RACE DIFFERENCES START IN THE WOMB

Race differences start in the womb
r-K Life History Theory

Maturation
Black babies spend the least time in the womb. In America, 51% of Black children have been born by week 39 of pregnancy compared with 33% of White children. In Europe, Black babies of even professional mothers are born earlier than White babies. These Black babies are not born premature. They are born sooner, but biologically they are more mature. The length of pregnancy depends on the genes.

Blacks are born earlier and grow quicker than Whites and Orientals. The three-way race pattern occurs in milestones such as sexual maturity, family stability, crime rates, and population growth. A basic law of biology shows that longer infancy is related to greater brain growth.

<Top picture (Chart 3):
African babies in a sitting position are more able to keep their heads up and backs straight from the start. White babies often need six to eight weeks to do these things (see top picture). It is unlikely that social factors could produce these differences.

These differences in growth rate mean that races tend to differ in the age when they reach milestones such as the end of infancy, the start of puberty, adulthood, and old age. The races also differ in crime rates, parenting style, and even population growth. Orientals fall at one end of the spectrum, Blacks fall at the other end, and Whites fall in between.

Life History Theory
The theory of r-K life histories explains the worldwide three-way pattern in race differences.

>The r-strategy means being very sexually active and having many offspring.
>The K-strategy means having fewer offspring, but with both mother and father giving them more care.

Humans are the most K strategists of all species. Among humans, Orientals follow the most K-strategy, Blacks the most r-strategy, and Whites fall in between.

The previous chapters showed that there are important race differences in brain size, hormone
levels, even bone and tooth development, as well as sexual behavior, aggression, and crime. The three-way pattern in which the races differ - Orientals at one end, Blacks at the other, and Whites in between - is true all around the world. A look at history shows that the race differences we see today were also seen in the past.

Why do the races differ? Of course, poverty, nutrition, and cultural factors are important. But so too are the genes. Culture theory alone cannot explain all the findings.

r-K Life History Theory
Harvard University biologist E.O. Wilson was the first to use the term r-K Life-History Theory.
He used it to explain population change in plants and animals. I have applied it to the human races.  A life-history is a genetically-organized group of traits that have evolved together to meet the trials of life - survival, growth, and reproduction. For our purposes, r is a term in Wilson's equation that  stands for the natural rate of reproduction (the number of offspring). The symbol K stands for the amount of care parents give to insure that their offspring survive. Plants and animals have different life history strategies. Some are more r and others are relatively more K.

The r and K strategists differ in the number of eggs they produce.
The r-strategists are like machine-gunners. They fire so many shots that at least one of them will hit the target. The r strategists produce many eggs and sperm, and mate and give birth often. The K-strategists, on the other hand, are like snipers. They put time and effort into a few carefully placed shots. K-strategists give their offspring a lot of care. They work together in getting food and shelter, help their kin, and have complex social systems. That is why the K-strategists need a more complex nervous system and bigger brain, but produce fewer eggs and sperm.

This basic law of evolution links reproductive strategy to intelligence and brain development. The less complex an animal's brain, the greater its reproductive output.

<Second picture (Chart 10):
The bigger an animal's brain, the longer it takes to reach sexual maturity and the fewer offspring it produces (see second picture from top). Oysters, for example, have a nervous system so simple that they lack a true brain. To offset this they produce 500 million eggs a year. In contrast, chimpanzees have large brains but give birth to one baby about every four years.

The r-type life history involves higher levels of reproduction, while the K-type strategy requires
greater parental care and use of mental attributes. Since larger brains need more time to be built, all the stages of development are also slowed down. The gestation period for some smaller-brained primates (like lemurs and monkeys) is 18 weeks. But for bigger-brained primates (like chimpanzees and gorillas) it is 33 weeks. Some monkeys have their first pregnancy at the age of nine months. Gorillas, which have bigger brains and greater intelligence, have their first pregnancy at ten years.

Monkeys are born with a brain very nearly 100% its adult size, while chimpanzees and gorillas  are born with about 60% of adult brain size. Human babies are born with a brain that is less than 30% of its adult size. For the first few months of life, monkeys are better than apes in most tests of sensory-motor behavior. And infant apes are superior to infant humans on these tasks. The r-K  relationship is true for different species and also applies to humans.

Chart 10 shows where various animals fall on the r-K scale.
Different species are, of course, only relatively r or K. Rabbits are K-strategists compared to fish. But they are r-strategists compared to primates (monkeys, apes, and humans, who are the best K-strategists among mammals). Humans may be the most K species of all. And some humans are better K-strategists than others.

<Bottom left picture (Chart 11)
Chart 11 lists traits typical of r and K reproductive strategies. Every species and every race has a certain life history that we can describe in terms of r-K. The position of each species (or race) on the r-K scale shows the strategy that gave its ancestors the best chance to survive in their habitat.

<Bottom right picture (chart 12)
Chart 12 shows the life phases and gestation times (conception to birth) for six different primates. They show a scale of increasing K, from lemur to macaque, to gibbon, to chimp, to early humans, to modern humans. Each step in the scale means that the species puts more time and energy into caring for its young and insuring their survival. Each step also means not having as many offspring. Note the different sizes of each of the phases for the different species in Chart 12. Only humans have the postreproductive (i.e., after menopause) phase.

In different species of plants and animals we find a consistent pattern between these two variables - intelligence and reproductive rate. The number of offspring, the time between births, the amount of care parents give, infant mortality, speed of maturity, life span, even social organization, altruism, and brain size all fit together like pieces of a puzzle. The complete puzzle forms a picture biologists call the r-K Life History Strategy.

The differences in r-K strategies that exist even in primates are important. A female lemur is an r- strategist for a primate. She produces her first offspring at nine months and has a life expectancy of only 15 years. A female gorilla is a K-strategist. She has her first pregnancy at about age 10 years and can expect to live to the age of 40. The lemur may mature, have a number of young, and die before the gorilla has her first baby.

Conclusion
How do the three races fall along the r-K scale?
Humans are the most K species of all. Among humans, Orientals are the most K, Blacks the most r, and Whites fall in between. r-K Life History Theory, a basic principle of modern evolutionary biology, explains the three-way pattern of differences in brain size, IQ, and behavior, described earlier. Every species of plant or animal can be placed on the r-K scale.
>The r end of the scale means having more offspring, maturing earlier, having smaller brains and providing less parental care.
>The K end of the scale means having fewer offspring, maturing later, having larger brains, and providing more parental care.
http://psychology.uwo.ca/faculty/rushtonpdfs/Race_Evolution_Behavior.pdf