University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia,
J Genet. 2024;103.
A recent report by G. Clark points to a sustained persistence of social status in England that extends vertically across several generations and horizontally across many levels of kinship. We seek to put his findings in historical perspective. We do so by relating them to two lines of thinking related to biological inheritance. One predated the rediscovery of Mendel's work and led to the field of quantitative genetics, which dealt on the whole with quasi-continuously varying traits. The other is based on the rediscovery itself and led to a reconciliation between quantitative genetics and discrete Mendelian elements of heredity. Both were enmeshed with the supposed need for, and societal consequences of, eugenics and assortative mating. Also on both issues, the significant ideas can be traced to R. A. Fisher, inspired in one case by F. Galton and in the other by J. A. Cobb, with strong support for Galton and Cobb coming from Karl Pearson. Clark's findings point to societal stratification, and assortative mating for wealth is a straightforward hypothesis to account for it. However, it should be noted that the findings support, but do not prove, the hypothesis.
克拉克最近的一份报告指出，英国的社会地位持续存在，这种地位在垂直方向上跨越了几代人，在水平方向上跨越了许多亲属关系层次。我们试图从历史角度看待他的发现。我们通过将这些发现与与生物遗传有关的两种思想联系起来来做到这一点。一种思想先于孟德尔工作的重新发现，并导致了数量遗传学领域的出现，该领域主要处理准连续变化的特征。另一种思想是基于重新发现本身，并导致了数量遗传学与离散孟德尔遗传元素之间的和解。两者都与优生学和选择性交配的所谓需求和社会后果交织在一起。在这两个问题上，重要的思想都可以追溯到 R. A. 费希尔，他在一个案例中受到 F. 高尔顿的启发，在另一个案例中受到 J. A. 科布的启发，卡尔·皮尔逊强烈支持高尔顿和科布。克拉克的发现指向社会分层，而财富的选择性交配是解释这一现象的一个直接假设。然而，应该指出的是，这些发现支持但并不能证明这一假设。
