{"id":6643,"date":"2017-04-05T06:15:03","date_gmt":"2017-04-05T05:15:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/?p=6643"},"modified":"2017-04-05T14:31:41","modified_gmt":"2017-04-05T13:31:41","slug":"what-exactly-is-human-biodiversity-personal-view","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/2017\/04\/what-exactly-is-human-biodiversity-personal-view\/","title":{"rendered":"What exactly is Human Biodiversity? &#8211; Personal view"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>There seems to be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/slatestarcodex\/comments\/639atc\/svante_p%C3%A4%C3%A4bo_lecture_on_human_origins\/dfujdsq\/\">some<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/slatestarcodex\/comments\/639atc\/svante_p%C3%A4%C3%A4bo_lecture_on_human_origins\/dfujvb4\/\">disagreement<\/a> about what the term <i>human biodiversity<\/i> covers. I&#8217;ll be reaching out to the prototypical HBD people to ask what they think. However, my own understanding is a broad one and seems to be near-identical to that HBDChick expressed in the following posts:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/hbdchick.wordpress.com\/2014\/08\/21\/what-is-human-biodiversity-hbd\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?hl=en&amp;q=https:\/\/hbdchick.wordpress.com\/2014\/08\/21\/what-is-human-biodiversity-hbd\/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1491454435894000&amp;usg=AFQjCNExLWKy4HDq0ZedRXM47pOMx23tXQ\">https:\/\/hbdchick.wordpress.<wbr \/>com\/2014\/08\/21\/what-is-human-<wbr \/>biodiversity-hbd\/<\/a><\/li>\n<li>&#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/hbdchick.wordpress.com\/2014\/08\/21\/examples-of-human-biodiversity-hbd\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?hl=en&amp;q=https:\/\/hbdchick.wordpress.com\/2014\/08\/21\/examples-of-human-biodiversity-hbd\/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1491454435894000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHSuK4uHkIbwTjG-x9spE5v5EjaQg\">https:\/\/hbdchick.wordpress.<wbr \/>com\/2014\/08\/21\/examples-of-<wbr \/>human-biodiversity-hbd\/<\/a><\/li>\n<li>&#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/hbdchick.wordpress.com\/2014\/08\/21\/what-human-biodiversity-hbd-is-not\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?hl=en&amp;q=https:\/\/hbdchick.wordpress.com\/2014\/08\/21\/what-human-biodiversity-hbd-is-not\/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1491454435894000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFjJbcipM7KxoIFeFJQhEfyAWqPyA\">https:\/\/hbdchick.wordpress.<wbr \/>com\/2014\/08\/21\/what-human-<wbr \/>biodiversity-hbd-is-not\/<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Namely:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>human biodiversity (hbd) is very simply the diversity found among and between human populations that has a biological basis.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p>I think she means <i>genetic<\/i>, not <i>biological basis<\/i>. Any differences caused by environmental means &#8212; e.g. lead content in environment &#8212; are ultimately expressed via the biology of the brain. The same point was recently made by <a href=\"http:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/?p=6576\">Haier in his book on neuroscience<\/a>. But it seems to be a common problem that people conflate genetic and biological. It seems like this is an effect of (implicit) Cartesian dualist thinking, where the mind i explicitly non-biological.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Following HBDChick&#8217;s definition, in my view, HBD includes any genetic differences between individuals and groups of individuals such as:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>The sexes.<\/li>\n<li>Obese and thin people.<\/li>\n<li>Tall and short people.<\/li>\n<li>Smart and dull people.<\/li>\n<li>Red- and light haired-people.<\/li>\n<li>Blue and green-eyed people.<\/li>\n<li>Those with wet or dry earwax.<\/li>\n<li>Political groups: conservatives, libertarians, greens, socialists, communists, anarchists, Nazis and everything in between.<\/li>\n<li>Within nation cultural differences such as American nations, the North-South divide in Italy, and the rural vs. the urban.<\/li>\n<li>Music or lifestyle-related groups such as goths, metal heads, hippies, trance-lovers, polyamorians, classical music lovers, and those who are into BDSM.<\/li>\n<li>Occupation and social status related differences: farmers, working class, upper class, lower class, middle class, policemen, academics, media people, craftsmen, business people and so on.<\/li>\n<li>Nationality groups between Danes and Spaniards.<\/li>\n<li>Differences between today&#8217;s humans and recently extinct group such as Denisovans and Neanderthals.<\/li>\n<li>Differences between any larger collection of groups, such as Pygmies, Bantu peoples, Ibos, Nordics, Turks, Siberians, Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Polynesians, Australoid, Arabs, Amerindians, and any number of other groups.<\/li>\n<li>Any differences between individuals with a genetic basis, including between family members such as siblings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>HBDChick herself mentions as examples:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Hair color.<\/li>\n<li>Eye color.<\/li>\n<li>Skin color.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ectodysplasin_A_receptor\">EDAR<\/a> (a genetic related to embryonic development).<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sickle_cell_trait\">Sickle-cell trait.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lactase_persistence\">Lactase persistence.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/gnxp.nofe.me\/2017\/04\/04\/how-tibetans-can-function-at-high-altitudes\/\">High-altitude adaptions.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/news.sciencemag.org\/evolution\/2013\/01\/how-survive-siberian-winter\">Cold adaptations.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/dn26069-african-pygmies-evolved-their-short-stature-twice.html\">Height in pygmies.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/ASPM_%28gene%29\">ASPM<\/a> (gene related to brain development).<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/MCPH1\">MCPH1<\/a> (gene related to brain development).<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Microbiome\">Microbiomes<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In terms of academic fields, HBD encompasses topics studied in:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Evolutionary psychology\/sociobiology.<\/li>\n<li>Differential psychology.<\/li>\n<li>Behavioral genetics.<\/li>\n<li>Medical genetics.<\/li>\n<li>Population genetics.<\/li>\n<li>Human genetics in general.<\/li>\n<li>Any inter-disciplinary areas that take genetics into account such as using bordering with economics, linguistics, criminology, sociology and political science.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In my view, then, HBD is both a natural fact that humans differ in various ways due to genetic causes, and also a meta-field of science encompassing the above.<\/p>\n<p>Per the above, some grey ares are, in my opinion:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Microbiomes. <a href=\"http:\/\/science.sciencemag.org\/content\/349\/6253\/1172\">Some of these will be due to the genetics of the host<\/a> as well as complex inter-organism genetic interactions. Others will be due to local environment.<\/li>\n<li>Transgenerational epigenetics. All the others above are DNA-related and of course DNA also alter gene expression. However, it&#8217;s likely that the environment does this too, and possibly in ways that can be inherited (to speak loosely).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There seems to be some disagreement about what the term human biodiversity covers. I&#8217;ll be reaching out to the prototypical HBD people to ask what they think. However, my own understanding is a broad one and seems to be near-identical to that HBDChick expressed in the following posts: &#8211; https:\/\/hbdchick.wordpress.com\/2014\/08\/21\/what-is-human-biodiversity-hbd\/ &#8211; https:\/\/hbdchick.wordpress.com\/2014\/08\/21\/examples-of-human-biodiversity-hbd\/ &#8211; https:\/\/hbdchick.wordpress.com\/2014\/08\/21\/what-human-biodiversity-hbd-is-not\/ Namely: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1107],"tags":[2512],"class_list":["post-6643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science","tag-human-biodiversiy","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6643"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6647,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6643\/revisions\/6647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}