ANT202H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Probability Distribution, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, Genetic Drift
Document Summary
~ 60 kya; anatomically modern humans expanded to occupy the planet. Inhabit areas with wide range of ecological and climatic conditions. Attempts to classify humans by physical characteristics. Superficial physical traits (i. e skin colour, hair colour) 5 racial types (mongolian, american, caucasian, malayan, ethiopian) Rejected african inferiority (used to justify slavery) Race discrete unit used to explain continuous variation (cid:498)biological variation is real; the order we impose on this variation by using the concept of race is not(cid:499) Cannot explain human variation in any meaningful way. Genetic drift and genetic flow affect whole genome. Natural selection affects only subset of loci. Variation at level of major geographic regions. Understanding population history using as many traits possible. Evolutionary factors shaping variation in specific traits. Humans much less diverse than great apes. Low diversity due to the severe bottleneck in evolutionary past. Estimate degree of genetic variation within and between populations.
