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Homogeneous children

Posted by ESC on March 16, 2004

In Reply to: Homogeneous children posted by ole tex on March 16, 2004

: : What is meant by nthe term homogeneous children.
: : Thank You

: I'll take a crack at this one, speaking as a genealogist who studies family structure a lot. I have heard this term applied to families often, but rarely to children alone. By definition a homogeneous family would be-
: {(A,B):ab1,ab2,ab3}
: which would describe a family of parents A&B along with three children begotten by their own efforts. Anything else would be classified as hetrogeneous.
: If you apply the term to children alone it would describe not only the above, but also-
: {():ab1,ab2,ab3}
: {(A):ab1,ab2,ab3}
: {(A,C):ab1,ab2,ab3}
: You will also have to consider the following situation-
: {(A,C):ab1}.and.{(B,D):ab2,ab3}
: and the subsequent:
: {(A,C):ab1,ac1}.and.{(B,D):ab2,ab3,bd1}
: two obviously hetrogeneous families but containing the subset {ab1,ab2,ab3} of homogeneous children. The children have not changed, regardless of what the parents do. Arrrrgh!
: I will mention, but not pursue, many studies that have shown 5 to 10 percent of children born have no genetic relationship to the father listed on the birth certificate. Also, sooner or later, someone will manage to clone a human child, fulfilling the ultimate egotist's dream. Ponder that one. My head hurts. I'll think about this tomorrow.

I'm not going to think about it at all. I have decided it (like lots of things) is a problem for my children's generation to figure out.

From Merriam-Webster online, homogeneous:
1 : of the same or a similar kind or nature
2 : of uniform structure or composition throughout. A culturally homogeneous neighborhood.

Regarding "homogeneous children," I think the meaning depends on the context. In addition to the genealogical meaning previously mentioned, I submit a couple of other possible meanings.

A group of first-graders would be homogeneous children -- same age, size, etc.

Then I found a race-related meaning online. "...interracial marriage which was suppose to produce a race of homogenous children with both black and white characteristics."

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