I was watching something today about the genetics of domesticated dogs and it got me thinking heavily about the evolution of our own species.
There was an experiment done in Russia, where a woman took silver foxes and checked the aggression levels of all of them. 1% of the foxes chosen for the experiment showed no aggression, so she chose them for breeding. Within a few generations, the outward aggression and fear had tapered down to a bare minimum. Around the eighth generation, the foxes were acting almost entirely like domestic dogs. Shortly after, the outward appearance of these foxes started changing, and they started looking more and more like the domestic dogs we know, e.g., curled tails, some had the floppy ears and so on and so forth.
I’m really beginning to wonder about and would love to study our own species and these kinds of genetic traits. At one point in the experiment, the scientist took wild fox kits and gave them to one of the domesticated fox mothers to see if that would make a difference in the general attitude of the kits. There was no change and the fox kits remained wild.
In our society, we of course have the “bad seed” children, who so many people say all they need is a bit of love and encouragement. I’m starting to wonder if this is at all true. Obviously, if you are in a certain kind of living situation, your attitude will change, but there are certain things that never do. Your general attitude toward people will not change. This I can guarantee. I have felt the same way about people my entire life. I don’t like to be in large groups of people, not because there are too many, but because there are too many people who I think should be on a leash somewhere lest their stupidity comes out. I like small groups of people because there will be fewer people who should be on leashes. I have lived in a small town in New York, in a city in Florida, in small towns and cities in Australia, and I still feel the same way about people that I did when I was in second grade, when my teacher sent home a letter to my mother with my report card stating that she was worried about me, because I seemed to be a loner. I didn’t like the people in my class because I assumed they were stupid, and I don’t like the people in the supermarket now because I can assume they’re stupid.
Now, these “bad seed” children. Are they wild because of their living situations, their lack of proper parenting or is it actually entirely genetic? You know what these children look like. They seem to have a small chin, their upper jaws, especially around their front teeth protrude slightly, small and pointed noses, thin and heavily arched eyebrows on a forehead that has a bit of a heavy slope over sunken eyes and most likely, if they have very short hair, their bangs will naturally stick straight up or even backward. We all know this description and, unless we fit this description, we avoid them, because we know they are trouble.
There was a viral video a while back of a child who got beat up by another kid who had been the brunt of the child’s bullying for many years. If you haven’t seen it, HERE is the video. If you look at the suggested videos on the side of the page, you can see that the bully who got his comeuppance fits that description perfectly.
If you go into the physiological side of that appearance, you can assume that the sloped forehead suggests a smaller frontal lobe, meaning that the child might have a bit more of a primal attitude. The protruding jaw might be so that he could use his teeth as some kind of weaponry if needed. The sunken eyes and smaller nose would be less of a target. Even the bangs that stand straight up; if the child had longer hair, the fact that the bangs stand up would keep them out of his eyes if he were attacking someone or something. All of it really does point to a slightly less evolved human being.
I don’t know, I’d really love to actually be able to study this further. I don’t know how I would, but there are so many parts of this that go so deep that I would love to uncover.
MiseryFields 