biology of race Flashcards
what does the concept of race imply?
if races are a myth: there should be little human variation and follows a bell curve
if races are real: there should be lots of human variation and discrete groups appear
what does race mean in biology?
Informal taxonomic division below the subspecies - rarely used
why skin colour?
‘White’ men were doing the categorizing
what is skin?
Largest organ: 10-15 Ibs
what are the skin layers called?
inner layer: dermis
outer layer: epidermis
what layer of skin is your skin colour located?
epidermis
how many genes code for skin colour?
> 120
what does melanin do?
defends body against UV radiation
what were the 5 races described?
Caucasians, mongolians, africans, malays, and americans
why did race ranking exist and why were whites at the top?
Helped justify colonial expansion and slavery
what is polygenist?
human races are from different origins
what did Darwin say about race?
he believed in monogenist views (one species)
ardent abolitionist
believed european caulture was more advanced than indigenous culture
how did homo sapiens sapiens develop today?
2 hypotheses:
1. multi-regionalism hypothesis: African origin but developed separately around the world long ago
2. recently out of africa hypothesis: develop in africa and then spread around the world in the recent past
what did the 2 seperate lines diverged from homo erectus in africa lead to?
neanderthals and denisovans,
and modern humans
after denisovans and neanderthals split where did they go?
neanderthals to europe and denisovans to asia
how many types of humans lived together in Eurasia?
3: Neanderthals, denisovans, and erectus
where did modern humans emerge again into who became the ancestors of the rest of humanity?
Europe and Asia
in what order did the last 3 types of humans go extinct?
erectus, neanderthal, denisovan
what happened to the archaic humans?
they were extinguished and/or inbred with modern humans
how to argue with a racist?
recently out of africa, human genome project, within vs. between group genetic variation, evolution of skin colour
what is the recently out of africa theory?
humans diverged 70,000 BP and spread (yesterday in geological terms)
white supremacist response is that 70,000 years is enough time for whites to diverge from other ‘races’
what is the human genome project?
all humans are >99% genetically identical
racist response: those small differences in key genes seperate humans into distinct groups
what is the within vs. between group genetic variation?
if races are real >25% of genetic variability is between populations
33% of variability is between the sexes
67% is within the sexes
what is the evolution of skin colour response?
racist response: skin colour is an important marker of genetic difference and boundary
skin colour evolves independently of race
