Race
E.A. Hooton defined race has a "great division of mankind, the member of which, though individually varying, are characterized as a group by a certain combination of morphological and metrical features which have been derived from their common descent." Race is a term sometimes used by biologists to describe sub-species. Sub-species are usually identified by the isolation of the sub-species as a group from breeding with other. Races or sub-species in general exhibit considerable differences in gene frequencies on a number of locuses. As humans spread throughout the world, their adaptations to diverse climate and other living conditions resulted in a profusion of complexions, colors, and shapes. Genetic mutations added distinct characteristics to the people of this globe. In this sense, race is a reality as being a group with inherited physical characteristics that distinguish it from another group. However, the danger in attempting to tie race and biology is not only that individuals are never identical within any group, but that the physical traits used for such purposes may not even be biological in origin. We are trained to see "race" as something deeply and irrevocably encoded in the person, setting us off from one ano
Prejudice and racism are certainly realities, but they are not rooted in biological differences between people. Trying to define a race brings people to make certain references such as "whites" being more intelligent than "blacks. " There are many, but three extremely important problems with the concept of race: the arbitrary selection of traits to define races, the inability to adequately describe within species variation through the use of racial categories, and the repeated independent evolution of so called racial characteristics in populations with no genetic relationship. In biological terms, no group of humans has been isolated long enough to make it very different from others, thus we can understand systems of racial classification as reflecting social reality rather than biological patterning. ), but how do you classify race? Do we go by morphological features or perhaps serological? Both would be valid but would change classifications of race. Instead, they believe that humans should be thought of as groups of people based on their differences. Racial definitions should be clues to environmental rather than genetic causes of disease. " To most ordinary people, the concept of "race" is a reality because they believe that what they see is true and no one can tell them otherwise. People rely more on beliefs of what each race should be like instead of on facts, which is why some races believe that they are "better than other races. But there is no intrinsic, irreducible quality of "race. Human beings are truly members of a single race, Homo sapiens, and every human being is in fact distantly related to every other human being. So we can't always tell by looking. Furthermore, other cultures construct racial categories different than Americans do. " As the textbook points out, "people are ethnocentric, and they are inclined to think that their own 'race' is superior to others. " Some members of the various races more closely resemble individuals of another race than members of their own.
Common topics in this essay:
EA Hooton,
concept race,
labeled race,
faulty categorizing people,
race reality,
categorizing people,
sense race,
faulty categorizing,
race myth,
biological differences,
racial classification,
physical characteristics,
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Acceptance Essays
