Mono Amine Genocidase

The aboriginal population of New Zealand that Europeans first encountered were the Maori people. Instantly the Maori were recognized as a warrior people by the Europeans with their elaborate weapons and war dances. Another perfect example of the noble savage.

Today this view was reinforced by genetic research that claimed that Maori men are twice as likely as men of European backgrounds to have the gene known as the warrior gene, mono amine oxidase. Some New Zealand politicians have seized upon this new research as evidence that violence in contemporary Maori communities stems from genetic factors.

Of course an argument could be made, and to be fair, researchers have raised this issue, that social factors including poverty, malnutrition and discrimination play a more important part in explaining the violence experienced by the Maori community in New Zealand or as it is known in the aboriginal community, Aotearoa.

It's ironic that European "explorers" and, shortly afterwards, colonialists, who were arguably the most aggressive, systematically murderous and destructive, were less likely to carry the so-called warrior gene. Despite the pervasive notion that Europeans and other northern peoples possess a superior culture to all others one should not forget the systematic conquest of most of the world by Europeans. This is not the distant past and its effects are felt even today despite common perceptions.

I patiently await research that reveals that men of European backgrounds are more likely to carry the genocidal gene or the structural violence gene or the xenophobic gene. But don't expect funding made available for such controversial research. It's best left in place, justifying what we already "know" about our conquered minorities.