Fiona Adams wrote:

> I'm sorry, but you are incorrect. Ethnicity is in fact cultural. However,
> race is a socially constructed term and there is no shred of scientific
> evidence that there are any other races other than human. There is
> absolutely no biological, and by that I mean evolutionary, etc., difference
> between human beings. You may choose to use "race" how you wish, but you are
> in the minority if you claim that there are biological differences among
> humans.

Biologically speaking, humans are not a race--they are a species (as far
as I know, race has always been a sub-category of species during the
time it's been used biologically).  Contrary to the statement that there
is "absolutely no biological, and by that I mean evolutionary, etc.,
difference between human beings", there obviously are.  If one can
maintain there are no genetical differences between, for example, a
population of South African Bushmen (substitute your preferred
terminology) and, say, Icelandic populations, one would seem to be using
a different genetics than that used by biologists.  It's arguably
counter productive to maintain there are no differences, since it merely
gives one more opportunity for racists to snigger about political
correctness.

That being said, there is considerable evidence to indicate that the
differences among human populations are local evolutionary adaptations
that are, as far as "racism" goes, insignificant. Indeed, humans seem to
be less variable genetically than most mammalian species, and the "core"
of being human is in the overwhelming genetic similarity shared among
all populations. "Race" as commonly used is cultural in the sense that
people have seized upon a few, prominent characteristics (such as skin
color, hair texture, etc.) to form definitions of race that have little
to do with biological reality.

Denying that race is meaningless except as a cultural construct is one
thing; denying that various populations differ somewhat due to
evolutionary processes is something else.

Cheers,

Art Harris
--
Laboratory for Environmental Biology, Centennial Museum
University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX  79968-0915
phone (915)747-6985; fax (915)747-5808; [log in to unmask]
http://www.utep.edu/leb    http://nasa.utep.edu/chih/chihdes.htm

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