Ancient DNA selection narratives

The article asserts that DNA from historical remains indicates recent selection affecting cognition, time preference, violence propensity, and rule-following, and cites a Roman-era decline in cognitive ability detectable in DNA—precisely the kind of population-specific, behavior-linked selection claims that are reshaping public debates about what ancient DNA can validly infer.

The article claims ancient DNA shows evolution of mental traits into recorded history and a tenfold rise of highly intelligent individuals in England (1000–1850).

The article leverages a new Nature demographic model of Papuan ancestry (bottlenecks, Denisovan introgression, LD structure) to rationalize outlier polygenic scores and then link these to hypothesized Holocene selection on intelligence, a direct example of using ancient/population genetics to assert recent, population-specific selection on cognition.

The piece purports to analyze 3,640 ancient genomes to draw conclusions about cognitive genetics over time—an explicit use of ancient DNA to infer recent, population-level selection on cognition, a core example of this narrative.

By asserting independent evolution of 'modern traits' in Asia and emphasizing population-specific differences in cognition/behavior, the piece exemplifies how evolutionary claims about recent selection are mobilized to argue for group trait differences with socio-political implications.

Extends the broader debate about recent evolution or emergence of cognitive/behavioral traits by proposing a non-genetic, linguistic proxy (function-word convergence) for a late spread of self-awareness, paralleling genetic claims about recent selection on cognition.