On Mon, 21 Jul 2003 23:37:23 +0000 (UTC), "Malcolm"
 wrote:

>
>"Makoto Taniguchi"  wrote in message
>> I was wondering, I heard that since human beings are 99.9% the same
>> the idea of races within humans is wrong. I heard that if human beings
>> were to have different races our DNAs have to be much more different.
>> Is there any truth to this?
>>
>Compared to chimpanzees, humans show very little genetic variation. This
>probably means that we went through a population bottleneck sometime not too
>long ago in evolutionary terms.
>No gene has been found which occurs in one race exclusively. There is also
>quite a bit of interbreeding. This means that there is currently no genetic
>definition of "an Arab" or "a Polynesian".
>However it is perfectly obvious that humans originating from different parts
>of the world have genetic features in common - no Africans have straight
>blonde hair, no Scandanavians have dark skin etc.
>In the United States, the issue of race is so politicised that it is very
>difficult to find impartial scientific discussion. It looks like you have
>heard something from left-wing groups to the effect that race is purely a
>social construction. This is wrong. On the other hand you don't want to
>believe everything you read from the right about Negroes having lower IQ
>scores, or being r-selected whilst whites are K-selected either.
>
You will always find a lot of nonsense in answers about race (and, no
doubt, in my answer also).  For example, try travelling to Africa.
I'll bet it won't take you long to find a person with straight blonde
hair.  Similarly, go to Scandinavia and I'll bet you will find some
people of color living there!

What is clear is that, if you take specific small groups of people
(like the people that originated in a specific small area of Africa
and the people that originated in a specific area of Scandinavia) you
will find noticeable differences in appearance between them.  On this
basis, we put people into a "black" and a "white"
category.  What is
also clear is that, if you start looking at more and more people in
the entire world, the boundaries quickly break down.  Far too many
people are simply "brown" of different shades.  If you look at the
entire human species (rather than just a few isolated examples), it
turns out to be impossible to divide us into categories of race or
subspecies or whatever other groups that other species fall into.

Yes, it is also true that all humans are far more similar genetics
than most species.  That, too, validates the notion that we are not
subdivided into biological races.  How we are subdivided
sociologically, economically, politically, etc. is quite another
story.
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