The Cold Winters Theory states that, when humans are put in an extreme or inhospitable environmental, they develop higher intelligence in order to survive. The colder the winters, the more selection for intelligence. As a result, Chinese and Europeans are more selected for intelligence than Amerindians, Africans, and Polynesians.

But this isn’t a really good theory, since Europe and China are not the coldest places on Earth. If the Cold Winters Theory was correct, Canadian aboriginals (Inuit) and Siberian aboriginals would be the smartest people on Earth. This isn’t true. Additionally, southern China is quite tropical, humid, and hot.

Furthermore, the foundation of European civilization is found in the Balkans (pre-Indo-European), not in Scandinavia. If Cold Winters was absolutely correct, we would expect that Scandinavia would develop writing prior to Greece.

There must be something besides/outside of Cold Winters which selects for human intelligence.

If you look at this map, you can see that there are six areas of light green:

1. North America,

2. Europe, a thin strip from Turkey to Iran (“fertile crescent”)

3. a thin strip from Kashmir to Bangladesh (Nepal)

4. China

5. A thin strip in South America (southern cone)

6. A thin strip in Australia

Out of these 6 areas, only four of them had extensive agricultural exploitation: Europe, the Middle East, Nepal, and China. From these four areas we get four sources of early civilization: the pre-IE Balkan-Vinca civilization, the Middle East, India, and China.

What can we conclude from this? Well, it’s not the temperature or the humidity itself which selects for intelligence. Rather, it is the socio-economic process of agriculture which seems to select for intelligence.

So no, it’s not “cold winters,” it’s arable land. Land that was optimal for farming selected for intelligence.

source: Sebastian Jensenx.com/jensenjeans/statu…