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Subject: 
Re: Holy crap! (was Re: The partisian trap in California)
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Fri, 24 Oct 2003 21:05:45 GMT
Viewed: 
716 times
  
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Richard Marchetti wrote:
   In lugnet.off-topic.debate, John Neal wrote:
   Okay, but you’d agree that it is taboo in our culture? If so, to what would you attest that value? I’ll have to do a little research, but I think the taboo extends beyond any Judeo-Christian influence.

There’s plenty of examples of inbreeding in the Bible. Does the Bible also specifically forbid incest? It’s not something of great importance to me either way so I can see my forgetting these details...

Yes, incest is prohibited in Leviticus. So are a lot of things BTW, like eating lobster;-) I think the issue predates the Bible. And I did a little research-- it appears that incest is taboo in virtually every culture (except in some particular royalty situations).

  
   I don’t follow you. Are you saying that carefully avoiding inbreeding is useless given a limited genetic pool?

It is my understanding that pointed inbreeding, just like it’s absolute avoidance, creates a genetically superior product. Obviously, it’s hard to get hard data when it comes to humans on this point.

For a given genetic trait. Others traits can/will suffer. Notice German shepherds-- size good, but temperment and hip issues bad.

   I’m just vaguely recalling something from physical anthropology days here...I remember it because it flew in the face of what I understood to be the rationale behind incest taboos.

A huge problem of incest to a given society is role conflict which screws up the process of passing culture down to the next generation. Perhaps the rejection of incest isn’t genetic, but it runs so deep and is so old that it may as well be.

   Don’t botanist inbreed desirable traits to achieve a specific result?

Yeah, we get beautiful roses, but with fragrance bred out as a consequence. The best chance for a species to adapt and survive is to have the largest gene pool possible.

JOHN



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Holy crap! (was Re: The partisian trap in California)
 
(...) Out of curiosity, do you believe the story of Noah's Ark? Dave! (21 years ago, 24-Oct-03, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Holy crap! (was Re: The partisian trap in California)
 
(...) There's plenty of examples of inbreeding in the Bible. Does the Bible also specifically forbid incest? It's not something of great importance to me either way so I can see my forgetting these details... (...) It is my understanding that (...) (21 years ago, 24-Oct-03, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)

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