Steves - 27 December 2010 06:58 PM

Could there be aspects of the brain common to the descendants of various crushed cultures?

Yes: evolution favors the adaptable, and we humans owe our success to our amazing capacity for adapting to changing environments. But this trait of adaptability is common to all humans, not just those who have been “crushed.”

Steves - 27 December 2010 06:58 PM

Could the trauma of past genocide produce a physical bias to obeying authority that eventually showed up in brain scans or DNA?

I’d be surprised if this was the case. It sounds to me like you’ve got cause and effect mixed up. More likely, an existing physical capacity for adaptation causes people to adapt to their new, post-trauma environment. When one culture “crushes” another, the people of the “crushed” culture naturally adapt to their new culture.

There is some evidence that epigenetic modifications of DNA (via methylation, etc.) can be a result of events that one individual experiences and persist for several generations thereafter. This is bleeding-edge research, so not much is known yet. I’ve given out some terms for further reading, if anyone’s interested.

As for “crushed cultures”, it seems to me we are all descendents of cultures that no longer exist. I have a hard time believing that any of us are truly from “master races” whose cultures crushed others without ever at any time being crushed. The last dudes who claimed to be such were clearly operating in fantasy space, on account of having been on the receiving end of plenty of butt-kicking even in recent recorded history prior to their claims.

Hawaiians were subject to significant “cultural imperialism” by American Protestant missionaries operating from New England, following the whaling fleets in the first half of the 19th century. I’ve read that many of them died from epidemics of Eurasian diseases to which they had no resistance. It may be that they succumbed to evangelicals because the religion presented was less nasty than the one they previously had (some of the Polynesian deities are real mofos). It could also be that they are rather syncretic in their beliefs, and that Xtian churches serve primarily a social-identity function.