be so controversial that, when it hits the wider media, it can cause quite a stir. Dr. Satoshi Kanazawa is an evolutionary psychologist at the London School of Economics. Like many academics, he is a shameless and arrogant self-publicist. He revels in controversy as he attempts to use science to explore some of the darker sides of our character. Recent publications include“why liberals and atheists are more intelligent”, “evolutionary psychology and crime” and “10 politically incorrect truths about human nature”. His most recent publication has hit the headlines in that bastion of racial tolerance, the Daily Mail. The academic article is entitled: “Whyare black women rated less physically attractive than other women but black men are rated better looking than other men?”. The Daily Mail, always keen to raise circulation figures by printing pictures of pretty girls, interpreted Dr Kanazawal’s article as meaning that “'science' would suggestNaomi Campbell is less attractive than fellow supermodel Elle Macpherson.” The academic article follows a survey of white, Asian, black and native American men and women (don’t know how many) who were asked to rate each other’s attractiveness based on photographs. The results show a very slightly lower score for black women. Why? Well, that’s a matter for speculation. What exactly do Americans find physically attractive? Are there differences between what different ethnic groups find physically attractive? What might be causing these differences - nature or nurture? These are fascinating questions into a universal human instinct that demand further research. Instead of viewing this as an opportunity to push back the boundaries of our understanding, Dr Kanazawal has been labelled as a Nazi.Given our experiences of the Second World War, this is a natural response. If we accept that certain characteristics are desirable in human beings and if we accept that characteristics are at least partially determined by genetics, what stops us selectively breeding, as we have done with dogs, to produce a better future with better people. If there is, for example, a genetic component to criminal activity, is it sensible to allow a criminal to father lots of children? This idea of eugenics was widely accepted in Europe before the Second World War. In Britain, H.G. Wells and Winston Churchill were strong advocates of eugenics. The economist John Maynard Keynes, now very much in vogue following the financial crisis, was in fact a Director of the British Eugenics Society. It was in Germany, however, that the eugenic ideas were carried through to their logical and terrible conclusions. Hitler’s attempts to breed a ‘master race’ and to subjugate other races such as the Slavs, the Gypsies and the Jews (never mind the blacks) as inferior was racism in the extreme. The term ‘genocide‘ refers to the killing of a genetically distinct group - a set of genes that are viewed as undesirable. The holocaust was the essence of eugenics under the Nazi ideology. Dr Kanazawal is not suggesting anything like this. Dr Kanazawal is not a Nazi.We must be careful not to stifle legitimate research and to silence legitimate debate. Dr Kanazawal published an article in 2006 suggesting a link between the development of nations and the average IQ of the population. Given that IQ is a product of genetics and environment, it is not surprising that the war ravaged regions of southern Sudan recorded the lowest IQ level - it is hardly a nurturing environment for young people. Once again, Dr Kanazawal was labelled as a Nazi. Once again, he revelled in the controversy.The beleaguered London School of Economics, where Dr Kanazawal teaches, under pressure from reactionary media outlets such as the Daily Mail, is now to launch an investigation. It has a reputation to rebuild following its support of the Gaddafi regime and it cannot ignore public opinion.So research into psychological and genetic differences between ethnic groups continues to be politically impossible. In the field of education, it is widely accepted that black British children, both with African and Caribbean heritage, both girls and boys, tend to prefer learning in a kinaesthetic manner. It is also a truth that white working class boys perform significantly worse in their English GCSE exams at 16 years than any other group. How much of this is because of genetics? We do not know.It is important to understand that genetics do not predetermine your fate. Just because you happen to have a gene that predisposes you to a certain form of cancer, does not mean you will develop that cancer. Just because you happen to be a black woman, does not necessarily make you less attractive to Americans - as the Daily Mail so tastefully points out by printing a picture of that coke-snorting, blood-diamond-accepting black female role model, Naomi Campbell, whose physical, airbrushed and western-defined beauty is held up so frequently to black children in the UK as something to aspire to and inevitably fail at.When it comes to the dispassionate and enlightened study of genetics and the subsequent application of eugenics, Africans have nothing to fear. Human beings evolved in Africa and today’s Africans are far more genetically diverse than any other ethnic group. A massive 2009 study published in Science Magazine called “The Genetic Structure and History of Africans and African Americans” by Tishkoff, et al., showed 14 genetically distinct populations within the continent - eachwith unique cultural and geographical distinctions. As you move further from Africa, genetic diversity within the native population decreases.Not only this, of all the genetic differences to be found within human beings, 92% of this diversity is found within individuals of the same ethnic groups. Only about 8% of genetic difference is between people living on different continents. Including the notable exceptions of skin colour and body hair, 90% of all human physical variation determined by genetics can be found within the same ethnic group. People have been migrating and interbreeding around the globe for generations and there is far more biologically that we have in common than divides us. This does not mean we shouldn’t explore what is different and how that might help make sense of the extraordinary variety of cultures and customs in the world.Ghana is a fantastic country because of its people. Speaking generally, Ghanaians are uncommonly friendly, peaceful, diplomatic, patient and kind. Not only that, and contrary to what Americans may report in surveys conducted by Dr Kanazawal, they are a remarkably good looking people. How much of this is due to genetics? How much is due to culture? This is also the question that Jonathan was asking.When we look at the world and we look at the multitude of problems we have in humankind, we must ask ourselves - how many of these problems are caused by our genetics? Looking at biology, the strength and resilience of any species depends on its genetic diversity. To borrow Hilter’s vision, the way to breed a master race is not to narrow the gene pool as he envisioned but to expand it.The master race of the future is not blonde and blue-eyed but coffee coloured.