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Clovis Merovingian

It's kind of interesting that you're open to the possibility that it could be 50/50. It's just that for you it's the maximum in terms of cultural influence, while I would see it as the minimum. The problem with both evolution psychology and sociology is that these field of research attempt to describe something too complicated for the hypothetical deductive method, which is why inter subjectivity sneaks in to fill in the gaps.

Yes, the renaissance started in Italy, or Tuscany to be more exact, and was, in my view, triggered by the black plague and the inability of the church to deal with it. So, instead, one saw the first attempts to understand the world through Empiricism rather than religious faith.

I do not know how much the gene pool in Tuscany had been influence by the immigration of German tribes, but I presume the population were still mainly Mediterranean. And the suggestion that Mediterraneans would need Germanic genes to become interested in philosophy, art, literature, and engineering, seems odd given that the renaissance was itself highly influenced by Greek philosophy and art, and the ancient Greeks were Mediterraneans. I have heard claims that the ancient Greeks had northern genes, but one may only look at the facial features of their statues, to see that they look more like modern day Mediterraneans than any other ethnicity.

The people in Tuscany and Northern Italy are not predominately Mediterranean, they belong to a classification of people called Alpines and are genetically distinct from Southern Italians and more similar to Swiss people or Southern Germans. Round faces, fair skin, chestnut brown or blonde hair, short limbs, and the like. Below is a picture of a crowd of Tuscans.



You are right to say that the Greeks were Mediterranean and started Western Civilization, and that's what I'm talking about when I say that genetics are expressed differently depending on the cultural environment they're in. The Greeks were right there on the Mediterranean sea which connected most of the early civilizations and had contact with the Middle East while the Northern European tribes were cut off from it by Southern European peoples. Ideas and innovations were traded over that sea. Greeks are not dumb, they are smart by world standards, just on average less intelligent than Northern Europeans but smarter than Middle Easterners (who are also not "dumb" by world standards). They had the advantage of geography and being more naturally endowed than most peoples and in the end, it was the Romans that conquered and United the whole of the Mediterranean under one empire and dominated the rest of their neighbors in said Mediterranean. 

But perhaps your main point was that it was North Western Europe that took it a step further. So while the UK was in the backwater compared to Italy in the 14th century, it rose up to become the main power after defeating the Spanish fleet in the 17th century, and started the industrial revolution in the late 18th century. I'm not sure what this proves. Each culture, nation, and civilization has its heyday before it runs out of motivation and loses faith in itself. Same thing happened to the UK after WW2. It would be unheard of if Italy had been the leading nation of Europe from the 14th century and up to this day. Many people in the UK thought for a long time that because the UK got a head start technologically, it would continue to lead technologically forever, and were surprised when smaller nations like Sweden were able to make cars as good as the British ones.

Yes, but the UK is still one of the higher tier countries of Europe in positive indicators if not the highest by some measurements. 

I would also put at least as much emphasis on being the pioneers and being the ones who, as you put it, who "ran with it". Japan and China has learned from the West, and especially Japan has been very skilled in perfectionising modern technology. All my digital cameras are Japanese, as well as all but one of my lenses, are made in Japan. -And the one that's not is made in South-Korea. Even my Zeiss lens, which is of German brand, is made in Japan. If Asia ends up dominating the future, then I'm sure they would claim that while the West might have started the technological age, it was the Asian countries that ran with it.

This supports my point rather than refutes it. Northeast Asians have the highest IQ's of any population group in the world. Of course they're going to run with it in the same fashion Northwestern Europeans did with the innovations of the Mediterranean peoples and the Mediterranean peoples did with the Middle Easterners in a chain of higher IQ peoples running with and improving upon the innovations of lower IQ civilizations. Remember also that China has for most of its history been the most powerful state on earth probably until the rise of the West so this is nothing new for them.

One thing I believe to observe in this world is the effect climate has on people. Canadians are more phlegmatic than Americans, and particularly Southern Americans. Scandinavians are more phlegmatic than South Europeans. If you talk to South Europeans living in Scandinavia, they will also come across as more phlegmatic than Southern Europeans living in, for example, Italy. It's not difficult for me, living in a cold country, to understand why we don't have anything resembling Brazilian carnivals here, even during the summer when it would be practically possible. Cold climate calms people down.

Yes.

And as for how culture affects people. East Asians living in the West are often referred to by other East Asians as "bananas" (yellow on the outside, white on the inside). A Japanese woman having lived her entire life in Norway will come across very differently from one embedded in the Japanese kawaii culture.

And these North East Asian bananas, at least in the United States are far more educated than any group in the country, they are wealthier than any group in the country, they have more stable family lives than every group in the country, commit far less crime than any other group in the country, and perform far better on nearly every positive indicator you can think of than any other group in the country because fundamentally they are still Northeast Asians living in a Western country.

To sum up, I think genetics accounts for 20-50% of human behavior, while I'm guessing you think it's more like 50-80%. Science won't help us decide who's right, for the whole topic is way too complicated for science to do much but to rule out the most ideologically inspired views.