22 May 2024 3:44 pm
anyway, to create a race, there must be 1) a sufficiently large original population 2) genetic isolation...either imposed (geographic distance, mountain range, etc)...or 'chosen' (rabbinical laws meant to reduce interpreting of jews and gentiles could be an example.. their complex dietary laws meant you were unlikely to have a successful 'date' with a gentile, etc...and also simple evolved instinct like we see in the orca example) 3) a particular way of life that is consistently followed (constraints of your habitat such as whether you have enough farmland or not...or somewhat more 'decision' based such as hunting seal...or something more complex such as feudalism or a civilization that thrives and expands based on being better at technological innovation..political structures like feudalism...religion...etc. from a genetic point of view whether these strategies are forced or decided based on 'free will' is irrelevant. It would simply be in contrast to 'genetic drift' which is purely random and not driven by any particular method of survival) 4) reproductive pressure imposed by that way of life that does in fact meaningfully determine whether a life form succeeds at reproduction or not (if you fail at hunting seals, you are going to starve and you won't reproduce). This is not exclusively caused by mortality ..it can also be imposed in a sort of culture like with humans were certain kinds of people will succeed at reproduction while others will fail...either because they choose celibacy or birth control etc. Or they are simply unable to find a mate/afford to raise a child, etc. 5) sufficient time. How long exactly is an open question..but we know for example that about 800 years were sufficient to produce the remarkable free diving genetic adaptations of the Sama bajao people, for example. So the meme of evolution requiring millions of years is simply an urban legend and remarkable changes can occur over a fairly short period of time (especially if there is a high percentage of 'gene flow'..the genetic diversity of the original population being a major factor in this)
When a particular way of life (3) is determined and is clear,, that is when I would say ethnogenesis occurs...whether people are consciously aware of it or not. There was an ethnogenesis of the Gothic civilization, for example, following the fall of the roman empire...because the continuation of the roman empire method of survival simply was no longer possible. The Gothic tribes still did cling to the idea they were roman and it took about 1000 years for them to discover their own identity which we can now speak about in hindsight.
When a particular way of life (3) is determined and is clear,, that is when I would say ethnogenesis occurs...whether people are consciously aware of it or not. There was an ethnogenesis of the Gothic civilization, for example, following the fall of the roman empire...because the continuation of the roman empire method of survival simply was no longer possible. The Gothic tribes still did cling to the idea they were roman and it took about 1000 years for them to discover their own identity which we can now speak about in hindsight.