[Aztlan] Natural selection for Indian Alcoholism?

[Greg Sandor]

It seems to me that a prevalence of alcoholism in a native population is due
more to social factors; i.e. second-class status and removal of former
productive activity than to genetic factors.

Regards,

Greg

(614) 517-7204
greg at gregsandor.com
http://www.gregsandor.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Evans" <revans at atoda.com>
To: <aztlan at lists.famsi.org>
Sent: Saturday, October 21, 2006 4:58 PM
Subject: [Aztlan] Natural selection for Indian Alcoholism?


> Indians across America have a reputation for not being able to hold their
> liquor, and alcoholism is disproportionately represented on Indian
reserves.
> Yet Indians made and consumed numerous types of liquor, well before
contact
> with Europeans. Alcoholism is at least partly hereditary, and the Indian
> gene pool is more homogeneous than that of the west. Indian populations
were
> decimated by western infectious diseases. Assuming the prior statements to
> be true, would anyone care to shoot holes in the following theory: Those
> Indians who were regular consumers of alcohol would be somewhat more
> protected from infectious diseases than non drinkers. After the massive
> population reduction from the infectious diseases, the alcoholism trait
> would have been naturally selected and unusually represented in the
> remaining population.
>
>
>
>
>
> Robert Evans
>
>  <mailto:revans at atoda.com> revans at atoda.com
>
>
>
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