Regarding your first point, you're probably right, and I likely overstepped my ideas and/or didn't express them completely. I also had another consideration that I didn't express in my first comment. The Africans that ended up as slaves in America were the ones who had been defeated in tribal battles. On average, I would say they would likely be less intelligent than those who win battles or avoid them altogether.
Regarding intelligence of agriculture vs. hunting, I would argue that hunting may require more skill, but in agriculture, intelligence (and creativity) has a greater reward (than in hunting). That is, it is very difficult to automate tasks in hunting (beyond things like inventing guns, which they obviously hadn't done), but agriculture has been steadily getting more efficient with creative inventions from iron tools to plows to the cotton gin and so on. Hunters today still use very similar methods to ancient times. For that reason, I believe that an agricultural society selects more strongly for creative thinking, while a hunting society selects for physical skill and quick thinking. The creativity required to change society in order to accommodate more crowded conditions also undoubtedly requires intelligence. Anyways, enough of that...
I do agree with you that there is likely a small amount of bias in tests like these, and your example is a good one. Another I have heard was about a question which involved the "knowledge" that lemons are yellow. In Latin America, however, lemons are more often green, obviously giving Latin Americans a disadvantage on that particular test question.
Regarding intelligence of agriculture vs. hunting, I would argue that hunting may require more skill, but in agriculture, intelligence (and creativity) has a greater reward (than in hunting). That is, it is very difficult to automate tasks in hunting (beyond things like inventing guns, which they obviously hadn't done), but agriculture has been steadily getting more efficient with creative inventions from iron tools to plows to the cotton gin and so on. Hunters today still use very similar methods to ancient times. For that reason, I believe that an agricultural society selects more strongly for creative thinking, while a hunting society selects for physical skill and quick thinking. The creativity required to change society in order to accommodate more crowded conditions also undoubtedly requires intelligence. Anyways, enough of that...
I do agree with you that there is likely a small amount of bias in tests like these, and your example is a good one. Another I have heard was about a question which involved the "knowledge" that lemons are yellow. In Latin America, however, lemons are more often green, obviously giving Latin Americans a disadvantage on that particular test question.