Tim Tyler  wrote in news:cm9med$1fh2$1
{at}darwin.ediacara.org:

> Anthony Cerrato  wrote or quoted:
> 
>> I came across this idea in a SF book by either Wil McCarthy
>> or Jack McDevitt (don't remember) but it was just mentioned
>> in passing. Thinking about it, I feel one or more genes for
>> social dominance factors might explain quite a bit about how
>> great leaders come to be leaders. Presumably, such a gene or
>> gene complex would code for one or more proteins that lead
>> to dominance pheromones, or perhaps,  just a complex of
>> other factors (a deep, resonant voice might be a simple
>> example, demagoguery might be another--but there could be
>> zillions of subtle or not-so-subtle actions like this that
>> lead to dominating
>> behavior and leadership. [Also explains why I never ever got
>> to speak much at action meetings! :) ] It's a captivating
>> idea. If true, great leaders are truly born, not made!
>> 
>> AIUI, ants and bees and such use various pheromones
>> extensively, not for just simple primitive communication and
>> sex etc., but to also help organize their societies into
>> various classes. Why shouldn't humans also have such an
>> analogous genetic program/mandate?
> 
> It sounds rather like the plan of breeding for the trait of
> having more than the average number of children.
> 
> If you could do it the mutation would sweep through the population -
> and soon the population would be back where it started again - since
> the fecund organisms would be forced into competition with their
> cousins.

I think it more likely that those human tribes that had individuals 
filling a variety of roles tended to outcompete those that didn't. This 
would lead to both divergent selection (so a tendency to fill any one 
role would never dominate) and to selection to fill an absent role in a 
group (we all know the stereotypes from high school - the class clown, 
the prima donna, the nerd, the class president,the bouncy chearleader, 
the earnest jock, etc.). Even though there is  genetic predisposition 
towards a certain role, it is not uncommon for people to switch roles 
when placed in a different group setting. In this case great leaders 
would be those who possessed the right abilities and were placed in the 
right situation to capitalize on those abilities - Bill Gates being a 
classic example.

Yours,

Bill Morse
---
þ RIMEGate(tm)/RGXPost V1.14 at BBSWORLD * Info{at}bbsworld.com

---
 * RIMEGate(tm)V10.2áÿ* RelayNet(tm) NNTP Gateway * MoonDog BBS
 * RgateImp.MoonDog.BBS at 11/4/04 11:50:59 AM