Sunday, January 03, 2016

Culture driven genetic evolution

Lactase persistence (the ability to of older children, adoloscents, and adults to access milk's nutrition) is apparently 63% in North India and 23% in the South. This is from Chapter 6 of 'The secret of our success' by Joseph  Henrich, where he outlines three best documented cases examples of culture driven genetic evolution, the others being 'blue eyes' and booze-inhibiting genes co-evolving with rice cultivation. Apparently, these evolutions took different routes in different places.
P.S. Another difference between North and South India was mentioned by Emmanuel Todd. He distinguishes the North and South Indian family systems as Exogamous Community Family and Assymetrical Community Family respectively. Part of the difference, outside Kerala which is more matrilinear, comes from the marriage stem where the children of brother and sister can marry. Apparently, this gives women a bigger role in the society though not as much as in matrilinear societies.

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