(07-18-2013, 04:53 PM)Callipygian Wrote: *Truncated*
TL;DR: In-breeding is not as bad as everyone has been led to believe. In the long-term, it actually improves the genetic fitness of a population. Socio-economic factors in human society offset the short-term costs.
Doesn't that assume that the individuals present have the where-with-all to spot, and actively root out recessive alleles? Because I would argue that the Miqo'te have no idea how to do that, and cannot effectively map say...congenital forms of cancer.
Then, I mean...the long term effects of inbreeding have been documented to be largely influenced by societal factors (literacy, wealth, etc.), so a tribal society like the Miqo'te in a pre-industrial world like Eorzea would have a ton working against it in terms of successfully weeding out weak genes.
All they (the Miqo'te) have to do in this particular case is win a duel. Doesn't say how. You'd assume that the most fit individuals would get to breed, but as we can see that's not always the case, now is it?
The bit about Esuna eliminating contagious disease is kind of off as well. It's a videogame ability. If it were actually a cure-all beyond status effects, the world of Eorzea would have no sickness, poisonings, or even a need for the Alchemist's guild. Clearly, these factors continue to exist in the world, so we can assume that Esuna is either not readily available, and therefore is not a viable vector to totally discount an entire tribe being ravaged by the Miqo'te flu, or it is in fact not a cure-all, and is ineffective at eradicating naturally occurring diseases, being specifically for afflictions of the "magic" sort.
This thread is now about science.
