Carles Lalueza-Fox, expert in ancient DNA: “We live in the least egalitarian society in history”

Carles Lalueza-Fox, director of the Barcelona Natural Sciences Museum and researcher at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE), is a world reference in paleogenetics, the study of ancient genomes. He has analyzed hundreds of them. Among his achievements is the first recovery of DNA from an Iberian Neanderthal. In his new book, ‘Inequality. A genetic history’ (Critical) describes how social differences have left a mark on the DNA of humanity throughout its history. He claims that we are descended from the most privileged. —The inequality began with the first blow? “It’s plausible. There are numerous examples of aggressiveness in the fossil record. In Lake Turkana, human remains from 10,000 years ago have been found with evidence of extreme violence. [Una treintena de individuos, incluidos mujeres y niños, golpeados, maniatados y asaeteados]. Then, as more complex societies emerged, new opportunities for inequality appeared. — He says that social differences have altered our genetic makeup, in what way? —There are repeated episodes of inequality, especially from the Bronze Age, where dominant men have many descendants with many different women, a pattern that is repeated historically. Wealth is transmitted over several generations, which in turn allows dominance to be maintained and favors the survival of offspring. Related News standard No Discovered the oldest known ‘family’: a Neanderthal father with his daughter and several relatives Judith de Jorge The genomes of 13 individuals who occupied two caves in Siberia more than 50,000 years ago shed light on what the social organization of these hominids —So, are we ‘children’ of the most privileged? -I think so. We are more likely to be descendants of those who practiced that inequality in the past. For us it may not have any connotation, but when African-Americans in North America take a genetic test from a private company, they discover that with a very high frequency, more than 90%, their paternal chromosome is European. This speaks of a history of social dominance during the time of slavery, only half a hundred generations ago, because their mitochondrial DNA (inherited from their mother) is African. This, although it does not imply anything for the future, is a dark legacy that affects us in a personal way. Genealogy «Descendant of a thirteenth-century nobleman? It is unlikely that he conserves his genome »—From the point of view of genetics, was the conquest of America that of his women? —In the American continent there is an overrepresentation of European men who have had descendants with local and Afro-American women. In some cases it is as if the local and African-American males disappeared from history and left no descendants. —Is it comparable to what his team discovered happened in the Iberian Peninsula some 4,000 years ago? -Yes. The arrival of steppe migrant males wiped out the Neolithic male Iberian lineages in 500 years. We have the example of a mixed burial in Castillejo del Bonete, in Ciudad Real. The man has steppe ancestry, while the woman comes from somewhere on the coast, at least 200 km away. Whether that is a matter of dominance or a love affair, or both, we cannot know. —An extreme case: it is said that the fearsome Genghis Khan had 20,000 children. —It is impossible to know how many children he had. But it is known that he had more than a hundred concubines. What’s interesting is his sons were khans, his grandsons were khans, and his great-grandsons were khans… and each of them did the same, creating a lasting social elite. That lineage is now prevalent in large parts of Asia, but the probability that their current descendants will have any chromosome fragment from Genghis Khan is practically nil. —Can we find a ‘noble’ ancestor thanks to genetics? “People are very drawn to that. But if one is a descendant of a 13th century nobleman it is highly unlikely that he retains any significant part of his genome. It is lost in a few generations. Impervious castes —The great model of inequality is the castes of India. Does his influence still persist? —They were abolished more than 50 years ago, but they have an extreme persistence and have even been exported to Great Britain. The local Hindu community continues to marry within its own caste. It turns out something extraordinary. When some jatis (subcastes) have been analyzed genetically, they have been found to be genetically stagnant, to the point that jatis living in the same city, or even in the same neighborhood, represent genetic differences as notable as those that can exist between a population from Portugal and another from Eastern Europe. Trend «Before, doctors married nurses. Now with doctors. Looking for a partner of the same socioeconomic level» —What has been the least egalitarian society in history? —The current inequality has no comparison with those of the past. The figures that are handled now are incomprehensible to most mortals. Elon Musk has lost 200,000 million dollars in a month and is still a very rich man. It may seem paradoxical, because it is clear that humanity has progressed and a good part of it has emerged from extreme poverty and has accessed some social well-being. But within every society, be it the US, Europe or China, the range between the richest and the poorest has widened. The failure of utopias and the fear of consanguinity Lalueza-Fox mistrusts alternative proposals that rationally seek a more egalitarian society. «Some, like those of utopian socialism, have ended in disaster. Other theories, such as the idea that the most capable men share all the women, are frightening”, she points out. She visited a kibbutz in the Golan Heights, communities where children were originally raised together to liberate women. It didn’t work. They depopulated. One of the reasons is that there was a strong reluctance to cross paths with someone with whom you shared your childhood,” he explains. It is a mechanism to avoid consanguinity. — Does the apparently more subtle current social stratification shape the genes of future populations? -Yes. And it may have implications hundreds of years from now. Inequality reinvents itself. Before, a powerful person sought to have as many descendants as possible. Now it is the opposite: the higher the educational level and the higher the salary, the fewer offspring. What will those repercussions be? —It may be similar to what we observe with the castes in India. In the US, a trend has been detected in recent decades: 50 years ago, doctors married nurses and now they are marrying female doctors. Looking for a partner of the same socioeconomic level. —Social status influences genes. Does it also happen the other way around? -Not. The evidence in this regard is controversial. A study shows that if you are tall you earn more than if you are short. And if you are a woman you charge 16% less. But I think it’s about social mechanisms, prejudices. MORE INFORMATION noticia Si Living in trees helped us pronounce consonants noticia Si Hominids already sailed the seas almost 200,000 years before the appearance of Homo sapiens —And what will the future be like? —The past is in our genomes, but the future is in our hands. We have instruments to try to correct inequality. You have to try. Episodes of great injustice have led to turbulence and social catastrophes, and that is undesirable.