From: Chris Taylor (chris.taylor@ebi.ac.uk)
Date: Thu 02 Feb 2006 - 13:29:50 GMT
Hiya. Here's a fairly standard thing that I don't have time to
research. It has long been my supposition from observing other
parents' offsprings' birthdays that most people conceive in
winter and have kids the following autumn. This mini study backs
that up as I'm sure other stuff does:
http://math.hope.edu/swanson/statlabs/proj1_sample.html
So #1, my background 'control' question; in the tropics is there
an effect (I'd hope not)?
And #2, the really interesting one; what about
Australia/S.Africa/NZ? To what extent does the demonstrable
cultural synchronisation with the northern climate survive the
move; does the environment (seasons reversed) have an immediate
and total impact? What was the delay from first colonisation to
shift in the peak month for births? An immediate effect would
seem likely.
Factoring in the analysis from the tropics [most likely a flat
distribution..?] for say Darwin one might expect less overall
effect, maybe more persistence of the old synchrony with boreal
seaonality. Whereas Hobart would provide a real driver for the
shift to the opposite cycle as they have proper winters.
Given that the 'meme' to pass the time by doing something fun
with a close one appears as a result of spending lots of time
inside and bored rather than there being some sort of obviously
marked tradition of conception ("Son/daughter, if you're gonna
do it, be a good boy/girl and do it in winter to make your
mother and me proud", or God said to X, "Liest though with thy
woman when the snow lieth thickest on the ground", which puzzled
X some as it didn't really snow so much in Judea...[issue]).
The real _killer_ would be if there was still a peak in
August-October in the temperate/subarctic southern hemisphere.
Ignoring Lupercales (a Roman fertility fest* in Feb that was
transformed into Valentine's day, both licencing a lot of
shagging basically) there is little in the way of a tradition of
conceiving in late winter, so how hidden would this hand have to
be..?
Cheers, Chris.
* Something to do with a she-goat(!), some Clintonesque sex and
Romulus and Remus...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
chris.taylor@ebi.ac.uk
http://psidev.sf.net/
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