Genghis Khan, and a few rich, powerful men, might have spread their seed about pretty liberally. But a new analysis suggests that most socially dominant males contribute no more to the gene pool than do their supposed inferiors.

According to Joseph Watkins, a mathematician at the University of Arizona in Tucson:

An individual really doesn’t have the opportunity to set up things so their genetic information pervades the gene pool a long time in the future

It could happen because life is chaotic.

Theories concerning how genes flow through populations of organisms generally support this idea, which has been dubbed neutrality. But some anthropologists argue that cultural dominance can seal a man’s legacy. For instance, a rich and powerful father could ensure the status of his sons and grandsons.

To determine whether dominance could last more than a couple generations, Watkins joined forces with a team of anthropologists and geneticists to sift through the DNA of 1269 males from 41 Indonesian communities,

The researchers concentrated on stretches of the male-inherited Y-chromosome that change little from generation to generation. This allowed Watkins’ team to peer back in time more than 3,000 years.

Their search paid no attention to genetic traits that might offer an evolutionary boost and instead focused on “junk” DNA that flows exclusively from father to son. From this, out of 41 communities, from Bali to Borneo to mainland Indonesia, only five showed evidence of long-term dominance by a few male lines.

According to the researchers, three of those communities were in Sumba, a remote island where males are polygamous and clans vie for status and resources; and the genetic patterns seen in males from the other two communities could be explained by an influx of foreign workers in one case, and a recently settled village in the other.

The researchers agree that Temüjin proves that some powerful males can ensure their lineage – if not through prosperity, then promiscuity – but such men are rare, Watkins says.

Adding:

If I were to take 100 random Mongolians and follow their family lines, I wouldn’t have seen anything special.

Peter Underhill, a population geneticist at Stanford University, is also of the opinion that cultural traits that flow exclusively from father to son, like wealth and property, are unlikely to last.

Michael Hammer, a co-author of the study, noted:

Evolution is an equal opportunity system. No single group is going to persist as the dominant group for very long before something changes.

Wars, climate change, and diseases have all sent dominant males careening off their pedestals.

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Posted by Jonathan in Anthropology, Biology

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