Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past

by David Reich

Beyond the imperative to give everyone equal respect, it is also important to keep in mind that there is a great diversity of human traits, including not just cognitive and behavioral traits, but also areas of athletic ability, skill with one’s hands, and capacity for social interaction and empathy. For most traits, the degree of variation among individuals is so large that any one person in any population can excel at any trait regardless of his or her population origin, even if particular populations have different average values due to a mixture of genetic and cultural influences. For most traits, hard work and the right environment are sufficient to allow someone with a lower genetically predicted performance at some task to excel compared to people with a higher genetically predicted performance. Because of the multidimensionality of human traits, the great variation that exists among individuals, and the extent to which hard work and upbringing can compensate for genetic endowment, the only sensible approach is to celebrate every person and every population as an extraordinary realization of our human genius and to give each person every chance to succeed, regardless of the particular average combination of genetic propensities he or she happens to display.