David Brooks and "libido for the ugly"

During my life, I've managed to avoid reading more than perhaps a couple thousand of the words David Brooks has published. However, I've recently been reminded (by a column by Brooks, which I also haven't read, save for excerpts in a post by Steve Sailer) of some of them -- a few paragraphs from Bobos in Paradise I once stumbled across on Google Books:

The [New York Times wedding] section was also, predictably, WASPier. About half the couples who were featured in the late fifties were married in an Episcopal ceremony. Today fewer than one in five of the marriages in the Times page are Episcopalian, while around 40 percent are Jewish [. . .] it's pretty clear the trends of the last 40 years have been bad for the Episcopalians and good for the Jews. [. . .]

The section from the late fifties evokes an entire milieu that was then so powerful and is now so dated: the network of men's clubs, country clubs, white-shoe law firms, oak-paneled Wall Street firms, and WASP patriarchs. Everybody has his or her own mental images of the old Protestant Establishment [. . .] The WASPs didn't have total control of the country or anything like it, but they did have the hypnotic magic of prestige. As Richard Rovere wrote in a famous 1962 essay entitled "The American Establishment," "It has very nearly unchallenged power in deciding what is and what is not respectable opinion in this country." [. . .]

Meanwhile, every affluent town in America had its own establishment that aped the manners and attitudes of the national one. There were local clubs where town fathers gathered to exchange ethnic jokes and dine on lamb chops [. . .] The WASP aesthetic sense was generally lamentable--Mencken said Protestant elites had a "libido for the ugly"--and their conversation, by all accounts, did not sparkle with wit and intelligence. [. . .]

Though this elite was nowhere near as restrictive as earlier elites--World War II had exerted its leveling influence--the 1950 establishment was still based on casual anti-Semitism, racism, sexism and a thousand other silent barriers that blocked entry for those without the correct pedigree.

I found the text I've bolded quite ironic, considering that his NYT photo features Brooks -- in a pink shirt and tortoiseshell glasses -- attempting to ape the 1950s northeastern "WASP" aesthetic, with some unique additions of his own -- including garish tie and gap-toothed leer. More importantly, here's what Mencken actually said:

On certain levels of the American race, indeed, there seems to be a positive libido for the ugly, as on other and less Christian levels there is a libido for the beautiful. It is impossible to put down the wallpaper that defaces the average American home of the lower middle class to mere inadvertence, or to the obscene humor of the manufacturers. Such ghastly designs, it must be obvious, give a genuine delight to a certain type of mind.

This passage comes from a 1927 essay in which Mencken mewls about how ugly he finds "the coal and steel towns of Westmoreland county". It's hard to see how Brooks could have mistaken Mencken as commenting on the tastes of "Protestant elites". (Mencken notes "the valley is full of foreigners" -- although he ultimately blames America for its lack of aesthetics.) Brooks evidently consciously misappropriated Mencken's line to add some weight to his anti-WASP sniping.

Why certain S. Euros obsess about supposed rampant miscegenation by N. Euro women

I think the reasons are obvious.

(1) They desire Northern European women, either because they believe they are more attractive or to raise their status.

(2) They realize they face competition for the minority of exogamous Northern European women from every other non-Northern European group on the planet, and don't like their odds. (Guy White: "I never went to Sweden as a single man, but I doubt it would be easier for me to pick up women there than in Alabama, Italy or New Zealand.")

(3) They believe deprecating Northern European women (and/or Northern European men) improves their chances -- or at least makes them feel better about their lack of success -- with Northern European women.

My information is based upon a three-­and-a-half-year study of the Italian slum district of "Cornerville" in "Eastern City." [. . .] In the social- and ethnic-group cate­gory, the most desirable woman for non-marital sex relations is the girl of old American-stock background, preferably blonde, who has a higher status than the corner boy. Once I was walking through the aristocratic section of Eastern City with a corner boy when we passed a tall and stately blonde, fashionably dressed, and very attractive. My companion breathed deeply as he said: "The old Puritan stock! .... The real McCoy! Wouldn't I like to give her a belt."

The attraction of the native stock is not confined to the lower-class Italian. Mario Martini was born in Cornerville, but as he became successful in business he moved out to a fashionable suburb. He married an Italian girl and raised a family, sending his children to private school. He had many business relations and some social relations with upper-class Yankees. He made a practice of hir­ing only girls of native background for his secretarial work, and on some of his business trips he would take one of these girls along-for sexual as well as secretarial purposes. One of Martini's former secretaries, who told me this story, was a girl of rather plain features, which em­phasizes the prestige of the native back-ground even for a man who was as suc­cessful as Mario Martini.

[WF Whyte. A slum sex code. American Journal of Sociology, 1943]

Compare:

One of the manifestations of this jealousy of the fair skin of the Nordics is shown in those numerous cases where members of the colored races, or even dark-skinned members of the Nordic regard the possession of a blonde woman as an assertion and proof of race equality. This has been true historically since the earliest times. It is more than ever in evidence at the present day.

[Madison Grant. The Conquest of a Continent; or, The expansion of races in America. New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1933. p. 15.]

See also Philip Roth, Eldrige Cleaver, etc.

North-South IQ differences in Italy

Via Mangan's, a paper from Richard Lynn entitled "In Italy, north–south differences in IQ predict differences in income, education, infant mortality, stature, and literacy":

Regional differences in IQ are presented for 12 regions of Italy showing that IQs are highest in the north and lowest in the south. Regional IQs obtained in 2006 are highly correlated with average incomes at r=0.937, and with stature, infant mortality, literacy and education. The lower IQ in southern Italy may be attributable to genetic admixture with populations from the Near East and North Africa.

Lynn calculates average IQs ranging from 89 in Sicily to 103 in Friuli-Venezia.

Y-DNA haplogroup of King Tutankhamun

Also R1b. At least that's what a GENEALOGY-DNA-L poster has inferred based on Y-STR results visible in this video.

Composite sculptures of 1890s American college students

From one of Hooton's books. The caption reads: 'Dr. Dudley A. Sargent's composite figures of college students of the "gay nineties." Made from average measurements. The present generation of American students is considerably taller and more slender.'

I forget which book this is from. Probably Up From the Apes, in which case "present generation" refers to the 1940s.

George Gilder: descendant of New England Puritans?

RE: goofy post by Kevin MacDonald.

I'll give the conclusion in advance: Gilder appears to have as much Southern ancestry as New England ancestry, and most of his ancestors hailed from the Mid-Atlantic states. Here are his great-grandparents:

8. Richard Watson Gilder (b. 1844, New Jersey): Son of a Methodist clergyman. New Jersey and Delaware ancestry. Talks about his ancestors (including one with "Huguenot blood") here, failing to mention any New England Puritans.

9. Sarah Helena de Kay (b. 1846, New York): New York ancestry (including Dutch and apparently Scotch-Irish).

10. Louis Comfort Tiffany (b. 1848, New York): Finally someone of New England ancestry. But he lived in New York and was, I believe, an Episcopalian.

11. Louise Wakeman Knox (b. 1851, New Jersey): Daughter of a Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed clergyman; of apparent Scotch-Irish ancestry.

12. Reese Fell Alsop (b. 1837, Indiana): Episcopalian clergyman. Pennsylvania ancestry.

13. Mary Lee Spring (b. 1848, Pennsylvania): Father born in New York. Irish and Scotch-Irish Pennsylvania ancestry on mother's side.

14. Robert Williams Chapin (b. 1855, Massachusetts): Ancestry appears to be half New England, half Southern.

15. Adele Le Bourgeois (b. 1862, Louisiana): French name. Grew up on family's plantation.

I was unable to identify any Congregationalist or Unitarian among Gilder's recent ancestors. Gilder is himself an Episcopalian, and he founded the Discovery Institute with his Papist college roommate, who seems to have similar views on Israel. I find it rather hard to believe that internalized guilt passed down from the 1.5/8 of his ancestors who were of New England Puritan stock explains Gilder's philosemitism.

People with more New England ancestry than Gilder: Henry Adams, Brooks Adams, Henry Cabot Lodge, Charles Davenport, A. Lawrence Lowell, H.P. Lovecraft, Henry Fairfield Osborn, Madison Grant, Lothrop Stoddard, Carleton Putnam, etc.

Misc. links

Not even The New York Times is enthusiastic about "Faces of America": their reviewer calls it "a little wearisome"; says it contains "moments of pomposity".

PLoS ONE: Same-Sex Gaze Attraction Influences Mate-Choice Copying in Humans

HBD Books: The Fall of the English Language

Archaeology: Should We Clone Neanderthals?

Asatru Update: New Book Says Viking Raids Were Self-Defense

Anat Rec: Climate signatures in the morphological differentiation of worldwide modern human populations

Biol Lett: FORDISC is crap?

PLoS Genetics: Human and Non-Human Primate Genomes Share Hotspots of Positive Selection; Genetic Crossovers Are Predicted Accurately by the Computed Human Recombination Map

MBE: Haplotype structure and divergence at human and chimpanzee serotonin transporter and receptor genes; Principal Component Analysis under Population Genetic Models of Range Expansion and Admixture

PLoS Biology: Why We Conform

Ancient human genome sequence of an extinct Palaeo-Eskimo

In Nature: Editor's summary; pdf. "First ancient human sequenced":

Based on their analysis of the SNPs, the researchers were not only able to detect the ancient Saqqaq's geographical origins, but also determine many of his traits. They found that he was an inbred male, with A-positive blood, brown eyes, non-white skin, thick dark hair, and shovel-graded front teeth typical of Asian and Native American populations. [. . .] Willerslev said he's optimistic that other samples will provide the DNA fragments needed for similar sequencing efforts.

Y DNA haplogroup of Charles Darwin

The latest promotional fluff from the Genographic project:

The test revealed that Chris Darwin, and therefore his paternal great-great-grandfather, Charles Darwin, are from Haplogroup R1b, one of the most common European male lineages.

Still waiting for anything substantial to come out of this project.

Basic facts concerning Oliver Cromwell and the resettlement of Jews in England

(1) There were Marranos in England before Cromwell.
(2) The Puritan government failed to extend Jews the privileges they sought.
(3) Royalists were perfectly ready to ally with Jews where they thought they could benefit (and the converse, likewise).
(4) The Jewish population of England was negligible prior to the Restoration of Charles II, after which it markedly increased.

More below. (Continue reading.)

African mtDNA in the Iberian Northern plateau

Alvarez et al. Mitochondrial DNA patterns in the Iberian Northern plateau: Population dynamics and substructure of the Zamora province. American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Early View. Published Online: 1 Feb 2010. 10.1002/ar.20976

In the province of Zamora, if the total number of African lineages are taken into account (Hgs L1b, L2b, L3, M1, and U6a1a), the contribution represents 5.7% of the total Hg composition. [. . .] As regards sub-Saharan Hgs (L1b, L2b, and L3b), the high frequency found in the southern regions of Zamora, 18.2% in Sayago and 8.1% in Bajo Duero, is comparable to that described for the South of Portugal, but it does not have any parallels with any other analyzed areas in the Northern part of Iberia (Pereira et al., 2005).

More excerpts within. (Continue reading.)

Anthroeurope: a humble anthropological study of Europe

A potentially useful website dealing with European phenotypic variation. Here's the author's introduction.

More on black musical ability

A commenter writes: I think you're underestimating the African American ability with rhythm. Looking at their disparate impact in music, they must have some advantages. Good rhythm would be a huge one.

You're begging the question. The "disparate impact in music" of blacks is the usual evidence offered by those who claim blacks are especially talented in this area in the first place. (Continue reading.)

X chromosomes and human demographic history

Amanda M Casto et al. Characterization of X-Linked SNP genotypic variation in globally-distributed human populations. Genome Biology 2010, 11:R10doi:10.1186/gb-2010-11-1-r10

We have explored the possible impacts of both demography and selection on X-linked genetic variation. With regards to the former, we were particularly interested in investigating the possibility of male versus female demographic differences as these can be detected by comparing autosomal and X-linked data. Previous studies have found evidence for skewed gender ratios. Indeed, here we showed that evidence for asymmetries in both directions (male Ne/ female Ne less than or greater than one) can be found within a single dataset. Our results suggest that the picture of male versus female demography is complex and that each study addressing this question should be viewed as providing insight on a particular geographical scale and period in history rather than an absolute answer.

Upcoming talk on Etruscan origins

Scheduled for 24th Sep 2010 at the Sanger Institute:

Origins and evolution of the Etruscans’ DNA
Speaker: Dr Guido Barbujani
Affiliation: University di Ferrara, Italy
Date: 24th Sep 2010 Time: 00:00:00
Venue: M2-03
Host: Chris Tyler-Smith
Abstract:
The Etruscan culture is documented in Etruria, Central Italy from the 7th to the 1st century BC. For more than 2,000 years there has been disagreement on the Etruscans’ biological origins, whether local or in Anatolia. Genetic affinities with modern Tuscan and Anatolian populations have been reported, but so far all attempts to fit the Etruscans’ and modern mitochondrial DNAs (mtDNAs) in the same genealogy have failed. In this study we considered that most populations are internally structured, and we analysed both Tuscany and Anatolia in finer geographical detail, comparing ancient and modern mtDNA data with the results of millions of computer simulations under various genealogical and demographic models. Using methods of Approximate Bayesian Computation, we show that people of coastal Anatolia, the area where ancient historians placed the Etruscans’ putative roots, are descended from ancestors who were genetically very similar to the Etruscans. In turn, the Etruscans can be considered ancestral, with a high degree of confidence, to the inhabitants of one Tuscan valley, Casentino, but not to other communities dwelling in the former Etruscan homeland. Our results demonstrate that the Etruscans’ DNA sequences are still present, but only in very specific sections of the Tuscan territory. They also support the existence of genetic links between Etruria and the Eastern Mediterranean shores, but place the relevant contact >10,000 years ago, strongly suggesting that the Etruscan culture developed locally without significant recent contribution of immigrants from Anatolia.

Did George Washington predict a "United States of Europe"?

No.

This spurious quotation attributed to George Washington has been promoted recently by a poster at Majority Rights: “I am a citizen of the greatest Republic of Mankind. I see the human race united like a huge family by brotherly ties. We have made a sowing of liberty which will, little by little, spring up across the whole world. One day, on the model of the United States of America, a United States of Europe will come into being. The United States will legislate for all its nationalities.” Variations have also been repeated by Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, the half-Japanese founder of the Pan-European Union Coudenhove-Kalergi, Eric Voegelin, and others.

For the search engines, I'm reposting my reply from Majority Rights showing the source of this bogus Washington quotation below (continue reading):

"Oversized" Penile Length In The Black People; Myth Or Reality

Guy White "logic": reporting on an incident of bestiality which he asserts "does carry several stereotypes", one of the first three things that comes to guywhite's mind is: "This Black guy must be enormous down under to be able to do it with a horse." Reality:

“Oversized” Penile Length In The Black People; Myth Or Reality
JC Orakwe, GU Ebuh
Abstract
Objective: Amongst the Caucasians and some non-Black races, there is the popular belief that the black people generally have longer penile sizes. Even the Blacks themselves tend to believe so. This study was carried out to test the veracity of this ascription of “oversized” penile length to people of the Black (Negro) race.
Design: A prospective and comparative study
Setting: The Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, Nnewi, Nigeria.
Subjects and Method: Full-stretch flaccid penile lengths, and flaccid penile lengths, were measured in 115 adult men of the Black race in Nigeria. The results were compared with reported similar main studies on people of other races, which were accessible to the authors. These studies were done in Italy, Greece, Korea, Britain, and the United States of America.
Result: The mean full-stretch penile length of the Nigerian Blacks was 13.37cm and the mean flaccid length was 9.36cm. Similar studies reported full-stretch penile lengths of 12.50cm in Italians, 12.18cm in Greeks, 9.6cm in Koreans, 13cm in British Caucasians [note: the number reported for the British sample is actually the median, and is identical to the median for this Nigerian sample], and 12.45cm in the American Caucasians [note: this sample actually includes Asians, blacks, and whites]. The penile length for Nigerian Blacks was longer than those of the other races, but the differences were only statistically different in comparison with the Koreans.
Conclusion: There is the possibility of racial differences in penile sizes, but there is no convincing scientific background to support the ascription of bigger penile dimensions to people of the Black race
Keywords: Penile Length, Black Race, Penile Size
Tropical Journal of Medical Research Vol. 11 (1) 2007: pp. 16-18

[. . .] The observed longer flaccid penile length particularly may be partly responsible for the apparent impression that the Blacks have bigger penile dimensions. It is know that the flaccid penis is deformable extensible and elastic, and influenced by variations in ambient temperatures, and also by fear and anxiety. This influence may be due to the effect of these factors on the Dartos muscles, which contract in low temperature and in state of fear and anxiety, and relax in high temperatures. Native black environments have high ambient temperatures. Photographs taken in these environments may depict an apparently longer penile length in the flaccid state and this may erroneously be extrapolated to the erect state. We believe that most impressions of the "oversized" penile lengths in the blacks are derived from such pornographic photographs. This however may not be all the reason. Edward in the result of his survey of definitive penile size published on-line, observed that the average flaccid penile length of the black Americans was shorter compared to that of the American Caucasians, but that the average erect length of the American Caucasians was surprisingly longer. Since the comparison was done in the same environment, other factors may be contributory to the observed longer flaccid penile length in the blacks.

Related posts [updated 5/2015]:

• Racial and ethnic variation in penis size, pt. 1: some background
• Racial and ethnic variation in penis size, pt. 2: the actual data
• Rushton and genital size: one more time
• Can racial differences in circulating testosterone explain racial differences in crime?

Forthcoming genealogy-themed shows on American TV

Skip Gates' Faces of the Universe America, featuring Yo-Yo Ma (Paris-born Chinese), Queen Noor (half-Syrian resident of Jordan), Malcolm Gladwell (British-born Jamaican mulatto Canadian), Eva Longoria Parker (Mexican), Mike Nichols (Jewish), Mehmet Oz (Turkish), Stephen Colbert (Irish), Louise Erdrich (Amerindian), Kristi Yamaguchi (Japanese), Elizabeth Alexander (black), Mario Batali (Italian/English/French Canadian), and Meryl Streep (American), airs this February on PBS.

Should Faces of America leave you wanting to be forcefed yet more amazing tales of diverse American ancestry, you're in luck. NBC has scheduled the premiere of the American version of Who Do You Think You Are? for March:

Among the celebrities featured are Matthew Broderick [half-Jewish], Lisa Kudrow [Jewish and executive producer of the series], Spike Lee [black], Sarah Jessica Parker [half-Jewish], Susan Sarandon [Welsh/Irish/Italian], Brooke Shields [Irish/Italian] and Emmitt Smith [black]. Ancestry.com is NBC's official partner on the series.

Black musical ability

Jason Malloy, in his review of Richard Lynn's Race Differences in Intelligence: An Evolutionary Analysis, writes:

For the first time I've seen, Lynn also reviews tests of "MQ" or musical intelligence for black and white Americans. While blacks score lower on almost all the items, commensurate with the fact that IQ correlates with musical ability, they also do much better, on average, than whites on rhythm items - Lynn calculates a rhythm IQ for Af-Ams of 106, though no cross-cultural results are presented, this has been recognized in a number of societies through time. Since Sub-Saharan Africans have been musical innovators across a number of different countries, this topic should have more attention.

I haven't read Race Differences in Intelligence, but while I agree that a preponderance of evidence indicates rhythm is a relative strength of blacks, I'm skeptical of the idea that blacks have greater rhythmic ability than whites in adulthood. Matt Nuenke summarizes the results presented by Lynn as follows:

African Americans perform less well than Europeans on tests of musical abilities of pitch discrimination, tone discrimination, and memory, but they perform about the same as Europeans on tests of rhythm.

This conclusion falls more in line with the evidence I'm aware of (e.g. this study of high school students, which I see Lynn includes). Nuenke continues:

To show this pattern of musical abilities, the results of these studies have been aggregated to give a Musical Quotient (MQ) derived from tests of musical ability other than rhythm, and a Rhythm Quotient (RQ). The results of these studies are summarized in Table 4.8. Row 1 gives results for a large sample of African Americans in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia calculated from the Seashore Test and shows that they obtained an MQ (Musical Quotient) of 90 but a higher RQ (Rhythm Quotient) of 106. Row 2 gives results from a comparison of 272 European and 288 African American college students attending colleges in Tennessee, again showing that Europeans achieved higher scores on general musical ability (pitch, intensity, time, consonance, and total memory) but African Americans achieved a higher RQ (Rhythm Quotient) of 102. Row 3 gives results for a sample from a poor neighborhood in Washington, D.C. showing an MQ of 83 and an RQ of 96. Row 4 gives results for a sample of African-American 5-to-8-year-olds in Rochester in New York State with an MQ of 89 and an RQ of 104. Row 5 gives results for a sample of African-American 18-year-olds drawn from senior high school largely in Texas, with some from Illinois and Rochester in New York State, with an MQ of 86 based on tonal memory and pitch discrimination and an RQ of 100. The comparison group was 541 Europeans attending the same schools. All the studies show that African Americans have Rhythm IQs substantially greater than general Musical IQs by about 15 IQ points. There appears to be no change in the musical abilities of Africans over the period of approximately half a century from the 1920s to the late 1970s over which the studies have been conducted.

Black children may score slightly better than white children on tests of rhythm, but this most likely simply reflects the faster maturation of blacks:

The reader has no doubt noticed that the Negro fifth grade has consistently shown a tendency to compare better with the white fifth grade than the Negro eighth grade and adults compare with the respective white groups. Thus once more we have a verification of the oft-stated idea that the Negro child matures more rapidly than the white child.
[Yale S. Nathanson. The Musical Ability of the Negro. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 140, The American Negro (Nov., 1928), pp. 186-190]

A window into the tortured soul of Mencius Moldbadger

Moldbug outed himself today in a post at Unqualified Convolutions, so I see no harm in drawing attention to one of his early (semi-autobiographical, I take it) literary efforts, "Hybrid Vigor" (published in 1993 under the imprint of the cDc):

"Love me for my genes," says Antonio, kneeling. "If you cannot love me for myself, you must love me for my genes! I have never told anyone this before, I have always kept it to myself. I have always let them think it but an accident of cruel nature that I have white hair on my cheekbones and a thoroughly disreputable-looking nose, but the fact is that I am part badger on my father's side."

Maria gasps. "Oh! Antonio! And we jeered you so! Oh, Antonio, you poor creature, if we had only known!"

Antonio stands and they embrace. He chokes out sobs. "Oh! Maria! You must stand always by my side! You must be my badger-woman, you must bear my badger-children! Tonight, Maria, tonight we must unite in the writhing wanton lust of badger-flesh in ecstasy!"

Maria is crying. "Oh! Antonio! I will do always as you tell me! I will be your badger-woman, I will bear your badger-children, I will refrain from taunting your diminutive badger-penis! Oh, Antonio, be with me!"