Re: OT: What? the clean-shaven outnumber the bearded?"YerUgly Mug," etc.

Andreas Johansson wrote:

> Quoting John Cowan <jcowan@...>:
>
> > > Are "primitive" human tribes which still
> > > use stone age technology actually less intelligent than us?
> >
> > No, indeed.
>
> One might expect they should be - primitives are typically more likely to
> suffer from childhood starvation than moderns with Internet, and childhood
> starvation is in turn supposed to lower adult intelligence.
Depends on the environment, surely.  I think people in the tropical forest
areas (aside from the occasional weather-related famine) are quite well
nourished.  For hunter-gatherers, there's really a surfeit of food.  If they
have a little agriculture, even better.

Many early investigators wrote with awe and admiration of the sophisticated
belief systems of the Australian Aborigines, many of whom lived in quite
difficult environments.

Is there any data
> on this issue, and could such be satisfyingly obtained? The IQ tests I've
seen
> has not looked like they'd be much good cross-culturally.
No indeed.  There used to be a parody-IQ test based on US Black culture;
very few whites would score much of anything.  What, for ex., are chitlins
(properly chitterlings)? Up till a few years ago, few whites knew what
dreadlocks or corn-rows were...........

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