How Political Repression Stifled the Nascent Foundations of Heredity Research before Mendel in Central European Sheep Breeding Societies
How Political Repression Stifled the Nascent Foundations of Heredity Research before Mendel in Central European Sheep Breeding Societies
复制标题
政治镇压如何扼杀孟德尔之前中欧绵羊育种协会遗传研究的新生基础
作者：
P. Poczai;J. Santiago;J. Sekerák;A. Szabó
世纪是一个经济、社会和政治发生巨大变化的时代。现代化的欧洲人民开始要求更多的自由，这反过来又推动了正在进行的关于自然哲学的讨论。这促使中欧的绵羊饲养者讨论自然界最深层次的秘密：性状从一代传到另一代。当对“自然的遗传规律”的特殊认识声称自然平等时，遗传的学术问题被哲学和政治深深地包围了。意识到同样的继承规则可以适用于所有生物，这让当时的专制政权和分裂的社会感到恐惧。许多人不准备将宗教问题与新奇的自然现象分开。思想开放的育种者将他们的知识立即付诸实践，通过近亲繁殖和人工选择创造具有更好羊毛性状的绵羊。然而，这被认为是对自然的人为改变，违背了当时的文化和宗教规范。自由主义的尝试引起了秘密警察的注意，因此，在大约1820年至1850年期间，学者的愿望受到政治意愿的压制。
The nineteenth century was a time of great economic, social, and political change. The population of a modernizing Europe began demanding more freedom, which in turn propelled the ongoing discussion on the philosophy of nature. This spurred on Central European sheep breeders to debate the deepest secrets of nature: the transmission of traits from one generation to another. Scholarly questions of heredity were profoundly entwined with philosophy and politics when particular awareness of “the genetic laws of nature” claimed natural equality. The realization that the same rules of inheritance may apply to all living beings frightened both the absolutist political power and the divided society of the day. Many were not prepared to separate religious questions from novel natural phenomena. Open-minded breeders put their knowledge into practice right away to create sheep with better wool traits through inbreeding and artificial selection. This was viewed, however, as the artificial modification of nature operating against the cultural and religious norms of the day. Liberal attempts caught the attention of the secret police and, consequently, the aspirations of scholars were suppressed by political will during approximately 1820–1850.