[ SECRET POST #3073 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3073 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.


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02.


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03.
[Master Chef]


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04.
[The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater]


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05.
[Harry Potter]


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06.


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07.
[Star Wars]


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08.
[Frank]


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09.
[Discworld]


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10.
[Baccano!]


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11.
[Cher Lloyd/Kingsman: The Secret Service]


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12.
[Eurovision]


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13.
[Hannah Rutherford (Yogscast)]










Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 032 secrets from Secret Submission Post #439.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 1 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[raspberryrain]

More on yellow: You can sustain a population on a few hundred individuals for a really long time. There's not that much advantage to exogamy, and it can even be dangerous due to exposure to new STD's and mutations that didn't happen in your own population.

Also, the Weasleys definitely demonstrate that the Wizarding subculture is capable of rebuilding its population after a plague or something.

I don't think "bred to extinction" is a serious risk.

[(Anonymous)]

I didn't know about that. That's interesting.

[raspberryrain]

Well, there is some risk, if a mutation happens. Look at Florida panthers (a very low-population subsubspecies of puma concolor). The present-day purebreds (as opposed to those hybridised with other pumas) all have the same visible mutation: a kink in the tail.

It could be bad. But then again, this is a society of magic-users, and they might be able to use arcane technology to avoid some of the problems.

A few hundred individuals, or even better a few thousand, can in theory manage all right for some centuries, long enough for social ideas about "purity" to go in and out of fashion a few times. Over time, they will start to look alike, and the risks increase, but so does the likelihood that new mores evolve in response to those risks.

How many Sentinelese are there? Maybe 300? They've been separated from the rest of humanity for a really long time, and they don't engage with outsiders at present.

The wizarding world is far larger, and far more likely to interbreed anyway.

Maybe I'm being too optimistic, but I figure the wizarding world probably at least has some few millions worldwide, and even in the British Isles enough population to keep going indefinitely.

op

[(Anonymous)]

I didn't mean catastrophic failure of the bloodline, I meant bred to extinction. They aren't the same thing.

If you don't want to read far too much about ducks, skip this.

The real world example I compare it to is New Zealand's Grey duck. For centuries there were only two species there, the Grey and the Paradise. Then the Mallard was introduced. The Mallard duck is bigger, stronger, and more aggressive than the Grey. As a result, Mallard drakes are winning fights against Grey drakes, and as such are breeding more frequently and with Grey ducks. Therefore, pureblood Greys are critically endangered, even though they're not being killed off by anything or inbreeding in a way that could damage the gene pool.

Further compounding this is the fact that Mallards are also capable of breeding with the Paradise ducks. There is concern that the introduction of the mallard may cause the two species, which had coexisted for centuries in their own specific niches, to eventually become one mixed type of joint Paradise/Mallard/Grey parentage.

That's how I see it happening in-universe. Not with all purebloods having dangerous genes, but with outside breeding competition infiltrating the bloodlines. Every Andromeda Black causes not only the loss of her and her offspring to the breeding pool, but also puts further pressure on the remaining purebloods by increasing the competition for mates. This is especially true for wizards, because the purebloods have a fixed number of bloodlines, while the muggleborns draw from outside sources every year.

Re: op

[raspberryrain]

OK, I misunderstood what you meant.

Well, there are real-world tribes that marry entirely in the tribe. I don't think it's completely infeasible.

Re: op

[(Anonymous)]

That's okay. I should have been more clear. It isn't really a common concept, because it requires a contained ecosystem to suddenly have outside breeding competition.

That's a good point, but I think Hogwarts itself would be a stumbling block there. Wizarding children spend their most hormonal formative years separated from the parents with that belief system, and instead mingling with muggle-born peers.

You're smart. I like debating with you. This is fun. You make me consider new viewpoints and teach me new things. Thanks!

Thinking more about this:

[raspberryrain]

I suppose the Mallards had some natural advantages for various reasons. But what if the Greys were magic-users, and both intelligent enough and prejudiced enough to choose to stay with their own kind?

If there's no genetic advantage to being a pureblood, eventually the 'purebloods' will be the 'somewhat purer-bloods,' as more 'less pure blood' percolates through. This happens to real-world human populations too.

But if there is a genetic advantage, or even a strong social advantage, to being a pureblood, then purebloods will tend to marry purebloods for that reason.

And human beings are capable of reproducing far above replacement rate, come to that.

Surely JKR was modelling the purebloods on aristocratic populations that marry other aristocrats for various reasons, or wealthy sorts who marry other wealthy sorts to keep the money in the family. It's a recognisable phenomenon. I suppose if you're trying to make sure all your children inherit magic powers, you have even more incentive to marry within proven magic-user bloodlines.