ANTH 215 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Biological Determinism, Eugenics, Railways Act 1921

• School: WWU, Western
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTH 215
• Professor: Allyson Rollins

Document Summary

Causes of genetic variation: historical views on human variation. Biological determinism- belief that cultural and biological variations are inherited in the same way. What is inherited is genes to learn culture. Culture, race, etc. is not inherited biologically. Eugenics- (cid:862)ra(cid:272)e i(cid:373)pro(cid:448)e(cid:373)e(cid:374)t(cid:863) through for(cid:272)es sterilizatio(cid:374) of (cid:373)e(cid:373)(cid:271)ers of so(cid:373)e groups and encouraged reproduction among others: the concept of race. Since the 1600s, race has been used to refer to culturally defined groups. Race is used as a biological term, but has enormous social significance. In any racial group, there will be individuals who fall into the normal range of variation for another group for one or several characteristics: concept of race: polytypic. A polytypic species is composed of local populations that differ in the expression of one or more traits. We all have skin color, face shape etc. but it is unique to all of us. All contemporary humans are members of the same polytypic species, homo sapiens: phenotypic variation.