Bebi
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IntelligenceI recently watched a program on the level of intelligence between different races of the world, I found it fascinating. While the program didn’t actually make any firm grounds as to which race is the more intelligent, it gave plenty of food for thought.
Intelligence is a vague term meaning mental power just as strength means physical power. It is very difficult to measure either of these qualities. Strength can be measured in its separate physical powers, such as ability to run, jump or lift weights; one person may be excellent at some of these qualities but poor in others. Therefore we see that strength is not just one ability; but many that make up a whole that can be combined in infinite ways. In the same vein intelligence tests measure individual attributes, such as literacy, numeracy and problem solving. These tests are useful when conducted on people of the same cultural background, but how can one expect a tribesman who has never seen pencil or paper to achieve in these kinds of tests? At the same time, children of said tribesman would win hands down over city children on practical tests such as identifying animal tracks and hunting. Language, work habits, tradition, diet and experience all affect the way an individual thinks, therefore when looking at people of different races the standard intelligence test is useless as we cannot eliminate common factors. Currently there is no test that ignores the effects of environment and only measures pure intelligence.
One example is many white people’s assumption that negroids are less intelligent than themselves. When looking at certain African tribes they point out the tribe’s “backwardness” before the coming of the whites. This can be explained very easily; the Sahara Desert isolated many Africans from the explosion of civilization, just as the oceans isolated the Pacific Islanders. Having had no contact with the “civilized” world, these tribes could not be expected to develop at the same pace. This does not mean to say that they are any less intelligent. In fact there is a theory that all “civilized” races are in the process of degeneration, known as degenerative mutation pressure, meaning that every species tends to degenerate over time with interbreeding. As society becomes more advanced people with disabilities are able to lead full lives, whereas in the so-called backward communities such people would be subject to natural selection and would not be able to live and breed. On this basis we could argue that primitive tribes such as the Pygmies are in fact “healthier” than, say, Europeans.
Of course this is just speculation, from such evidence that exists our own guess is that while racial differences in intelligence may exist; differences between individuals within one race may well be greater than the average differences among the races themselves. If anybody devises a test that measures intelligence while ignoring cultural and environmental differences it might well uncover mental differences between the races, but who could say which race would score best on which test?
How many of us assume that the ancient civilizations aren’t as intelligent as our own society for the simple reason we have learned more than they did? Take the Egyptians for example; it is only in recent times that we have been able to understand their methods of building the pyramids, and a lot of their culture is still pure speculation. Also Stonehenge, there is still speculation as to how the great stones were moved and erected, and even today we cannot be sure for what reason exactly the megalith was originally built. I feel that the fact we could not understand a lot of the ancient cultures until relatively recently shows a high level of intelligence, as high, if not higher than our own today. There is a common misconception that intelligence is always gained and never lost. I believe that this is false. A good example is our own memories; how often have we forgotten something that we used to know? Now imagine this on a cultural scale, with each generation forgetting a little more each time. It is suddenly easy to see how vast areas of knowledge die out. Back in ancient times before literacy, knowledge was passed down verbally. A great deal of history has been either lost or misinterpreted because of this; however it doesn’t mean that these peoples were any less intelligent than ourselves. Archaeology has proven that many of the ancient societies were significantly more advanced than was commonly thought.
We need to try and move away from the idea that knowledge equals intelligence. An individual could have a large knowledge base yet not have the intelligence to make adequate use of this. I feel that logic plays a large part in overall intelligence, as it is this which enables us to effectively use what knowledge we have acquired.
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