What’s the dope on this study, I am not wiling to pay 45$ to read the whole paper. Thanks
Harpending and Cochran had previously—and controversially—marshaled similar evidence to explain why Ashkenazi Jews (those of northern European descent) are overrepresented among world chess masters, Nobel laureates, and those who score above 140 on IQ tests.
In a 2005 articlein the Journal of Biosocial Science, the scientists attributed the Ashkenazis’ intellectual distinction to a religious and cultural environment that blocked them from working as farm laborers in central and northern Europe for almost a millennium, starting around A.D. 800. As a result, these Jews took jobs as moneylenders and financial administrators of estates. To make a profit, Harpending says, “they had to be good at evaluating properties and market risks, all the while dodging persecution.” Those who prospered in these mentally demanding and hostile environments, the researchers posit, would have left behind the most offspring.
Critics note that the association between wealth and intelligence in this interpretation is circumstantial, however.
One theory is that the culture respected book learning meritocracy, selecting from among everyone for the smartest to be educated; rabbis got the easier life (less physical labour) and the support of the community, so they were likely to have the slightly better prosperity to have more children… Marrying into their family was a desirable thing, etc.
OTOH, a culture that respects book learning rather than denigrating “eggheads” as not successful, is likely a going to find that families will encourage the brightest to pursue education no matter where they “came from”. Nobody will be held back due to “you’ll be a farmer like your father and quit complaining”.
OTOH, I thought the whole point of Fiddler on the Roof and similar tales of Russia was that the Jewish villages did include farmers and milkmen.
You mean the books by the author Sholem Aleichem Sholem Aleichem - Wikipedia about life back in the villages he lived in, in Russia? That were then turned into the musical Fiddler on the Roof?
About Shtetls - of course it was not clear sailing.
I’m a product of the gene pool in question, but the two sides of my family have little in common – despite all four of my grandparents having arrived here virtually penniless.
My maternal grandparents came from a town that was sometimes in Poland and sometimes in Belarus, depending on who had won the latest war. I can’t think of anyone in this family who doesn’t have above-average intelligence and financial success.
My paternal grandparents came from *shtetls *in the Ukraine, and the entire family has pretty much qualified as “Jewish White Trash.” My father was the only exception, and nobody knows where he got his intelligence and creativity.
Something interesting is that my mother’s family has grown quite large, while my father’s family is just about dying out (lots of dead ends in the family tree, including me). There are actually fewer people in each generation. It’s like there’s some kind of reproductive Darwinism at play.
Here is a threadI started a few months ago. I asked not only why are Jews more intelligent, but why are they more successful in fields that don’t seem to involve intelligence like the arts, or being billionaires (although there may be a correlation between being a billionaire and being smart, but IQ and wealth generally have no real correlation).
Answer, I’m not sure. I tend to assume the same reason, selective genetics and a culture that encourages success and academics. But like I asked in that thread, asian immigrants also come from backgrounds that encourage success and academics. And while both Asians and jews are overrepresented in professional fields (medicine, law, science, etc) asians are nowhere near as common among billionaires as Jews are. Asians are also nowhere near as common/successful in the arts as jews. They are also not common in politics compared to jews.
There haven’t been that many Asians in the US or Western Europe, which are the regions that have traditionally defined Western culture, which is the culture that caught on. If you’re asking why people from the East aren’t as common in Western art, your answer is within the question. The purpose of even asking is kind of a head-scratcher.
Contrast that with Jewish artists, who co-existed with non-Jewish artists within Western culture for hundreds of years.
And, depending on how you define “art”, K-Pop, J-Pop, and Korean dramas will likely have a wider global audience than any Jewish performer that’s not either American or backed by a big American media company. Of course, as Americans, we tend not to pay attention to anything that’s not American.
Ditto politics. There existed severe immigration restrictions for Asians into the US until this last generation. Where they were already common, they took part in politics. Hawaii, in particular, comes to mind. Immigrants, with a few notable exceptions, don’t tend to take part in politics in the same numbers as non-immigrants. So, lots of Asians born in the US = lots of Asian politicians, which is exactly what we’re seeing now.
Again, contrast that with Jewish Americans, who have co-existed with non-Jewish Americans in respectable numbers since before the founding of the country.
So, relevant to the OP - were they farmers, or merchants back in the old country?
Also, way back in the 1950’s Cyril Kornbluth wrote “Marching Morons” where he pointed out that well-off and successful upper middle class, even then, tended to have fewer if any children, while the “white trash” (and others) were popping them out at a prodigious rate, with the predicted result. The situation has become more pronounced since then - an upper middle class lifestyle requires generally two incomes today, where children have become an expensive indulgence. The current birth rate in most western countries is below replacement level.
(There are plenty of very rich Orientals - they are just in the orient, mostly - where they understand the culture and speak the language well enough to relate to other businessmen and reach deals. However, there is no shortage of successful Asians in America.)
Kornbluth was satirizing an attitude that had been present in the U.S. for at least 100 years by that time. With the “predicted result” never visible at any time.
As far as I know, neither. My paternal ancestors could best be described as “peasants.” My grandfather was the equivalent of a trucker, with a horse-drawn cart. My grandmother never learned to read or write, but she was a marvelous cook.
Some of my maternal grandmother’s ancestors were musicians and cobblers. But the one I really don’t know anything about is the background of my maternal grandfather. As a boy, he was apprenticed to a baker, and when he immigrated here, opened a bakery, which became a very lucrative bakery/catering business for his four sons. But I know nothing about his own background. Since he was an apprentice, I assume there was no family business he could have inherited.
He was actually a draft dodger. When the Russo-Japanese War broke out, the Jews were the first to be drafted (since they were “expendable”. So he fled the country and came here, eventually bringing over his entire immediate family. His extended family who remained were entirely wiped out in the Holocaust.