Guide 11/23

Traditionally “race” as the primary term

But, what does race actually mean?

-- There are various meanings in popular usage of the word race:

--Species

--Nationality

--Religious identity

--Ethnic/Cultural group

--The term race has been used synonymously in biology with sub-species & to designate geographic variation in a species

--Today, race is generally not used as a taxonomic term

-Homo sapiens afer(Africans)

-- H.s. americanus (American Indians)

-- H.s. asiaticus (Asians)

--H.s.europaeus(Europeans)

-- H.s. ferus (WildMen)

--H.s.monstrous

␣ Caucasoid

␣ Negroid

␣ Mongoloid

␣ AmericanIndian

␣ Australoid

He looked at the size and shape of the head: Emphasis on Measurement & Empirical

Investigation of Differences

  -- Anthropometry & Craniometry

e.g., Cephalic Index thought to be a precise scientific technique for classifying humans

Emphasized Fixity of Differences and Hierarchy of Worth (Ranking)

-- Context of colonialism (Scientific racism)

Cephalic Index (maximum cranial breadth by maximum cranial lengthx100) -- way of looking at brain size -- they used to look at brain size to determine what "race" people belonged to

-- Eugenics movement in the Europe and the US -- Strongest in Germany (the Holocaust)

Nazi pseudoscience and idea of racial purity

-at least 60,000 Americans were sterilized against their will

-psuedoscience techniques were used to ensure Aryan Ancestry -- people were tested to determine if they truly were of Aryan descent

-Race should not be used because of misuse/abuse of the term in the past

-Major problems with the concept of race as applied to describing human biological variation (the amount of genetic variation between groups is exceeded by the variation that exists within groups -- race is an outdated creation of the human mind that attempts to simplify biological complexity by organizing it into categories)

--Biological (phenotypes and outward appearance) vs. social concepts of race

-He aided in the study of evolutionary origins --focused on primates and human origins

-Saw evolutionary theory as unifying framework for studying human biological variation

-Typology “population thinking” -- this means that categories are distinct and based on stereotypes or ideals that comprise a specific set of traits --typologies are misleading because they group many individuals who don't conform to all aspects of a particular type

- saw the Importance of variation

Different traits lead to different groupings (thus, choice of traits is arbitrary)

-- e.g.,skincolor vs. lactose tolerance vs. ABO blood group vs. metabolism

--The environment impacts the expression of most polygenic traits

(developmental plasticity)

-Most outward traits are polygenic (with continuous variation)

--No simple divisions

--Most of these traits are influenced by multiple genes (polygenic traits) and are also influenced by environmental factors

--Not geographically distinct