Friday, August 10, 2007
EVOLUTION
Evolution and hierarchy
Hierarchy and the signs of hierarchy
Hierarchy appears anywhere in a group of organisms, like horses, dogs, vampire bats, and, of course, apes and people. The problem is how to recognize and how to demonstrate one’s own high position in this hierarchy.
Today we do it by so called status symbols, like cars etc. But there are also other signals standing for superior or inferior position compared to other people I that group. One of them was and still is skin color.
In some societies, skin color as a signal of hierarchy diminishes, whereas in other societies it is still a strong signal.
This link leads you to some information about census in some counties in the USA saying that the USA society develops in such a way that will have no minorities and no majorities. This might be a really very interesting evolutionary step made in the USA. It would mean that the people with other than white skin have succeeded in getting good education and therefore good positions and good salaries and they start to be really equal to whites.
The reason might be also only the number of children, or just only the fact of inner migration, where some places are just given up by some whites, as they move somewhere else, and non-whites overtake the place, at least to some extent.
One would have to know more to make more precise reasoning about what this census means. But one thing is for sure, color of skin was and still is a sign of hierarchy, but in some places this sign might lose its weight.
Hierarchy and the signs of hierarchy
Hierarchy appears anywhere in a group of organisms, like horses, dogs, vampire bats, and, of course, apes and people. The problem is how to recognize and how to demonstrate one’s own high position in this hierarchy.
Today we do it by so called status symbols, like cars etc. But there are also other signals standing for superior or inferior position compared to other people I that group. One of them was and still is skin color.
In some societies, skin color as a signal of hierarchy diminishes, whereas in other societies it is still a strong signal.
This link leads you to some information about census in some counties in the USA saying that the USA society develops in such a way that will have no minorities and no majorities. This might be a really very interesting evolutionary step made in the USA. It would mean that the people with other than white skin have succeeded in getting good education and therefore good positions and good salaries and they start to be really equal to whites.
The reason might be also only the number of children, or just only the fact of inner migration, where some places are just given up by some whites, as they move somewhere else, and non-whites overtake the place, at least to some extent.
One would have to know more to make more precise reasoning about what this census means. But one thing is for sure, color of skin was and still is a sign of hierarchy, but in some places this sign might lose its weight.
# posted by Dalibor @ 9:15 AM 
