(07-18-2013, 05:17 PM)Swift Wrote: Thank you! I was hoping someone with some biology know-how would show up, lol.It's not so much immunity as it is a matter of prevalence. If you breed out a disease like cystic fibrosis, it no longer exists, thus isn't a concern. There will always be a few carriers, but you may bump that number down from an average individual carrying seven deadly alleles to an average individual carrying one or two.
So, I was on the right track (at least) to suggest that perhaps the Miqo'te had some sort of "immunity" to the defects typically associated with in-breeding. Considering this has been their life style for who-knows-how-long, it sounds very plausible to suggest that they've significantly removed the bad genes from their entire race, if not eliminated it all-together.
"Immunity" brings up a good point, though. One of the other major costs when it comes to in-breeding is communicable diseases. In-breeding reduces diversity. If a strain of a disease like the flu comes along that is especially infectious, it will spread through the population in no time because everyone's immune systems will be essentially the same. This is a major threat posed today to our crops and livestock as in-breeding is an essential technique in the development of domesticated species. As stated earlier, it's the fastest way to increase the prevalence of a desired trait like increased size or crop yield.
In Eorzea, virulent diseases become a non-issue due to the prevalence of Esuna. This further swings the argument in favor of in-breeding being not terribly detrimental to Miqo'te society.
If this sort of science interests you, I would suggest reading The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature by Matt Ridley. He makes the entire concept very readable, even if you aren't a biologist.
I'm a tinker! Tinkerer? Hrm.... I'm an artificer! - Myxie Tryxle | Impressions and Memories
