213
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. C. Tobias, J. G. Morrison, On the Nature of Ecological Paradox,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64526-7_23
Chapter 23
A River Somewhere in Georgia
23.1 Negative Convergence
By 1981, interdisciplinary approaches to grasping the nature of human evolution
tended toward a short-list of behavioral-modifying candidates. James V. Neel,
the Lee R. Dice University Professor of Human Genetics at the University of
Michigan Medical School, asserted the following conditionals in an essay for a
Smithsonian symposium: “Genetic structure,” “Differential fertility,” “Inbreeding,”
“Genetic consequences of village fissions,” “Disease pressure,” “Dietary patterns,”
“Loss of human diversity,” “Changes in the nature of natural selection,” “Our
New Epidemiological Vulnerability,” “More Inertia in the Gene Pool(s),” and an
“Accumulation of Deleterious Genes Due to Relaxation of Inbreeding.” This was
the human saga as viewed through the lens of amino acids, polypeptides, nucleotides, and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).
1
While it satisfies the temptations of one
narrative, it leaves out entirely that odyssey entailing “the inspiration of sentiment
and irregularity”
2
as well as “an atom in the excited state.”
3
And it certainly does
not explicitly evoke often unseen horror, for example, “crabs [who] die from an
inability to molt as they grow older,” or “dispossessed” muskrats who—dispatched
for one reason or other into exile—“hobbled across open spaces or through rushes
and weeds, bleeding, trying to find food and shelter… dying from hunger or cold,
their tails, feet and eyes freezing….”
4
1 See Chapter 3, “Some Base Lines for Human Evolution and the Genetic Implications of Recent
Cultural Developments,” by James V. Neel, pp.67–93, in How Humans Adapt – A Biocultural
Odyssey, Donald J. Ortner, Editor, Foreword by S. Dillon Ripley, Epilog by Wilton S. Dillon,
Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C., 1983.
2 See A World With A View – An Inquiry into the Nature of Scenic Values, by Christopher Tunnard,
Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1978, p. 87.
3 See “Theory Of Gravitation,” by Hermann Bondi, in Cosmology and Astrophysics, Edited by
Yervant Terzian and Elizabeth M. Bilson, Essays In Honor Of Thomas Gold, Cornell University
Press, Ithaca and London, 1982, p. 73.
4 See Dismantling Discontent: Buddha’s Way Through Darwin’s World, by Charles Fisher, www.
DismantlingDiscontent.com, Elite Books, Santa Rosa, CA, 2007, p. 111
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. C. Tobias, J. G. Morrison, On the Nature of Ecological Paradox,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64526-7_23
Chapter 23
A River Somewhere in Georgia
23.1 Negative Convergence
By 1981, interdisciplinary approaches to grasping the nature of human evolution
tended toward a short-list of behavioral-modifying candidates. James V. Neel,
the Lee R. Dice University Professor of Human Genetics at the University of
Michigan Medical School, asserted the following conditionals in an essay for a
Smithsonian symposium: “Genetic structure,” “Differential fertility,” “Inbreeding,”
“Genetic consequences of village fissions,” “Disease pressure,” “Dietary patterns,”
“Loss of human diversity,” “Changes in the nature of natural selection,” “Our
New Epidemiological Vulnerability,” “More Inertia in the Gene Pool(s),” and an
“Accumulation of Deleterious Genes Due to Relaxation of Inbreeding.” This was
the human saga as viewed through the lens of amino acids, polypeptides, nucleotides, and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).
1
While it satisfies the temptations of one
narrative, it leaves out entirely that odyssey entailing “the inspiration of sentiment
and irregularity”
2
as well as “an atom in the excited state.”
3
And it certainly does
not explicitly evoke often unseen horror, for example, “crabs [who] die from an
inability to molt as they grow older,” or “dispossessed” muskrats who—dispatched
for one reason or other into exile—“hobbled across open spaces or through rushes
and weeds, bleeding, trying to find food and shelter… dying from hunger or cold,
their tails, feet and eyes freezing….”
4
1 See Chapter 3, “Some Base Lines for Human Evolution and the Genetic Implications of Recent
Cultural Developments,” by James V. Neel, pp.67–93, in How Humans Adapt – A Biocultural
Odyssey, Donald J. Ortner, Editor, Foreword by S. Dillon Ripley, Epilog by Wilton S. Dillon,
Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C., 1983.
2 See A World With A View – An Inquiry into the Nature of Scenic Values, by Christopher Tunnard,
Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1978, p. 87.
3 See “Theory Of Gravitation,” by Hermann Bondi, in Cosmology and Astrophysics, Edited by
Yervant Terzian and Elizabeth M. Bilson, Essays In Honor Of Thomas Gold, Cornell University
Press, Ithaca and London, 1982, p. 73.
4 See Dismantling Discontent: Buddha’s Way Through Darwin’s World, by Charles Fisher, www.
DismantlingDiscontent.com, Elite Books, Santa Rosa, CA, 2007, p. 111