by highdose 14 Replies latest jw friends
i've always wondered if it was possible to create an entire human race from just two people? A&E's children had to commit incest and then the next generation had to marry 1st cousins. Surely this would cause problems? I seem to recall reading somewhere that to populate one country, a good 25 humans of different backgrounds were needed?
Anway correct me if i'm wrong...
"I seem to recall reading somewhere that to populate one country, a good 25 humans of different backgrounds were needed?"
25 laboratory mice are needed to successfully prevent inbreeding within an outbred colony. So i would assume you are correct, and that the same applies for humans.
I've asked this question before when i was studying with the JWs. The only answer i ever got was that humans were more 'pure' back then so it kind of cancelled out the inbreeding that would result from their reproduction.
So yeah, never got a good answer to that one.
Edit: Now that i think about it, Adam and Eve we're supposed to be genetically perfect right? So from what i understand, they wouldn't pass on any genetic problems. Their children's children would just be inbred.
The only problems that could occur would be if their children had genetic mutations which resulted in negative effects, and then passed them on to the next generation.
Then again... since Eve came from Adams rib, that would mean that they share the exact same genetic information. So their children would be inbred after all.
My Uncle's inbred, he's a baker.
Here's an idea of where imperfection came from:
Adam and Eve, sinners or not, had kids who practiced incest.
Inbreeding started imperfection.
How about that?
Anway correct me if i'm wrong...
You're correct. You could raise an entire race of fruit flies from a single pair, but you can't do that with higher mammals. Practically every major zoo in the world carries on some sort of captive breeding program for endangered species and they have to periodically trade breeding pairs from their respective populations to keep them healthy.
One of the most fascinating things to me about anthropology is that humans in small tribes did exactly the same thing even though they didn't realize why they were doing it. Many American indian tribes practiced a form of cultural exogamy where men obtained their wives by kidnapping them from other tribes. This could range from a traumatic experience to a simple formality where young women would go to a prearranged place and wait to be "kidnapped."
Indigenous tribes in Australia practiced endogamy by dividing the tribe up into moieties. Marriage had to take place across moiety lines because men and women in the same moiety were considered brothers and sisters.
In both cases, genetic diversity was encouraged and stagnation through inbreeding was prevented. These people were not consciously carrying on a breeding program. These marriage customs evolved because they produced healthier, stronger children.
itsamyth!
TD,
That is fascinating! My sociology classes only covered the surface and basics of anthropology.
Could it be that the reason so many women and girls were kidnapped in the wars of the Israelites was to avoid inbreeding?
Those people had more than one wife from different cultures, even.
What I'm curious about now are the Pygmies of Australia (?).
Been thinking about researching how they came to be so short and potbellied.
Inbreeding, maybe? I don't know.
Gonna find out.
This topic got me to think of Cain:
15 But the LORD said to him, “Not so [e] ; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. 16 So Cain went out from the LORD’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, [f] east of Eden.
17 Cain made love to his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch. 1
Where did Cain get his wife? I've read the part of Genesis where it talks about Adam begetting a bunch of children but it doesn't talk about a girl being born anywhere near to the birth of Cain and Abel. Maybe recording the births of girls wasn't important? It does look like Cain acquired a wife after he was casted out to the land of Nod.
Where did Cain get his wife? Why was one of the dwarfs grumpy? Did the cow burn up on re-entry when it jumped over the moon?
So many questions...
