Comments on: MAOA, alcoholism & abuse

By: TGGP

TGGP — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 01:22:24 +0000

I often hear of the Gauls (and Franks) as being german tribes. Where they pretty much indistinguishable from the other german tribes of the time, or where they already distinct? How different are Germans and French today?

By: bbartlog

bbartlog — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 19:36:39 +0000

In a society where alcoholic men were able to drink away the money that would have been spent on their family, and no effective safety net existed to help their children, the selection against genes that promoted alcoholism would be enormous (assuming the ubiquity of alcohol, of course…). Two thousand years seems like plenty of time.

By: razib

razib — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 14:52:38 +0000

Nowadays the French are not known to be immoderate drinkers, though this is little consolation for the Aborigines.

well, 2,000 years of copious alcohol consumption might have sufficient selective power. additionally, an mild admixture of latin colonials could also have spread the genes very quickly (each latin colony could have been a point of initiation from which the favored alleles swept through the populations).

By: Danny

Danny — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 14:32:09 +0000

In “Rubicon”, a popular history about the end of the Roman Republic, the writer mentions the adverse effect of the wine trade on the population of Gaul. It seems the Gauls couldn’t handle their liquor, and pretty soon the Romans created for themselves a market of binge drinkers and alcoholics (in exchange they would get slaves).

Nowadays the French are not known to be immoderate drinkers, though this is little consolation for the Aborigines.

By: razib

razib — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 10:44:48 +0000

what do you want me to say? basically this is individual liberty vs. individual utility. the situation is so extreme that people are sacrificing the former for the latter. i don’t know if it is racist, but it is certainly racialist. the disparate effect of alcohol on various populations is well known. this is what you get when these populations live under the same legal regime.

By: Danny

Danny — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 05:10:17 +0000

I’d be interested to hear you weigh on this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/australia/story/0,,2109494,00.html