Peter Frost @frost61h

Anthropologist, currently interested in the puzzle of European hair, eye, and skin color. Joined April 2018

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Peter Frost @frost61h

3 days ago

On a per capita basis, the highly intelligent became ten times more numerous in England between 1000 and 1850. This increase in creative synergy would give rise to the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, ultimately energizing all areas of life. anthro1.net/p/the-great-co…

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Peter Frost @frost61h

2 weeks ago

The fertility rate has fallen the most within a large part of the non-Western world, even though this decline had a head-start in the Western world. Are modern social environments less toxic for WEIRD people of northwest European descent? peterfrost.substack.com/p/is-individua…

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Peter Frost @frost61h

3 weeks ago

What does aDNA say about northwest Europeans before they became Christian? Was their individualism due to Western Christianity and its restrictions on cousin marriage and polygyny? Or did these norms already exist as Christianity spread north and west? peterfrost.substack.com/p/reply-to-jos…

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Peter Frost @frost61h

2 months ago

Please check out Davide Piffer on Substack. His work on aDNA is showing that human evolution didn't stop back in the Pleistocene. Even during historical times, different populations have pursued different trajectories of mental and behavioral evolution. pifferpilfer.substack.com

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Peter Frost @frost61h

3 months ago

How a faulty memory created a finding that would be repeated without question by the chattering class. anthro1.net/p/malcolm-glad…

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Peter Frost @frost61h

3 months ago

Biracial infants with Black mothers have worse birth outcomes than those with White mothers. These differences remain after adjustment for socioeconomic risks, even though the same adjustment equalizes birth outcomes between WM/BF infants and WM/WF infants.anthro1.net/p/a-motherfetu…

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Peter Frost @frost61h

5 months ago

Hitler’s rise to power had an electrifying effect on Jewish scholars around the world, including Franz Boas. Previously, he had been favorable to the idea that human populations differ in cognitive ability. anthro1.net/p/was-franz-bo…

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Peter Frost @frost61h

5 months ago

Non-European immigrants are leaving an environment where they are closely controlled by family, community, and religion and entering one where they have much more freedom to express their inner drives, desires, and impulses. anthro1.net/p/reply-to-phi…

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Peter Frost @frost61h

5 months ago

Before the State monopoly on violence, a man would use violence to defend himself, his family, and his kin from perceived threats. Such conflict would create intense emotion and then “bloodlust” — the desire to see, feel, and taste his opponent’s blood. anthro1.net/p/why-bloodlus…

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Peter Frost @frost61h

5 months ago

The hue and brightness of skin affects how we perceive each other. A lighter color makes the observer more empathic and less aggressive, while a darker, ruddier one has the reverse effect. These seem to be evolved responses to the skin of women and men. anthro1.net/p/emotional-re…

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Peter Frost @frost61h

5 months ago

In East Asia, mean cognitive ability began to rise with the emergence of farming. It then continued to rise until the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE). The ensuing stagnation and gradual decline may have been due to declining fertility among the upper classes. anthro1.net/p/cognitive-ev…

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Peter Frost @frost61h

6 months ago

Bernard Saladin d’Anglure felt that Western culture was destroying Inuit communities by creating the wrong norms and expectations. Culture should belong to the people who live it, and not to outsiders. anthro1.net/p/adieu-bernar…

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Peter Frost @frost61h

6 months ago

We make culture and it remakes us — by favoring those who better fit in and exploit its possibilities. Humans and culture have thus been remaking each other along different trajectories. One of them was the trajectory of ancestral Europeans. anthro1.net/p/adapting-to-…

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Peter Frost @frost61h

8 months ago

Steven Pinker’s “human progress” has really been progress by a relatively small population, essentially Western Europeans over the past millennium. Their trajectory of gene-culture coevolution is now being reconstructed from ancient DNA. anthro1.net/p/reply-to-ste…

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Peter Frost @frost61h

8 months ago

America’s success has not been due primarily to its citizens being smarter than the global average. The main reason is the country’s high level of social trust — a result of equally high levels of empathy, guilt proneness, and rule following. anthro1.net/p/reply-to-elo…

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Peter Frost @frost61h

9 months ago

In ancient times, demand was strong for scribes who could write and copy texts day in and day out. Only a small minority had the stamina and ability, and they enjoyed reproductive success. anthro1.net/p/the-visual-w…