Why Mongoloid is smarter than Europid ( Caucasoid)

[ladislav]

Got this from Quora:

"Less is known on how East Asians (Mongoloids) evolved higher intelligence than Europeans (Caucasoids). The most plausible theory on the origin of Mongoloid intelligence is what I call the “mammoth steppe” theory. The mongoloid race, the most successful human race on earth, with a population in excess of 1.5 billion, probably originated in the deserts of Xinjiang'.

“The Mongoloid Race is believed to be adapted to a cold climate, windy, sunny climate, as may have existed north of the Himalayas during the Ice Age. Here is some interesting information from PREHISTORIC MONGOLOID DISPERSALS, edited by Takeru Akazawa and Emóke J.E. Sathmåry. New York, Oxford University Press, 1996.

Chapter 11 "The Mammoth Steppe and the origin of Mongoloids and their dispersal" by R. Dale Guthrie

Pages 175-176:

"In the 1950s authors began concluding that the characters which distinguished Mongoloids were an adaptive response to cold (e.g. Coon et al. 1950), but this emphasis became unfashionable in the counterculture mood of the 1960s and 1970s, when the first stage of antiracism was to deny all differences. But times have changed, and I would like to revive that view and re-portray it in a more complex light as an explicit suite of evolutionary responses to the rigors of a particular landscape, the Mammoth Steppe."

Eskimos and Mongoloids have many adaptions to cold, such as Lewis waves. The peripheral capillary beds are flushed with warm blood in a cyclic pattern of vasoconstriction and vasodilation. This both minimizes heat loss and avoids freezing. Nordics do not have this adaption. Why not? One reason is that northern Europe is not as cold as central Asia. Another reason is that Cro-Magnons seem to have had better technology for warm clothing, housing, and fires.

Other Mongoloid adaptions to cold are short limbs, short noses, flat faces, epicanthic fold over the eyes, and a smaller surface-to-mass ratio.

Yellow skin. Page 179:

"Even skin structure can be a significant adaptive factor to the north. The light skin of northern Mongoloids allows crucial vitamin D synthesis even when most of the skin is clothed during winter when UV levels are low. Yet the thick skin cuticle and abundant carotene [yellow pigment] (Edwards 1953; Szabo 1975) help screen UV damage at high altitudes and in intense sun, whether from reflective surfaces or direct sun rays." Northern Europe, by contrast, is very cloudy and farther north. Excessive sunlight and snowburn are not much of a problem. I have seen maps of annual hours of sunlight of the world. Denmark, Britain, and northern Germany are some of the least sunniest places on earth.

The absence of facial and body hair simplifies cleaning and insect removal when there is no bathing or removal of garments for months at a time. Cro-Magnons
had better-designed clothes and houses and would have been able to keep clean more easily.

Page 180:

Mongoloid teeth are adapted to eating large amounts of meat and grisle. The first incisors are reinforced by shovel shaped patterns, unique to the Mongoloid race, although it also existed in Neanderthals. The incisors and premolars are robust compared to Europeans. The anterior molars are exceptionally large. At the same time, the back teeth are reduced and the third molar is usually absent. This indicates a diet of meat and not much plant eating.

Page 183:

Neo-Mongoloids include Buryats, Eskimo, Chuckchi, and north Chinese. They have extreme Mongoloid, cold-adapted features. Paleo-Mongoloids are less Mongoloid and are less cold-adapted. They include American Indians, Filippinos, Polynesians, and Burmese.
At one time people who were intermediate between whites and Mongoloids lived in northern Asia, Japan, and the Americas. They have been called proto-Nordics and paleo-mongoloids. They included the Jomon People of prehistoric Japan and their descendants, the Ainu, some of which look Caucasian. Japan has a much milder climate because it is near the sea and at a lower altitude. Also, the Jomon people were technologically advanced; they invented the world's first pottery around 11,000 BC. Historically, Mongoloid peoples moved into southeast Asia and mixed with Australoids to form the modern neo-Mongoloids.

Mongoloids probably originated in what is now the deserts of Xinjiang, north of Tibet. During the Ice Age, this area was very cold and wet. Caucasoids once extended halfway across Siberia and into Mongolia, Manchuria, and Japan. Some of these areas may have been very cold, but the Caucasoids came from warmer areas in Europe and had warmer clothing.

Mongoloids began cooking with fire, wearing skins, and living in northern areas later than Europeans. That is why they are intermediate between Europeans and Negroids-Australoids in skin color and tooth size. Australian Aborigines have the world's largest teeth. Unlike other races, who have two sets, they have three sets, one for early childhood, another for late childhood, and another for adulthood. Many Europeans do not grow wisdom teeth. This is part of the process of having less teeth.

The environments that the Mongoloids inhabited were incredibly demanding cognitively. Some people argue that rice farming and land inheritance systems are responsible for elevated IQs in Mongoloids living in China, these theories can easily be debunked with further analysis. How Social Darwinism Made Modern China
Ron Unz argues that Chinese society somehow featured strong social Darwinism that selected for high intelligence, his theory has been used by Gregory Clark who argues that society has increased IQ levels due to social Darwinism. I tend to agree with Robert Klark Graham, who argued that intelligence levels probably started declining with the advent of agriculture, which is the complete opposite of the the theory of Ron Unz and Greg Clark. Some people even think Cro Magnons had higher intelligence than modern humans THE CRO-MAGNON MAN WAS MORE INTELLIGENT THAN MODERN MAN (I)

“Firstly, let us take notice of the fact that in the two cases there is a significant difference in terms of natural and sexual selection. There is a far greater pressure in ‘pre-historic’ tribes than in pre-industrial Europe. Let us assume now that in pre-industrial Europe, natural selection was sufficient to maintain a constant average intelligence because the more intelligent individuals had more offspring. In this case, the pressure in ‘pre-historic’ tribes, being higher, should lead to an explosive growth in intelligence from one generation to the next, something which has not been recorded. My opinion is that the existing selection in contemporary ‘pre-historic’ tribes can barely maintain a constant level of intelligence for these populations. It is noteworthy that all these tribes live in mild, ‘southern’ climates. In order to see an increase in the pressure of selection to such an extent so as to determine a growth of intelligence, these tribes would have to migrate towards the North. And if these ‘pre-historic’ tribes can barely maintain a constant level of intelligence, then surely the pressure of selection in pre-industrial Europe was no longer sufficient to slow down the decrease in intelligence, even if the more intelligent had more offspring”.

“I have followed with great interest the works of Professor Philippe Rushton regarding the correlations between brain volume and IQ, as well as the hereditary component of these characteristics. If, for today’s populations, there is a relationship between the level of intelligence and the size of the brain and there is an important hereditary transmission of both, I assume that this was also true of older populations. The difference between in brain size between a Cro-Magnon and a modern-day Asian is greater than the difference between the brain volumes of an Asian and an African. There should be a corresponding difference in IQ. The Cro-Magnon human should be more intelligent than any population today. This is the same conclusion that I have reached through my reasoning (i.e. the weakening pressure of selection as a consequence of the ‘migration towards the South’ triggered by technology). As a matter of fact, if the entire anthropogenesis is characterized by an increase in brain size, a decrease should suggest anthropolysis”.

Let us assume that the pressure of selection has been high enough to ensure a continuous increase in intelligence up until the Industrial Age. Only in the last 10,000 years, from the Neolithic Revolution, there have been 500 generations of humans. If we took into account an average rise of only 0.1 IQ points per generation, meaning 1 IQ point for every 10 generations, then, for an English citizen today to have an IQ of 100, a Neolithic ancestor must have had an IQ of 50 and a Cro-Magnon an IQ well under 50. But the Cro-Magnon used to hunt mammoths, perform cranial trepanations, paint in dark caves, sculpt, play the flute, build various tools from sewing needles to bows and arrows, create calendars based on the movements of the stars. In addition, he did all of this before the age of 30. How many people today, with an IQ of 100, could do all of this? Could a human with an IQ of 50 do all of this during the Ice Ages?

Just as implausible seems to be the idea that average intelligence has remained constant. We would have to accept that, in so many different ages and societies, the pressure of selection exerted on intelligence has always been constant. I find this impossible to imagine.

More likely, under the formidable pressure of the North, the Cro-Magnon had reached an IQ of 150. This IQ has very slowly decreased with the decrease in the pressure of selection, resulting from the technological ‘migration towards South’. It has decreased almost insensibly until the Neolithic revolution, and it has accelerated from then onwards: on average, a decrease of about 1 IQ point for every 10 generations (0.1 points per generation). The result is the IQ of 100 for today’s average English citizen.

Now if social Darwinism in China somehow elevated IQ levels, why didn’t it happen in India where the average IQ is 82? Or the Philippines where the IQ is under 85? High intelligence in East Asia originated back tens of thousands of years, when we lived as nomadic hunter gathers, not when we farmed for rice and lived in agricultural societies. The mongoloid hunter gatherers started migrating down from the Mammoth steppe after the ice age and began farming rice and wheat in the eastern parts of China, their IQ levels were just as high as today if not higher, 10,000 years of agriculture in China probably lowered IQs over time since selection pressures were reduced from their fierce level in the mammoth steppe to a more moderate selection pressure in rice/agricultural enviroments. If the average IQ of modern day Chinese mongoloids is 105 on the WISC, 110 on the Ravens, it’s possible that the average IQ of pre farming mongoloid hunter gathers may have been 120+ on Ravens. If you go further south into Southeast Asia, IQ levels are much lower, due to the fact that they are not fully mongoloid. It is quite possible that Northern Mongoloids migrated down, eliminating lower IQ native populations (Australoids) or some types of aborginal people living in the warm tropical environments of southern China and south east Asia. The mongoloids, coming from the north possibly mated with local Australoids, who had low IQs, creating a mix of Australoid/mongoloids that you see today with a lower average IQ than the Northern Mongoloids."

[MrMan]

I believe your author misuses 'social Darwinism.'

[Shemp]

The part of the article I believe most strongly is that humanity as a whole is fast losing IQ points. At some point, they will need a reset to wipe out all the low intelligence types and make room for apes and other animals. Better for a billion subhumans to die off than all chimpanzees to go extinct.

[MrMan]

I think the author meant natural selection instead of 'social Darwinism.' 'Social Darwinism' has to do with adapting evolutionary thought to society, for example arguing that governments should not help groups within the society (races, etc.) that cannot keep up economically, let them die out, etc.

If improved technology leads to a drop in IQ, then we could expect our IQs to drop. The theory is flawed, though. Why would high IQ people not be able to reproduce as the society moved to farming? Hunter-gatherer societies tend to be on the bottom of the range when it comes to IQ score. It may be the IQ tests measure variables that the western societies that produced them need and value, not the types of intelligence that hunter-gatherers need.