On 01-24-98 Paul Dobbs wrote to Andrew Cummins... 
 PD>  In terms of IQ.. which is really difficult to label as an end-all 
 PD> be-all measure of intelligence, mother nature has also 
 PD> experimented with brain configuration to improve upon the 
 PD> survivability of the human being. Everything must continue 
 PD> to evolve and adapt to its environment, or face extinction 
 PD> as other elements advance past them. Intelligence is only 
 PD> one aspect of billions of minute changes our own bodies go 
 PD> through to better deal with our surroundings. 
Paul, I believe there is some evidence that the Aryans evolved to 
cope with life on the edge of the Ukrainian Icecap, hunting these 
immense Mammoths on the trackless Steppe from 40,000 BCE. 
 
Such an ecology made unique demands that have worked out well for 
other more modern applications.  For one, the scale of landscape 
was an order of magnitude larger than the African plain, demands 
a spacial comprehension skill, and sense of timing to be where a 
Mammoth herd *will* be. 
 
While most may wonder how to kill such an immense creature with a 
reasonable casualty rate, lemmee suggest a simple solution that I 
read was used by jungle pigmies on elephants. Namely, that all a 
hunter had to do was put a spear in the hide and wait. Infection 
would prove fatal five days later. 
 
One difference however, was that in the jungle, the village just 
moved to wherever the carcus was, and ate high on the hog til it 
was gone.  On the Steppe, the climate did not make this such an 
attractive idea, and the logistics of moving that much meat from 
the kill site to the long house demanded further adaptations. 
 
The rigors of the winter necessitated a far more complex system 
than found in Africa or southern Asia, and involved planning over 
a much longer span of time.  The Ukrainian 'long house' was much 
more varied in its elements than the wattle/daub/straw structures 
that were typical of more temperate climate/cultures. 
 
I also wonder at the social skills needed for 150 people to make 
it in a long house for the five months of ice age winter without 
cabin fever driving too many psychotic and disrupting the social 
order.  Those too overdosed on testosterone can leave the tribe 
and survive on their own in the bush indefinately, but to leave, 
or be forced out, in the middle of a Ukrainian winter would tend 
to eliminate one from the gene pool. 
 
I dunno whether my Aryan ancestors were *driven* out of the more 
hospitable regions by bigger, stronger, faster, and more aggres- 
sive tribes, or whether an adventuring spirit made the trackless, 
frigid, dry high steppe look appealing.  But, as Neitzsche said, 
'that which does not kill me, makes me stronger'.  However you'd 
like to define stronger is fine with me; it would be hard to say 
these Aryans were not the strongest, smartest, or something, of 
all the races on earth. 
 
For, inasmuch as these folks invented draft animals, the wheel,  
bronze alloys, weaving, and fired pottery...and no import of any  
technology or idea to them has ever been found, it makes a case 
for a higher IQ, or *something*, kinda persuasive.  And, whatever 
that something was, it affected them for 40 millennia, and would, 
in all those generations, have had a genetic effect. 
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 * OFFLINE 1.58 * is the following ;-d a tongue in cheek? and :-p a rasberry? 
--- Maximus 3.01
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