MEN WILL BE EXTINCT

 MEN WILL BE EXTINCT 

Y chromosomes are shrinking.

Men may go extinct in the future

A recent study shows that y chromosomes, which determine the gender of a baby, are shrinking in humans.

What does the recent scientific buzz say?

How will the world be without men?

Study reveals that, if this rate of genetic modification continues, men can go extinct within approximately 11 million years.

That means, only female babies will be born.

But will this situation come?

The same situation arose in spiny rats, where y chromosomes had vanished to a greater extent.

Can you imagine what happened next?

Instead of y chromosomes becoming extinct, it developed a new mechanism to determine the maleness in the chromosome.

Humans may follow a similar path, where some other genetic material will be modified to produce male babies and help males not to go extinct from the earth.

However, a time may come in the future when female babies are born more than males.

What could it potentially mean to the economy and the society?

It matters.

A similar bottleneck was experienced in the Neolithic age about 4 to 8k years ago by human society.

There was a linkage between the neolithic y chromosome bottleneck and economic development.

Seriously, yes.

When the hunter-gatherer society transitioned to agriculture, human settlement began.

From there, land expansion and wealth accumulation started.

People used to pass on their wealth to their successors ie. their sons, and daughters.

Too many resources are in too few hands, who have more authority in the society.

Men are physically stronger than women. So, men had chances to pick mates. Single men married more women. They fathered more kids.

So, the dominant clans have passed their genetic pool to the next generation, while weaker clans who have access to no or fewer resources didn't marry or fathered fewer kids.

That means, the less powerful or powerless community has less chance of passing their genes to the future.

When this happened over centuries, the diversity in y chromosomes has reduced.

The wealth accumulation started favoring physically strong males. Gradually, the women became subordinate to men.

A patrilocal society, where women tend to live in the community of men after their marriage starts.

Grandfathers, fathers, sons, and uncles started living close to one another.

The property was made hereditary. This situation snatched women's autonomy.

The gender roles were defined by then.

So, economic development in the Neolithic age had a connection to their y-chromosome bottleneck and patriarchal patronage.

At present, we are experiencing y-chromosome shrinkage. Both are different, but a significant reduction in male genetic diversity is similar to the past.

But what happens, when the population of women increases over the years?

It may be good or bad. But it will redefine gender roles.

The war in Ukraine created a shortage of male workers in the country as males are engaged in warfare.

This paved the way for women to fill in the vacancies, which was previously a men-only job that required physical strength.

Though the ratio of women to men (100:97) is high in Ukraine, external phenomena like the war changed the societal imposition of patriarchy.

So, having more women in the workspace may change the societal view and how they are being treated.

Just as wealth concentration in the Neolithic age shaped the gender roles and limited opportunities for others, more women in the society can change the economic opportunities, power dynamics, etc.

@civillearning