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IndmnJ. l'cdiat., 31 : 151, I~)04, Tile BIOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE CREATIVE GENIUS ALOKE KUMAR GItOSIt Calc,ttta Art and lilcralurc like all olhcr human :tctivities are the products of interaction ~mong a number of foi-ces, ambiguously termed the intellect and the imagination, ~hich are again the functions of the human brain. Again, at the root of the evolution of the human brain, in tile general and particular sense of the term, x~c lind the influence of a number of genes. In lhe biological sciences we come across the term 'gene'. Genes are com- posed of nucleo-proteins and can multiply themselves manifold. Chemi- cally these seem to be linked up with catalysts, i.e., these can influence chemical changes in ttle eqvironment without introducing any obvious chemical change in their own composition. Genes can only do as much as (I) their particular limits enable them to do, and 12) the opportunities provided by the material allow them. Genes oricnt in a particular direction the essential and chenlieal subs- tances necessary for development through enzymes, and ill interaction with other genes produce changes ~hich further ser,,e to constitute part of lheir chemical internal enx, ironment. Genes c:~n bc studied only with reference to their carrier mutants. A sudden and per- manent change of a gene is called a muta- tion. A fertilized human egg contains some thirty thousand genes, each parent contributing half the total. Now, we may bc permitted to place bel\~re the reader a few pages from ASHLEY MONrA(IU'S ~ 'Human Hcredity', here and there a little modified, to substantiate our thesis. MONTAGU states that every hunlan being starts off as a fertilized egg. Every female at birth ah'eady has in her ovaries well over 400,000 eggs or ova. As the female, the potential mother, grows (in- creases in complexity) the ova grow and develop. Shortly after the female reaches puberty, the ova begin to pass out of her ovaries, usually one at a time, approxi- mately each twenty-eight days, and to pass into one of the tubes or oviducts (fallopian tubes), the fimbriated openings or com- mcncements of which are situated just above the ovary on each side, and thence pass into the uterus. When the female mates with a male he introduces into her reproductive tract (at each mating) something over 200,000,000 of his germ cells (spermatozoa). The spermatozoa develop in his testes and are ejaculated at copulation. After a hun~an ovum has passed into the fallopian tube of the female it has a life of a little over twenty-four hours. After this time, if it has not been fertilized by a spcrmatozoon, a process which occurs in the first third of the !'atlopian tube (that is, nearer the o~ary than the uterus), the unfertilized ovum breaks down and dies. Only one ~perrnatozooll fertilizes the egg out of tile more than 200,000,000 that have been introduced into the female reproductive tract. The human ovum is a spherical cell

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Page 1: The biological interpretation of the creative genius

IndmnJ. l'cdiat., 31 : 151, I~)04,

T i l e B IOLOGICAL I N T E R P R E T A T I O N OF THE CREATIVE GENIUS

ALOKE KUMAR GItOSIt

Calc,ttta

Art and lilcralurc like all olhcr human :tctivities are the products of interaction ~mong a number of foi-ces, ambiguously termed the intellect and the imagination, ~hich are again the functions of the human brain. Again, at the root of the evolution of the human brain, in tile general and particular sense of the term, x~c lind the influence of a number of genes.

In lhe biological sciences we come across the term 'gene'. Genes are com- posed of nucleo-proteins and can multiply themselves manifold. Chemi- cally these seem to be linked up with catalysts, i.e., these can influence chemical changes in ttle eqvironment without introducing any obvious chemical change in their own composition. Genes can only do as much as (I) their particular limits enable them to do, and 12) the opportunities provided by the material allow them. Genes oricnt in a particular direction the essential and chenlieal subs- tances necessary for development through enzymes, and ill interaction with other genes produce changes ~hich further ser,,e to constitute part of lheir chemical internal enx, ironment. Genes c:~n bc studied only with reference to their carrier mutants. A sudden and per- manent change of a gene is called a muta- tion. A fertilized human egg contains some thirty thousand genes, each parent contributing half the total.

Now, we may bc permitted to place bel\~re the reader a few pages from ASHLEY

MONrA(IU'S ~ 'Human Hcredity', here and there a little modified, to substantiate our thesis.

MONTAGU states that every hunlan being starts off as a fertilized egg. Every female at birth ah'eady has in her ovaries well over 400,000 eggs or ova. As the female, the potential mother, grows (in- creases in complexity) the ova grow and develop. Shortly after the female reaches puberty, the ova begin to pass out of her ovaries, usually one at a time, approxi- mately each twenty-eight days, and to pass into one of the tubes or oviducts (fallopian tubes), the fimbriated openings or com- mcncements of which are situated just above the ovary on each side, and thence pass into the uterus. When the female mates with a male he introduces into her reproductive tract (at each mating) something over 200,000,000 of his germ cells (spermatozoa). The spermatozoa develop in his testes and are ejaculated at copulation.

After a hun~an ovum has passed into the fallopian tube of the female it has a life of a little over twenty-four hours. After this time, if it has not been fertilized by a spcrmatozoon, a process which occurs in the first third of the !'atlopian tube (that is, nearer the o~ary than the uterus), the unfertilized ovum breaks down and dies. Only one ~perrnatozooll fertilizes the egg out of tile more than 200,000,000 that have been introduced into the female reproductive tract.

The human ovum is a spherical cell

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152 INDIAN JoL,RNAI. OF PI.DIA1RIt5 VOI.. 31 *o. 196

:tppro.ximately , ne-.,,cxenth t,f a milli- meter or 1175 inch in diameter, and weighing about onc-txxenty millionth of all ounce, in other words it would take about 20.000.000 ova to x~cigh an ounce. "l"he xolumc of a spermatozooll is 85,0(10 Iimcs .,,mailer than tile o,.um. It is shaped ~omething like a xery )oung tadpole, v, ith a head, ncck. body, and tail. and its total length is abotlt 120 millimeter or 1500 inch. the lail making up the greater part of this length, the hcad being only I 200 millimeter or I 50(~) inch in lel~glh.

It is supposed that the egg is so nlu~,.'b bi.c, gcr lhan the sF, erm because it carries so much of the nutriment necessary for the

li:,tilizcd cGg to fccd ,,n. The sperm con:ist5 ~dmo~t entirely of a nucleus in xxhich the chromosomes carr)ing the hereditary particles, the genes, are situated. The egg consists of both a nucleus and a large quantity of more or le~s transparent, xiscous fluid called the c).toplasm (Greek O'ton-cel[, pklsm- fluid). "[he nucleus of the egg carries gene-bearing chromosomes. That ~hat is contained in the nucleus, rather than in the cytoplasm, is chiefly responsible for one's genetic heredity is suggested by the fact that children resemble their mothers no more often than they resemble their hlthers.

"[he nuclei of egg and sperm are. hox~e~,er, strikingly similar. When these are brought together at fertilization. through the union of a male with ;t female and the sperm x~ith the egg, the hereditary materials arc combined, and the process of development commences. From the tx~o cells thus combined into one. two will dcxelop, then four. Ihe~l eight, then sixteen. then thirt)-t~o and so on until the tolal

number of bod~ cells at birth has been Jcachcd--a Iotal altogclher of some 200,000,000.000 and in the adult .,,ome lO.t)00.000.000.O00 cells. It has been calculdted that only about fort~-l~ur dix isions arc Ilece~.-,,,y to bring into being

the number of cells present at birth, and only four more divisions are required to bring about the adult number. Adults weigh about 50,000,000.000 times a.,, much as the)' weighed at fertilization. Tile bulk of the additional weight which turns the fertilized egg into a gro~vn-up adult comes from the en'~.i,'onnlc,lt, fronl the lbod ~hich the mother took in and ,.~a~ able to pass on in chemical form to her child in tile womb, and after its birth, as nature intended, through the milk from her breasts, and subsequently through the foods ~hich human beings obtain from their en,.ironment. Here environ- ment ultimately means ,mything ap,trt from genes that can ,~ct upon or influen~.e the genes or the organiser. Cells, alllo,lg other things, constitute each othel"~ environment. Small accidental xaria- tions in the environment of the egg may have a decisive effect upon development. "lhe complexities of the mother'~ body constitute the baby's environment when it is in the womb.

In the nucleus of every cell there lie a number of threadlike structures, which are called chromosomes. In man there are forty-six chromosomes in every body- cell, and half that number, txventy-three in the germ-cell. When the egg or the sperm unite they each contribute their twenty- three chromosomes so that the fertilized egg from which all the body cells are derived contain the total of forty-six.

The chief importance of the chromo- somcs is that the)' afford tile means by which potentialitie.,, may not only be transmitted to off.,,pring bt, t also the means by which variation and change may be transmitted, for it is in the chromo- somcs that are lodged the pll~,sic0chemical package.,, that arc themselves the basic hereditary materials, namely, the genes. A gene is uhrztmicroscol~ic,~lly small, and therelbre ,1o one 11,15 ever seen one. Estimate.,, of size range betxxeen .! and 50

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GH~)SI] - f i l e B1OI.Ot']ICAL tNTERPRET.A.T]QN ()F IHE CREATIVE GENIUS 153

millimicron~ in d i ,mae te r -a millimicro,i i~ one millionth of a millimeter, eslimated gene size is therefore between 1/250,000 and 1/20,000 millimeter.

Estimates range all the way from about 500 to about 5000 for one chromosome and for the gene content of all twenty-three chromosomes the estimated number runs from about 10,000 to 100,000, with about 30,000 as the estimate in favour, that is, with about t,300 genes in each chromosome (with the exception of the Y chromosome). These estimates are for the genes in the sex cells, the genes in the body cells having a full complement of forty-six chromosomes would have double the number of genes given in the above estimates.

In a single mating the possible combina- tions between the twenty-three ohromo- somes of the male and those of the female are 8,388,608 or 2 raised to the twenty- third power, and the chance of any one such combination being repeated more than once is in approximately 70,000,000,000,000 or 2 -"3 :~: 2 -"'~. The different combinations which a 30,000- gene system can assume reach a stupen- dous figure. This is on a purely quantita- tive basis. When the physico-chemical factors and those of the cnvironment are introduced as modifying agencies, the possible differences in human develop- ment within the limits of the species become practically infinite.

A gene is a giant molecule believed to consist mainly of a chemical substance called deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA for short. The stuff of which life is made consists of protein, and nucleic acids constitute the blue print that directs the manufacture of proteins. DNA is so structured that it carries within itself a kind of Morse code. Each chromosome contains hundreds of genes, and some t,300 genes are settled on each chromosome. The genes are strung together in a row.

A gcllc lelatiJlg to a part icu lar ic~j'~o;I),~ ~1" trai t ha:~ a specilic posi t ion or locus in the string. Nucleic acids are blue prints which the proteins must follow if the body is to be properly built. If the blue print isn't followed for some reason, some- thing is bound to go wrong at the point of departure from it. and the result may be a slight or a serious disorder. Thus a variation may be introduced in the here- ditary line. The evidence strongty indicates that the nucleic acids control the making of the body's characteristic living substances--i ts prote ins--and that DNA carries the master plan or code. The information contained in the code is there in a particular order, and this order determines in which amino acids (chemical compounds that are the building blocks or structural units of proteins) fall into place in the protein molecule for which i! is responsible. There are about lwenty different amino acids. A protein molecule may be made up of hundreds or thousands of amino acid units. It is believed that each protein owes its uniqueness to the specific sequence of its amino acids.

The DNA molecule is conccived of as being made up of two sugar phosphate chains that are turned around each other in a spiral structure thousands of turns long, linked together by certain basic nitrogenous substances (adenine and thymine or guanine and cytosine). The nucleic acids of DNA are made up of three components which together form a small molecular unit caled a nucleotide. Each nucleotide consists of one molecule of a nitrogenous base, one molecule of a sugar, and one molecule of phosphoric acid. The nitrogenous bases are adenine and guanine, which are purines ,~nd cyto- sine and thymine, which are pyrimidines. Thus there are four different nucleotide~. All nucleotides are linked together in long chains, in which the purines and pyrimidines occupy well-defined and

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154 INDIAN JOLIRNAL OF I'iDIAll~.I( S \'~}1,. 31 ::,). 196

ordered po.~itions. | he nucleotides of nucleic acid are arranged in a very irregular sequence indeed as demonstrated by T. CHARGAFt and his co-workers. The.~e investigators found that the four nucleotides are present in nucleic acids in xcry unequal amounts. Furthermore, the proportions of individual purines and pyrimidines were found to be different in Ihe DNA of different species--which is precisely what we should expect if different DNAs are the carriers of different hereditary codes. Simply by changing the ~.equences of the bases in one DNA molecule, the number of possible patlerns resulting fl'om this alone would amount to 10,009. The number of human beings who have ever existed cannot have exceeded 10~L The number is probably 1011

According to the now famous WATSoN-CR~cK model of the DNA mole- cule it is composed of two complementary sugar-phosphate chains or strands. Each strand determines the sequence of the bases in its opposite member, and each carries the complete information necessary ILr tile direction of the numerous processes that interact in function and development to produce the organism. Reproduclion is achieved by the unwinding and separa- tion of each strand, and by each strand replicating its missing complement. Each strand can accomplish this because it carries the necessary information, the genetic directions for itself as well as for its complement.

Each gene directs the functioning of a particular process or group of processes in the functioning and organization of the body. For example, a particular gene is responsible for the selection and assembly of the proper sequence of amino acids out of the twenty kinds available, which will provide an essential protein constituent of haen;~globin. Should, for some reason, an error occur in lhe selection of a single

acid, the right one being rcpluced 13 5' the wrong one, the wrong message will be delivered to the haemoglobin and an abnormality such as sickle-cell anaemia will result. Tile DNA molecule has been likened to an enormously long winding staircase, with the stair treads corres- ponding to the cross-linking chemical bases. The various segments of these DNA molecules each contain their specific codes or bleueprints for the plan to be followed in the manufacture and organiza- tion of the basic materials out of which the organism is to be developed. The wrong message delivered to the haemoglobin by the wrong amino acid results in the muta- tion of the gene which is hereditary.

The genetic information is transmitted from the chromosomes in the nucleus by ribonucleic acid (RNA), which has been synthesized in the nucleus where it has received the patterns determined by the DNA base-pair sequences. The RNA then migrates outside the nucleus into the cytoplasm of the cell, and imprints corresponding patterns on the enzymes, globulins, and other large molecules in process of being synthesized there. Specific patterns are transmitted from DNA to RNA and from RNA to the protein, by a process resembling the manner of making a cast or template. At least, this is the template hypothesis.

Since RNA governs its own replication as well as protein production, working with RNA alone, A. TSUGITA and H. FRAENKEL-CONRAT o f the University of California produced a mutation in tobacco mosaic virus by stripping the pro- rein cast from the RNA and then treating the naked nucleic acid with nhrous acid. When the virus particles were reconstituted and rubbed on a tobacco plant, the viral protein now produced a different kind of infection from the usual. The mutant change in RNA had produced a corres- ponding change in the viral protein. The

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till(.)bll---]llL BI()IOGI('A[, IN]ERPRI:IAIION ()F IllE ( . l lEAIl \ l : GENIIS 155

dumgc in the protein wai~, identified as having occurred near the end o1 the molecular chain, so thai for the first time it has become possible to associate a specific alteration in thc composition of a molecule that is its code, with a specific change in its effect. If we assume that this theory up to this point is correct, we may now examine the findings of the Russian biologists, MICHURIN'-' and IYSENKO :~. to link up certain points in order to establish a new theory about the biological (~rigin of a certain kind of abnormality in the human species.

MlCHt;R1N'S teaching, creative Dar- x;inism, does not regard development as continuous evolution but as the genesis of a new quality within the old, of a quality that contradicts the old, which undergoes gradual quantitative accumulation of its peculiar features and in the process of its struggle against the old quality constitutes itself into a new, fundamentally different lotality of properties with its distinct laws of existence.

No continuous unbroken series of tbrms between species--different qualitatively definite states of living matter--can be found. This is so not because the intermediate forms in a continuous range have died out as a result of mutual competition, but because there is no such continuity in nature, nor can there be. Unbroken continuity does not exist in nature, continuity and disconti- nuity always form a unity.

The prime cause of the appearance of species from other species as well as of intraspecific diversity of form is change in the conditions of life of plants and animals, change in the type of metabolism.

The genesis and development of new species is bound up with such alterations in types of metabolism during the process of development of the various organisms as affect the characteristic features of the species concerned.

Individu;ll Er:lin~ ~,1 solt ~hcat were quite casilyobsc;',cd in the .',pikes of duran wheat i.e. grains of one botanicM species were found in the spikes of anothec species. When grains of this soft wheat taken llc~n: spikes of duran wheat were sown. they produced, a~ a rule. soft-wheat plants.

"In all the cases where grains of one species of plant were foupd in spikes of another species neither the plants them- selves nor their thrushed spikes showed any signs whatever of being intermediate forms. The), scented Io be typical. ordinary spike~ of duran or s(~ft wheat. But the internal state of those wheal plants was no longer the u.,,ual one. wa~ no longer qualitatively homogeneous in respect to species. This is indicated by the fact that these wheai plants produced not only grains of wheat but also a few grains of rye, that is, grains of another species.

"The factual material so far obtained on the problem of species formation concerns the plant world only. We do not yet have the data essential to demonstrate how species are formed in the animal world. But we may rest assured that before long the development of the theory of Michurinist biology will make it possible to accumulate data also for zoological objects analogous to the data taken from the world of plants".

The above-quoted paragraphs are taken from T. D. LYSENKO'S book "New Developments in the Science of Biological Species". Now, our point is this. The environmental influences here in some cases have caused a change in the protein molecules of the germ cells and these influences have passed through the cytoplasm to the nucleus. Then a mutation has occurred in some of the genes of the nucleus. This is perhaps the possible explanation of the hereditary change in some of the grains of a particular species. But if the influence is limited only to the cytoplasm in a particular

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156 INDIAN JOURNAl. OF I'IDIA'fI~.ICS VOL. 31 NO. 196

C;I~C ;',l/t] doch l~ot reiwh Ihc gCllCS td

the nucleus of the germ-cells tocausc a n l u t a i i o l l , then what will happen. There will be no hereditary change of the species or a certain hereditary abnormality within the species but the particular individual resulting from the particular germ-cell will be abnormal. This individual abnor- mality may be either physical or psycho- logical and, moreover, there may be either efficiency or deficiency. We take up the case of a psychologically efl]cient abnormality which may be termed 'the genius'.

But before this we shall quote a few points from MONTAGU'S book 'Human Heredity" to illustrate the effects of envi- ronment upon the developing human being without bringing about any hereditary change or mutation of genes. These effects may be divided into two g r o u p s - (l) the effects in the uterus, and (2) the effects after birth. At first we discuss the effects in the uterus.

It has been known for many years that it is quite possible to change the form of various animals by altering the environ- merit in which they develop, One of the early classical experiments illustrating this involved the larval fl~rm of the small boy's delight, the comn3on Atlantic Coast minnow (Fundulus heteroclitus). It was shown that if a salt like magnesium chloride is added to the sea water in which the eggs ofthis fish develop, many of the embroyos and young fish develop a single eye instead of two normal eyes. In some individuals the eye is in the middle of the head, and in others it develops on only one side. But they will always transmit the genes for t~o eves and their offspring will develop the normal two eyes when they undergo development in normal sea water. Genes, as we have seen, will respond 1o the environment only Jn the manner in which that environment enables them to do so. It is therefore not true that because an

ind iv idual ha~ iJ,hcrilcd a ;.'i~cn ,,,el o f genes, he is thercby de~tined to develop certain characters and no others. The kind of characters he will develop will depend upon the kind of environment in which the building blocks of those characters undergo development.

The effect of environmental factors upon the development of the prenatal organism may be considered under the following ten headings : (1) maternal age, (2) maternal parity, (3) maernal dysfunc- tion, (4) maternal sensitization, (5) nutritional effects, (6) infection, (7) drugs, (81 physical agents, (9) emotional factors and (10) other environmental factors. Out of these ten factors we take tip the emotional factors to illustrate the effects of environment o the psychology of the offspring in the uterus.

There is some evidence that emotional disturbances in the mother may affect both the structural and phychological development of the foetus. Emotional changes in the mother in so far as they produce chemical changes within her body may by this means produce excessive quantities of certain chemical substances in the developing embryo that cause disturbances of growth and develop- ment. Again, children born of mothers who have been seriously disturbed emo- tionally at some time during their pregnancy frequently exhibit psychologi- cal and psychosomatic irritability after birth. There is much evidence which strongly suggests that a human being's nervous system may even be permanently sensitized by the action upon it ofexcessive quantities of chemicals released as a consequence of the pregnant mother's emotional disturbances.

EfJects 0I" enviromnent after birth-- When a baby is born he enters what is for him an entirely new environment, the postnatal environment, the environment of the world oulside the uterus. JIIst as

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tJilL:'Stl--IttE IJIt)LOtJICAL INILRi'RI!IAIIL)N t)l 11|t; L'I{I.AII~,L (.iI:NIUb 13/

there are critical developmental periods in the organ-forming stage of the embryo 's development so there are critical develop- mental periods in the personalisation stage of devclopment. Environmental influ- ences in these critical stages may certainly modil3, the grm~ing personality of the child. Let us take an examplc. We are all born ~ith potentialities for spcech. but whethcr we will speak at all is depen- dent entirely upon the kind of exposure we ,cceb, e to speaking human beings. As children, if we only hear a word now and again and are not invotvcd in the necessity of learning thc meaning of things, the probabilities are high that x~e shall ~lcver ,',peak. None ,~1" u', y ' .ould excr

speak unless we heard other people speaking. We possess the general potentialities for speech, but what language we will H+eak dcpend entirely upon the languagc we hear spoken. And so it is with all our behavioral potentialities. How we would behave about them depends largely upon the manncr in which v.c have been taught by the environment around us. Our very senses have to be taught in this way. Our tactile sense, how we see, hear, all these we have to learn. All human beings have to learn to see three- dimensionally and to evaluate the conditions of perspective, How human beings will see, hear, and lalk provided they have the normal potentialities lbr these abilities, is, then, largely a matter of experiences they undergo in the process of learning. The error most comlnonly committed is to idemify the level of mental ability achiexed by the individual with his genetic endowment. "lhe genes had to bc there lil'st. MOZART, I_IiON.^,RDO, NEW-

+ION, DARWIN, EINSIEIN--aI[ these men of outstanding genius were unque,,,tiolm- bly genetically most extraordinarily well endowcd. All they required was a minimal stimulus fi'om the environn'icnt and their genius seemed to unfold itself

almo.',t in spite of" themselves,, there is no doubt that genes and ability are funda- mentally connected, but they are by no ineans the same things. Genes provide the potentialities, and it is the stimulus of the environment that brings tho+e potentialities out. Even geniu:+ may fail to declare itself in the ab,,,cnce of proper environmental stimulus. Gene,,, did not determine MOZARI"S musical abilities. What determined MOZARt'S abilities ~as a combination of rue things : (I) his extraordinary genetic endearment, and (2) the interaction of Ihat genetic endowmcnt ~ith the aplm)lwiate envilon- melt t .

Btlt gClliu5 is air c x t t c m c mdtlii+cbldliOll

r ability which is of ralC occtlrrcnc~2 ill any generation of millions of human bcings. Abilities, at lower level,, of achievement than genius appear to be cven Inore dependent upon cn\ironmental stimulus than genius. Genius seems to require only the very slightest stimulus, and it is off tit a bound. Where human beings tend to receive little or no assistance from their ~n~ironment in the development o f their potentialities, there will bc little or

no development of them. Where indivi- duals tend to receive a mediocre or moderate kind of assistance fi'om flleir environlnetlt, their potentialities will tend to be corrc~pondingly developed. Where human bcings rcccive a high degrcc of assistance from their cnvir,~mncnt, their potentialities will lend to bc most highly realized.

The particular social environment of the individual, his cultural environment, adds it fourth dimension to what the individual inherits, a new zone of adapta- tion. Since the individual acquires most of his merltal traits from his cultural conditiouing, and since this is solidly accomplished by the time he reaches his seventh or eighth year. he thereaftercarries his cultural ;.trld his behavioral environ-

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13~ INDIAN JOURNAL OF PfcDIA1R|,,.S V(~L. 31 NO. 190

meat around with him wherever hc goes. His cultural conditioning virtually obscures ~,hatcver role the genes may have played in the development of his mental trails. It is this that makes it so difficult to discover wh~t m~y have been done to genes and ~hat to cultural conditioning.

By culture thc anthropologist means Ihe man-made par t of the environment, cxerything that the individual learns-- the way of life of a people, its pots, pans, institutions, mores, beliefs, religion, social organisation, educational practices, ~a)'s of bringing up children, occupations, and the things that are expected of human bcings at their different ages, grades, and in their different statuses and roles. Numero'as studies have shown that culture al~d abilit~ are closely connected with one another. For example, persons living in different cuhures of ten differ as a group in the development of certain abilities from the members of other cultural groups. Similarly, the difl'erent social classes within the same culture will often exhibit differences in ability.

The effect of natural selection in man has probably been to render genotypic differences in personality traits, ia mental traits, i~ genetic potentialities, between individual and particularly bet\veen ethnic groups, relatively unimportant compared to man's phenotypic plasticity. Man's genotype is such that it makes it possible for him to develop the widest range of behaxioral adjustments and adaptations. Instead of having his respozlses gentically

fixed a~ iu other ammal ,~pecies, man is the species that invents its own responses, and it is out of this unique ability to invent, to improvise his responses that his cultures are born. The history of the English or any other European nation is totally different from that of the Australian aborigines not becausc of different genes but because of continuous cultural contacts with numerous other peoples over several thousand years ia an area of the world where the cross-fertilizatioll of ideas, customs and ~ays of life ha.~ bt:en of thc most stimulating kind.

Wherever and whenever individuals arc given the opportunities to realize their potentialities, we lind that human1 beings everywhere can do what other human beings anywhere have done. Of course there are great variatio~s in the distribution of abilities in cvery popula- tion, but the range of these differences is far greater within each ethnic group thau between different ethnic groups.

We have thus attempted to summarize a few basic facts about the interaction between heredity and environment in relation to man, in general, and the creative genius in particular.

References

I. MoN I-AGU, AstrL~:,,'.--Humall Heredity, Mentor Boo~ : The New American Library. New York, J#r

2, I.'fs~-.',,Ko, T. D.--Ncw Devel,.~pmcnts in the Science of the Biological Species.