These two graphs show the number of men (left) and women (right) who reproduced throughout human history.Chart: Monika Karmin et al./Genome Research
Posted on 12/20/2021 3:19:48 PM PST by SunkenCiv
An analysis of modern DNA uncovers a rough dating scene after the advent of agriculture.
Once upon a time, 4,000 to 8,000 years after humanity invented agriculture, something very strange happened to human reproduction. Across the globe, for every 17 women who were reproducing, passing on genes that are still around today—only one man did the same...
Another member of the research team, a biological anthropologist, hypothesizes that somehow, only a few men accumulated lots of wealth and power, leaving nothing for others. These men could then pass their wealth on to their sons, perpetuating this pattern of elitist reproductive success. Then, as more thousands of years passed, the numbers of men reproducing, compared to women, rose again...
The team uncovered this dip-and-rise in the male-to-female reproductive ratio by looking at DNA from more than 450 volunteers from seven world regions. Geneticists analyzed two parts of the DNA, Y-chromosome DNA and mitochondrial DNA. These don't make up a large portion of a person's genetics, but they're special because people inherit Y-chromosome DNA exclusively from their male ancestors and mitochondrial DNA exclusively from their female ancestors. By analyzing diversity in these parts, scientists are able to deduce the numbers of female and male ancestors a population has. It's always more female.
So much for what our DNA can tell us. This study, published last week in the journal Genome Research, can't directly account for why the dip occurred...
Nature is a harsh taskmaster, but so, it seems, is human culture. Although the popular notion is that farming and settlement cushioned people against "survival of the fittest," this study shows that's not true. Something cultural happened 8,000 years ago that's marked us even today.
(Excerpt) Read more at psmag.com ...
These two graphs show the number of men (left) and women (right) who reproduced throughout human history.Chart: Monika Karmin et al./Genome Research
I just stopped by to see what Laz posts.....
How did the guys have enough energy after hunting wooly mammoths all day? Or tilling the fields all day?
Sluts.
Next they’ll have blogs.
So if one man had children with that many women... I assume most of these women were all living in a general area (i.e. near each other?) So we are all descendents of inbreds? Wouldn’t those children grow up and have children with each other?
IMHO, it has to do with the existence of a steady food supply, population explosion, and a quite understandable narrowing of genetic variation in later populations. Obviously the largest families tend to have the most descendants. Standing armies were among the consequences of the agricultural revolution(s), and neighboring groups would lose females to the more prosperous settled groups, particularly if they tried a raid against a settlement with a standing army. Harem-style partnerships are very very old, after all. Thanks SteveH.
And that one man, was my ancestor.
You know me well.
Work the fields boy. That’s what I sired you for in the first place.
I’m just glad these screens don’t have cameras in ‘em. Ew.
We are kind of heading back in that direction.
Men serving 40 years in prison have more children than men working 40 hours a week.
Those guys have got nothing on Genghis Kahn.
...and if you had a time machine...
Huh?!
I never thought agriculture cushioned people against survival of the fittest!
There wasn't really any "cushion" until the last hundred years!
See the movie... Idiocracy!
Working about the same here in my neighborhood.
Kinda like we do now. Sexual reproduction offers protection since we only get half of each chromosome pair from each parent (usually) and the possible combinations are 2 to 23rd, squared. Constant available food supply led to better nutrition, lower infant mortality, and larger family sizes.
These genetic people work miracles.
And I'm sure there's more Grant Money on the way.
They were saying about 50 years ago that 25% of all white Europeans could trace their lineage back to Charlemagne. It does appear that the higher ups did have more rights than others.
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