A People that Shall Dwell Alone: Judaism as a Group Evolutionary Strategy, with Diaspora PeoplesThis book attempts to understand an ancient people in terms of modern evolutionary biology. A basic idea is that Judaism is a group evolutionary strategy-what one might term an evolutionarily significant way for a group of people to get on in the world. The book documents several theoretically interesting aspects of group evolutionary strategies using Judaism as a case study. These topics include the theory of group evolutionary strategies, the genetic cohesion of Judaism, how Jews managed to erect and enforce barriers to gene flow between themselves and other peoples, resource competition between Jews and non-Jews, how Jews managed to have a high level of charity within their communities and at the same time prevented free-riding, how some groups of Jews came to have such high IQ's, and how Judaism developed in antiquity. This book was originally published in 1994 by Praeger Publishers. The Writers Club edition contains a new preface, Diaspora Peoples, describing several interesting group evolutionary strategies: The Gypsies, the Hutterites and Amish, the Calvinists and Puritans, and the Overseas Chinese. |
Contents
DIASPORA PEOPLES | vii |
Introduction and Theory | 1 |
Genetic Segregation of Jews and Gentiles | 34 |
Evolutionary Aspects of the Tanakh | 50 |
Genetic and Cultural Segregation of Jews and Gentiles | 84 |
Resource and Reproductive Competition Between Jews and Gentiles | 170 |
Cooperation Altruism and the Community Control of Group Interests among Jews | 210 |
Selection for Phenotypic Traits Related to Intelligence HighInvestment Parenting and Socia | 252 |
The Origins of Judaism as a Group Evolutionary Strategy | 350 |
Other editions - View all
A People that Shall Dwell Alone: Judaism as a Group Evolutionary Strategy ... Kevin MacDonald No preview available - 2002 |
Common terms and phrases
19th century altruism Amish ancient world anti-Semitism Ashkenazi Jews assimilation Babylonian Baron behavior century Chapter Christian collectivist conflict Conversos converts Coughlin cultural developed diaspora Eastern elite emphasized endogamy ethnic Chinese Europe European example exile gene pool genealogy genetic gentile Germany group evolutionary strategy group strategy Gypsies ha-ares Herzog high levels highly human Hutterites ideology important indicate indigenous individuals Indonesian influence ingroup intellectual intelligence intense interests intermarriage Israel Israelites Jewish community Jewish economic Jewish family Jewish groups Jewish population Jews and gentiles Judaism Katz kinship MacDonald Maimonides marriage marry medieval Mishnah Moreover Muslim Neusner notes one’s Overseas Chinese Patai peranakan percent period political powerful practices priests proselytes Puritans purity rabbis Reflecting Reform Judaism relatively religion religious reproductive success result Roman scholars segregation separatism Sephardic shtetl social controls society sojourn status Talmud Tanakh tendency Thai tion Torah traditional University Press wealthy York Zborowski