Primary adult lactose intolerance and the milking habit: A problem in biological and cultural interrelations

Simoons, Frederick J.

doi:10.1007/bf02233204

Cited by 124 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…A famous example of gene-culture coevolution is the evolution of adult tolerance for milk in some, but not all, human populations (Simoons 1969(Simoons , 1970. 24 Most people, like most other mammals, can digest milk as infants but not as adults, because they lack the enzyme to digest lactose.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

How Deep Are the Roots of Economic Development?

Spolaore

Wacziarg

2012

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

How Deep Are the Roots of Economic Development?

Spolaore

Wacziarg

2012

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“…In such a framework, observable human outcomes can be viewed as stemming from the interplay of genetically and culturally transmitted traits. A wellknown example of gene-culture coevolution is the spread of the gene controlling lactose absorption in adults in response to cultural innovations, such as domestication and dairying (Simoons, 1969(Simoons, , 1970Richerson and Boyd, 2005, chapter 6). The ability to digest milk as an adult (i.e., to be "lactase persistent") is given by a gene that is unequally distributed among di¤erent populations:…”

Section: Modes Of Transmissionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-Term Barriers to Economic Development

Spolaore

Wacziarg

2014

Handbook of Economic Growth

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What obstacles prevent the most productive technologies from spreading to less developed economies from the world's technological frontier? In this paper, we seek to shed light on this question by quantifying the geographic and human barriers to the transmission of technologies.We argue that the intergenerational transmission of human traits, particularly culturally transmitted traits, has led to divergence between populations over the course of history. In turn, this divergence has introduced barriers to the di¤usion of technologies across societies. We provide measures of historical and genealogical distances between populations, and document how such distances, relative to the world's technological frontier, act as barriers to the di¤usion of development and of speci…c innovations. We provide an interpretation of these results in the context of an emerging literature seeking to understand variation in economic development as the result of factors rooted deep in history.JEL codes: O11, O33, O40, O57.

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“…We tested the hypothesis that high levels of lactase persistence in a population was related to a history of milk-based pastoralism (Simoons, 1969(Simoons, , 1970(Simoons, , 1978. We also tested for correlations with levels of sunshine and aridity, which relate to other hypotheses for the evolution of lactase persistence (Flatz and Rotthauwe, 1973;Cook and Al-Torki, 1975;Cook, 1978).…”

Section: The Evolution Of Lactose Tolerance As An Adaptation To Pastomentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing evolutionary hypotheses about human biological adaptation using cross-cultural comparison

Mace

Jordan

Holden

2003

Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular &

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Physiological data from a range of human populations living in different environments can provide valuable information for testing evolutionary hypotheses about human adaptation. By taking into account the effects of population history, phylogenetic comparative methods can help us determine whether variation results from selection due to particular environmental variables. These selective forces could even be due to cultural traits-which means that geneculture co-evolution may be occurring. In this paper, we outline two examples of the use of these approaches to test adaptive hypotheses that explain global variation in two physiological traits: the first is lactose digestion capacity in adults, and the second is population sex-ratio at birth. We show that lower than average sex ratio at birth is associated with high fertility, and argue that global variation in sex ratio at birth has evolved as a response to the high physiological costs of producing boys in high fertility populations. ᮊ 2003 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.Keywords: Comparative method; Human sex ratio; Lactose tolerance; Phylogeny; Gene-culture co-evolution; Adaptation; Maternal mortality; Natural selection 1. A phylogenetic approach to testing evolutionary hypotheses using cross-cultural data Physiological data from a range of human populations living in different environments can provide valuable information for testing evolutionary hypotheses about human adaptation. The comparative method can help us determine whether variation results from selection due to environmental factors, or is possibly selected for by cultural forces (which means that gene-culture co-evolution is occurring). However, a simple, statistical correlation between traits across cultures is complicated by the non-independence of cultures, as was first recognized in the 19th century by Francis Galton. The same problem applies in cross-species comparisons. Evolutionary biologists have developed phylogenetic comparative methods that can take account of the hierarchical inter-relatedness of species and test for the co-evolution of traits on phylogenetic trees. Mace and Pagel (1994) argued that similar approaches can be used to test crosscultural hypotheses. In this paper, we will outline two examples of the use of these approaches to test adaptive hypotheses explaining global variation in two physiological traits: the first is lactose digestion capacity in adults, and the second is population sex-ratio at birth. In the case of lactose

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Primary adult lactose intolerance and the milking habit: A problem in biological and cultural interrelations

Cited by 124 publications

References 73 publications

How Deep Are the Roots of Economic Development?

How Deep Are the Roots of Economic Development?

Long-Term Barriers to Economic Development

Testing evolutionary hypotheses about human biological adaptation using cross-cultural comparison

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