ANTHR101 Lecture Notes - Primatology, Prehensility
24 Apr 2013
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Why the concept of biological races is rejected. There is no natural way to classify humans into biologically meaningful categories. There are no pure races because all populations have been in contact (interbreeding) with others during their history and t hey are constantly changing. There is more genetic variation within groups than between groups. (we are more similar on the inside than on the outside) Phenotype similarities make up a very small fraction of similarities in the human race - genotype similarities are far far more! There is very little genetic diversity in the human species as they haven"t been around that long. All humans have a common ancestor of chimpanzees. Races are no more than cultural constructions based on arbitrary characteristics. Cultural construct: something that people have made up. In different cultures they have different conceptions of groupings (d ifferent cultures group people using different physical features) Biological characteristics are not linked with abilities or behaviours.
