ANP 201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Richard Lewontin, Deciduous Teeth, Phenotypic Plasticity
Document Summary
*it is the culturally prescribed categorization of people. *race is not a biologically meaningful categorization of people. *richard lewontin (1972) showed that humans vary more within-group than between groups. *ehrlich & holm (1964) demonstrated so-called racial traits vary discordantly. *in the 18th century, linnaeus classified human races. *in 1885, blumenbach suggested five races as mutually exclusive distinct groups, based on skull shapes. *yet no study conducted in a satisfactory scientific manner since 20th century support the notion of exclusiveness or distinctness of these or other racial groups (e. g. lewontin) *human biological variation can be traced back to the environments in which people live,or environments in which people"s ancestors lived. *biological traits tend to follow a geographical gradient or cline, usually associated with environmental or geographic transition. Population: from the egg to embryo- organ development, growth in length, organ development and weight gain. Plasticity is an important contributor to human variation. During the early life (prenatal-infancy-childhood) human biology is highly plastic.
