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From: martillo@ihuxt.UUCP (Yehoyaqim Martillo)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: race and sex studies -- an aside FYI, YSM.
Message-ID: <546@ihuxt.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 30-May-84 13:06:45 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihuxt.546
Posted: Wed May 30 13:06:45 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 1-Jun-84 22:21:29 EDT
References: <721@decwrl.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
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Usage of the term ethnic group is usually incorrect.  Ethnic group usually
refers to a cultural subgrouping.  Jews (not just Eastern-European Jews)
used to form a uniform cultural subgrouping.

Two hundred years ago, a Jew might have been born in Vilna (Lithuania)
study in Hamburg (Germany), marry a girl in Petigliano (Italy), move to
Marakesh (Morocco), make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem (Israel), set up a
jewelry shop in Sana` (Yemen) and flee local persecution to Cochin
(India).  Those people who made such journeys during their lives mention
only minor cultural differences between the various communities if any. 
The Talmudic lifestyle and outlook does not permit a great deal of
cultural variety.

A hundred years ago the Ashkenazim began to drop out of the Jewish world
and have typically produced a lot of nonsense works on Jewish ethnicity in
order to justify assimilation.

In any case, the Jewish ethnic group like other similar cultural
subgroupings was characterized by endogamy.  Endogamy does not mean
individuals eventually develop the same phenotype or genotype just that
gene frequencies remain relatively fixed.  A Jew in Krakow might have a
higher probability of blood-type AB than a Pole in Krakow.  A Jew in
Bucharest might have a lower probability of blood-type AB than a Rumanian
in Bucharest.  But either Jew would probably have about the same
probability of having blood type AB.  Of course, genetic drift could occur
for small isolated populations which is why I mentioned communities which
maintained regular communication.  Historical accidents might also cause
differences in genetic frequency.  Accepting converts would have been very
dangerous in Yemen over the past 1300 year.  However large regions of
Poland were barely Christianized even 300 years ago.  Therefore some
subgroupings of Polish Jews might have greater phenotypic and genotypic
affinity with Polish non-Jews than Yemenite Jews might have with Yemenite
Muslims.

As for bad experiences in learning Math in Vermont, Shava Nerad should
perhaps have attended a good Kutab (Talmud-Torah) as my mother did. 
Nothing would have seemed more worthless to my grandfather Hakam (Rabbi)
Hassan than a modern liberal arts goyish type education.  Consequently, my
mother can calculate gamatriot at light-speed.  Since there are some ideas
which are so stupid a person could only come to believe them after
attending a Western liberal-arts oriented University, we would never send
one of our girls to waste her time at such a place.  Better she should be
married.  However, an ability to bring in money makes a girl more
marriageable and we could charge her husband a higher mohar (bride-price).
Consequently, my mother was educated as an electrical engineer.  I would
never send a daughter to Harvard, but I would not think twice about MIT or
CalTech.

-- 

                    Yehoyaqim Shemtob Martillo

         	 (An Equal Opportunity Offender)