The Origins of Arcticism Theory: A Fateful Encounter in Peru

An outsider's unintentional foray into science

I have never thought I’d be involved in science. I assumed you needed a lab coat and years of certification. My strange and accidental journey into science began on a hike in the Andean mountains of Peru when I was 17.

It was my first solo trip to South America, and after arriving in Cuzco I noticed some of the local native people had an uncanny resemblance to East Asians- the appearance, the tense, braced, hardy gait, the reservedness and introversion, the stoicism, the general vibe. I thought nothing of it other than how convenient that I might blend in and have higher rapport with the locals. Fate had other plans for me.

Some East Asian presenting Peruvian Natives. Left pic by Rosemary Sheel

On a hike through the local Andean mountains, I passed by a native Quechua woman that looked remarkably like my own mother (Manchu Chinese), who made eye contact with me with an intensely familiar gaze that I have known all my life. It felt like a sharp jolt of electricity ran through my body- imagine meeting your own mother or her identical twin in a distant “exotic” foreign land, the last place I’d expect emotional familiarity. I almost expected her to start chiding me to clean my room. That brief moment shocked me to my core, and retains clearer in my memory than the epic sights of Machu Picchu, wild sloths, giant tarantulas, and pink dolphins in the Amazon.

Native Quechuan woman (not the exact one I met).

Later at an internet cafe, I searched for the history of South American indigenous peoples, and found some discussions of Bering Strait theory which postulated pre-Holocene Siberian origins of East Asians and Native Americans that migrated to continental Americas through the Bering Strait. Ah, so that’s why we look so much alike, they’re mostly Asian! I then proceeded to think nothing of it for several years.

While finishing up my undergrad in an unrelated field, I recreationally studied my ethnic history and became acquainted with the various theories and arguments from Chinese, Japanese, and Korean scholars in their century long debates of modernization, issues with traditional East Asian culture, and perspectives from Western scholars on East Asia. I read through forums of East Asian diaspora who similarly condemned Confucius/farming/Bushido/etc for all their ails associated with East Asian upbringing and culture- excessive emotional repression, self-suppression, collectivist conformity, image obsession, risk aversion, brutal work cultures, stunted creativity, high anxiety, social sensitivity, etc. I mulled over these casual theories and couldn’t conclude anything about it.

While daydreaming in class one day, my thoughts drifted back to that native Peruvian woman. So, we are originally from Siberia eh? I tried to recall what I knew about Siberia- apparently it was so harsh and cold that Stalin sent his enemies there to freeze to death. Utilizing my experiences retrieving milk and browsing veggies at the local Costco refrigerated goods room, I tried to imagine myself in ancient Siberia- hunched together with my tribe, inward facing, tense and alert, gritting my teeth as I lumber forward in a blizzard, bracing against the arctic winds, overwhelmed by the environment. All of a sudden, I had an epiphany- an unshakable gut feeling that my own personality, and that generally of other East Asians, was a perfect fit for our ancestral Siberian environment, which could explain why that native Peruvian lady vibed so familiarly, despite diverging 20,000 years ago and not having Confucianism or rice farming. I gasped wide eyed in shock and startled my classmate. I then proceeded to do nothing with this hypothesis for several years.

During COVID lockdowns, I was bored and decided to watch some documentaries on Siberia and the Arctic, and indeed much like the native Peruvian woman, the indigenous Inuit and Siberians had high resemblance in looks, mannerisms, gait, and vibes as East Asians. I needed to know more, so I read Jean Briggs’ famous Inuit ethnography “Never in Anger”, Richard Nelson’s “Hunters of the Northern Ice”, other books by polar explorer Robert Peary, and was surprised to find even more noted idiosyncratic similarities to East Asian- unassertiveness, shyness, indirectness, emotional suppression, high endurance, high visuospatial skills, extreme caution/risk aversion, social learning/imitation capacity, ideological pragmatism, habits of no hugs/physical affection even among family, etc.

Inuit girl 1904

I then wondered, is this mere coincidence, or do extreme cold/polar environments cause this in people? I recalled Russia had gas workers in the Arctic regions and tried to look up papers on it. It led me down a rabbit hole of discovering entire troves of scientific literature from various nations that had polar programs, with tons of data on polar personnel psychology, most conveniently refined into personnel selection criteria that shows which traits are the most desirable in candidates for polar work or expeditions. From my brief initial readings, there indeed appeared to be a parsimonious match between core East Asian, Inuit, and ideal polar personnel psychological traits. They appear to be naturally selected and ecologically induced traits from ancestral Arctic Siberian environments that may have been passed down genetically/epigenetically/culturally or from a mix of these mechanisms.

I was profoundly excited by the emerging hope that if I could truly make sense of this topic, there is a good chance that I could find solutions to the persistent sociocultural problems that have historically stunted East Asian civilization, and hopefully unlock unprecedented levels of flourishing.

I then tried applying these same methods of inquiry into other societies in different types of harsher climates, such as tropical regions. Could adaptations or byproducts from their current and ancestrally hot environments be negatively affecting them as well? My initial readings of literature about the psychological effects of heat stress in workers and athletes shows heat stress raises likelihood of social conflict, lowers social cohesion, degrades emotional regulation, increases impulsivity, impairs cognition, and decreases labor productivity. That distinct suite of effects seems to be a parsimonious fit to the sociocultural problems historically facing tropical region societies and might also negatively affect their diaspora (my paper on this topic in review, out soon). I was thus doubly excited that my explorations may also help the Global South overcome their longstanding sociocultural issues that hamper development. Perhaps a solution may be as simple as mass installation of air conditioning (Lee Kuan Yew’s thesis), or medicines that alleviate the possible (retained?) neurological side effects of heat stress.

I was overjoyed by the promises of this method of inquiry and my early findings. However, to actually explore my Arctic Siberia hypothesis on a rigorous enough level to publish a scientific paper, I had the daunting task of systematically learning enough Inuit psychology, polar personnel psychology, East Asian psychology to write literature reviews of all 3 fields, and learn enough evolutionary psychology, behavioral ecology, cultural psychology, paleoclimate, and archaeogenetics to formulate the theoretical framework for modeling the psychological effects of ancient migrations. For someone with an unrelated bachelors degree, it felt like too much at once, and I thought I should get into a PhD program and slowly chew through it over 5 years with the help of mentors and advisors.

However, it was during peak '“Woke” in the West, during the COVID era, and there was a blackout in the english speaking world on any academic exploration of these topics. Any slight suggestions that there were impactful psychological (or even biological) differences between ethnic groups or sexes, that was not solely the product of arbitrary socialization, was met with fury from liberals. Many scientists and scholars were slandered, attacked verbally and on occasion physically, deplatformed, demonetized, fired from their jobs, and ostracized from society. Thus my prospects of getting into a decent program with this research proposal was bleak, even though it ultimately strives for and aligns with the classical liberal ideals of global human flourishing.

Nonetheless, I enthusiastically applied to various PhD programs, but was unceremoniously rejected. So, I had no choice but to figure it out alone.

The rejections infuriated me, and I became madly determined to just learn it all myself. I would directly publish my findings in a peer reviewed scientific journal, and skip the PhD. I cashed out my work savings and bought myself a year or two of bare minimum runway time. With the invaluable help of Sci-Hub, I started building my collection of papers and systematically read through them. I’d aim to read and note a paper in the morning, 2 in the afternoon, and 1 at night. At this rate, I grinded through nearly 100 papers a month, and consolidated notes on the weekend. I was fully locked in, monk-mode, for over a year. Only reading, writing, hitting the gym, and thinking. Eventually my messy manuscript was ready and I sent it out to journals, and the initial reactions were promising yet highly polarized. From one of the OG founders of evolutionary psychology:

“It was simultaneously the best paper I have read in 40 years, and the worst paper I have read in 40 years.”

Derp. Eventually after nearly another year of peer review, revision, refinement, it was finally published by an APA journal Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences last week.

My paper can now be read open access at https://doi.org/10.1037/ebs0000373 .

If there are any scholars with strong opinions on the paper, I welcome you to write a formal academic commentary. The paper’s journal is accepting commentaries with a deadline of June 30, 2025, double spaced, max 15 pages including references. Contact me for editor’s email. Or comment whenever in another journal of your choice.

In many ways I’m glad I was rejected from the PhD programs. It forced me, an undercredentialed outsider, to dive right into the big leagues of science, and directly test my mettle as a researcher in the trial by fire of double-blind peer reviews. I have since been contacted by eminent scholars in these fields, ones I have cited, with conversations and coauthor requests for future studies. I am already working on new papers applying the TEE model to other ancestries and climatic regions, amongst other explorations. I might just stick with this mode of independent research, or ideally find a remote research fellowship at a uni/lab that isn’t stifled by ideological censorship.

I never would’ve have guessed I’d arrive in the sciences this way.

I have now come full circle from that fateful day 15 years ago in the Peruvian mountains. A stranger’s familiar glance changed my life, and may eventually alter the course of human history.