people whose ancestry is in Kenya happen to be more likely to be great distance runners essentially because they live in a higher elevation with less oxygen.
I’m not sure this holds water. Kenya contains some reasonably high country, but it’s not unusually high by global standards; Nairobi lies in the western highlands at around 1800 meters, comparable for example to northern Spain or Colorado, while Mombasa is essentially at sea level. On top of that, most Kenyans are Bantu, members of an ethnic group that expanded out of West Africa in early historical times, so that population wouldn’t have had much time for adaptation.
I’ve heard of high-altitude adaptation in the context of Ethiopia, though, which is higher and inhabited by groups who’ve been there longer.
There are many other factors like bone structure (which is also dictated ultimately by environment) and the year-round warm weather that seem quite clearly to contribute, but it would be a digression and wouldn’t really be necessary to illustrate the point.
Disagree, it illustrates that point that saying “Kenyans are more likely to be great distance runners” is in fact more accurate than saying “People whose ancestors spent uncommonly large amounts of time at great elevation with less oxygen [are more likely to be great distance runners]” since the former doesn’t have the burdensome detail of assuming a particular causal mechanism.
I’ll correct that. Was probably in the course of typing several replies on different parts of the subject. Bone structure gets detected by environment, but it in itself isn’t.
I’m not sure this holds water. Kenya contains some reasonably high country, but it’s not unusually high by global standards; Nairobi lies in the western highlands at around 1800 meters, comparable for example to northern Spain or Colorado, while Mombasa is essentially at sea level. On top of that, most Kenyans are Bantu, members of an ethnic group that expanded out of West Africa in early historical times, so that population wouldn’t have had much time for adaptation.
I’ve heard of high-altitude adaptation in the context of Ethiopia, though, which is higher and inhabited by groups who’ve been there longer.
There are many other factors like bone structure (which is also dictated ultimately by environment) and the year-round warm weather that seem quite clearly to contribute, but it would be a digression and wouldn’t really be necessary to illustrate the point.
Disagree, it illustrates that point that saying “Kenyans are more likely to be great distance runners” is in fact more accurate than saying “People whose ancestors spent uncommonly large amounts of time at great elevation with less oxygen [are more likely to be great distance runners]” since the former doesn’t have the burdensome detail of assuming a particular causal mechanism.
Bone structure is an environmental factor? What?
I’ll correct that. Was probably in the course of typing several replies on different parts of the subject. Bone structure gets detected by environment, but it in itself isn’t.