It is my opinion that the most successful civilized nations of Europe, namely, Britain, France, the Netherlands, and Germany, (and to a lesser degree, Northern Italy, Spain, Scandinavia, and Russia) have been so successful, not necessarily due to early adoption of manorialism, but rather due to this balance of genetic input from both genetically pacified farmers, who were accustomed to a settled, relatively peaceful existence, as well as the more mobile, “barbaric” in Nietzschean terms, Indo-Europeans who were descended primarily from hunters and fishers who had recently adopted a highly competitive pastoralist lifestyle on the Pontic steppe (see David W. Anthony’s The Horse, the Wheel, and Language). The aristocracies of early Greece and Rome would have also possessed this ideal mix of genetically inherited traits, being descended from Indo-European invaders who married local Neolithic farmers, introducing the early Greek and Italic languages into the Mediterranean basin. This aristocracy is practically gone now, however, through an overwhelming genetic absorption into the conquered Neolithic farmer populace, who were ultimately descended primarily from early Near-Eastern agriculturalists.
The end result of the ideal genetic admixture which I have described is a people which are both civilized and politically organized, and also are also willing to innovate, take risks (like exploring the New World), and challenge old notions of thought, as was done in the scientific revolution.
Probably not so much married the women but took the women of the conquered as slaves or concubines.
Meh. Based on what?
Something you folks should realize is that I, the author of this article, am only an undergraduate majoring in biochemistry. This article was intended to spark an idea regarding how genetics and natural selection might influence the rise of civilization, not to put forth a finely tuned theory. It’s basically a hypothesis at best. I recommend you read the whole thing if you wish to see the context. And yes, Lu An Li is correct, women were probably taken concubines in many cases.
Genetics do matter. Tribal cultures that place a value on inbreeding do not typically flourish or develop into dynamic societies. No degree required for that observation.
What is the luck-chaos-random plague-natural catastrophe factor? Even warfare factor.
Population depth counts most for a civilization to succeed.