RACE, BIOLOGY, AND HUMAN
DIVERISTY
Is “race” a myth?
Questions about “Seeing Daylight”
 Are the Tlingit a
race?
 If not, to what race
do they belong?
 What do we mean
when we the word
“race?”
Race is a biological concept
 Race is a
geographically (hence,
reproductively)
isolated subdivision of
a species, or
subspecies.
 If reproductive
isolation lasts long
enough, then a new
species is produced.
Do human “races” exist?
 Human populations have not been
reproductively isolated long enough
to have developed into biological
races.
 Early human classification into races
have been dependent solely on the
evaluation of phenotype (manifest
biology—appearance, skin color, hair
texture, etc.).
The “Standard” Geographical
Groupings of Races





Negroid or African—Africa.
Caucasoid—Eurasia.
Mongoloid—Asia and Americas.
Australoid—Australia and Oceania.
Each group is based on differences in
appearance (skin color, hair texture,
body form, etc.)
Geographic “types” are ambiguous
 Only 6% of human genes account for
the phenotypical differences seen
between “races.”
 Greater overall variation exists within
each “racial” grouping than between
such groups.
 The phenotypic traits that do exist
are largely adaptive in nature.
Distribution of Type “O” blood
How does the previous map
compare with the Biasutti Skin
Color Map?
 Look at Map 9 in your atlas. If
human races were as distinct as
many have assumed, should
shouldn’t there be some correlation
between skin color and blood type?
 Skin color is a function of melanin
production in the dermis layer of the
skin. Skin coloring is adaptive.
Skin pigmentation, Vitamin D, and
survival
 Vitamin D not common in nature; the
human body synthesizes it in the skin with
the help of ultraviolet radiation.
 Vitamin D is necessary for directing the
body’s use of calcium.
 Too much Vitamin D is toxic; too little will
result in debilitating bone disease.
 Skin pigmentation levels monitors Vitamin
D production.
Dark skin protects skin from
excessive ultraviolet radiation
 Northern populations, with little
sunlight, require minimal
pigmentation to produce Vitamin D.
 Tropical populations require
protection from too much ultraviolet
radiation and too much Vitamin D.
 Light skinned people are maladapted
for tropical areas.
Summary about human variation
 Human variation essential for survival
of the species.
 Some differences attributed to “races”
the result of biological adaptive
response to climate to certain regions
of the world.
 Humans groups have never been
isolated long enough to form true
biological races.
Social Constructions of Race
 Social races are groups assumed to have
true biological differences based on
culturally arbitrary rather than scientific
assessment.
 Examples: “blacks” and “whites.” What is a
“black race?” A “white race?”
 Racial categorization in American culture:
A child of mixed parents (one black and one
white) is socially labeled as black, even
though genetically, the child could just as
easily be considered white (genotype
50/50).
Rule of Hypodescent
 Descent is the assignment of social identity
based on ancestory.
 Hypodescent is the American cultural
practice of placing the children of parents
representing different groups (“mixed
marriages”) in the minority status.
 Example: Louisiana law states that anyone
with 1/32nd black ancestry is legally black.
The Pervasiveness of Hypodescent
 The flap over Miss
Saigon for the New
York production:
Jonathan Pryce, a
“caucasian” actor,
could not play the
role of a
French/Vietnamese
pimp. The actor
needed to be
“Asian.”
Race and the U.S. Census
 Race tracked in the
U.S. since 1790, since
slaves counted as 3/5th
of a white person and
Indians were not
taxed.
 New census has a
place for considering
multiple racial
affiliations.
 Canada: visible
minorities vs. “race”
Hypodescent in Japan
 “Pure” Japanese 90% of the
population.
 Japanese say Koreans “smell
different.”
 Burakumin, although genetically
indistinguishable from other
Japanese, are considered unclean,
and segregated into separate
communities.
Other approaches toward “race”:
Brazil
 Brazilians use up to 500 different
racial labels.
 Class status, though, is based on skin
color.
 Dark skin suggests hard labor, but
“money lightens.”
 Brazil lacks racial aversion.
 In spite of racial admixture,
hypodescent never developed.
“Race” and Intelligence
 19th century arguments for racial
superiority have survived to some degree
(Nazi Germany’s pure “Aryan race.”).
Class-based societies perpetuate the
myths, in part to fuel segregation and
domination.
 Poverty=minority=unintelligent has been
reinforced by unscientific testing.
 Culture and environment appear to be the
factors at work, not innate intellectual
potential.
Conclusions
 A great level of human biological diversity
exists, although more variation occurs
within geographical groups than between.
 Most social definitions of race are based on
phenotype, although some may be
mythological.
 Innate intelligence varies from individual to
individual, irrespective of ancestry. Most
testing has cultural bias.