denizaksulu wrote:Tim Drayton wrote:Here is a source relating to my previous point about thalassemia. It comes from chapter 11 of the book entilted “Race Gallery” by Marek Kohn, an academic study into the way claims about race are used for political purposes.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/marek.kohn/seacoast.html
This passage describes a scene in a BBC television documentary. The Sir Walter in question is the geneticist Sir Walter Bodmer.
"Before Sir Walter leaves the metropolis, however, he has to attend to some pressing business. He must establish that the study of genetic diversity need not be tainted by racism, and indeed may oppose it. He is seen in a Greek Orthodox church speaking to Father Andreas and his son Father Constantine, two Cypriot priests. Father Andreas reveals that he lost two other sons to thalassaemia, the hereditary blood disease which resembles sickle cell anaemia, but affects Mediterranean rather than black African people. Sir Walter tells his hosts that different types of mutation cause the disease in different areas. Greek and Turkish Cypriots share a thalassaemia variant with each other, but not with people from Greece or Turkey.
"Couldn't you prove biologically that we are descended from Ancient Greeks?" asks Father Constantine. Sir Walter replies that the common mutation implies a common descent for all Cypriots, from an indigenous population who were there before the Greeks: "From a biological point of view, you are one people."
This is received with wry amusement. "It is news to us!" observes Father Andreas. "Maybe you can solve our political problems as well," suggests Father Constantine. "I hope so," answers Sir Walter, "because it's so common that people have a common biological heritage, and yet it's the cultural difference on top that causes them to have the conflict." He seems to imply that biological truth is more fundamental than cultural truth, not just to biologists but to society as a whole."
I am hoping to make a constructive point, here, rather than create havoc!
Thanks for the link, Tim. I hope people will read this with a scientific mind and not be affected by politics. That will be the hard bit, wont it GR?
Greetings my good man Deniz, I haven't looked at all that in detail yet but I will tonight...
