ObliqueFault comments on The Psychological Diversity of Mankind - Less Wrong

79 Post author: Kaj_Sotala 09 May 2010 05:53AM

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Comment author: timtyler 09 May 2010 07:04:12PM 3 points [-]

I wasn't doubtful about interbreeding - that is all over the news. I was doubtful about interbreeding being the cause of the cultural explosion. Like I said, no evidence. In fact, contrary evidence, since Neanderthals were largely a European phenomenon.

Comment author: ObliqueFault 09 May 2010 07:35:03PM 4 points [-]

Neanderthals were also in the Near East.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Neanderthal_sites

You have a point about the cultural explosion, though. Africans don't seem to be less cultural than non-Africans, despite the fact that they don't seem to have any links to Neanderthals. It occurs to me that this lack of a link, after all this time, exemplifies how slow gene sweep is in a population as numerous, long-lived, and spread out as humanity.