This is moving toward plausibility, but suppose eugenics is socially acceptable, but not a lot else has changed. In particular, the eugenics program has a short attention span, and both the goals and the methods tend to change in mere decades. At that point, I give up on the ability to predict.
Another sort of selection: arranged marriages. I assume they select for something, even if it’s mostly status. I suspect they’re also more likely to be concerned with whether a potential mate has dysfunctional relatives.
Another sort of selection: arranged marriages. I assume they select for something, even if it’s mostly status.
Status, yeah, but the details would probably vary with how they’re done. In particular, it seems like there’d be some interesting sex-linked differences; systems like the old European one where brides come with a dowry and grooms come with lands and titles imply distinctly different correlates of mate quality by gender, and over enough time we might expect to see this reflected in sex differentiation. I’m not sure if any civilizations have been stable long enough for this to actually come up in practice, though.
This is moving toward plausibility, but suppose eugenics is socially acceptable, but not a lot else has changed. In particular, the eugenics program has a short attention span, and both the goals and the methods tend to change in mere decades. At that point, I give up on the ability to predict.
Another sort of selection: arranged marriages. I assume they select for something, even if it’s mostly status. I suspect they’re also more likely to be concerned with whether a potential mate has dysfunctional relatives.
Status, yeah, but the details would probably vary with how they’re done. In particular, it seems like there’d be some interesting sex-linked differences; systems like the old European one where brides come with a dowry and grooms come with lands and titles imply distinctly different correlates of mate quality by gender, and over enough time we might expect to see this reflected in sex differentiation. I’m not sure if any civilizations have been stable long enough for this to actually come up in practice, though.