Chapter 13: Contemplating Modern Human Diversity

Question 1

race

Answer 1

in general biology, a category often considered synonymous with “subspecies,” into which individuals can be placed based on distinctive physiological, morphological, and/or ecological features; it is now generally held that the complexity of human biobehavioural variation cannot be usefully understood in terms of race

Question 2

folk taxonomies

Answer 2

informal albeit consensual classifications of the world used by ordinary people in everyday life

Question 3

monogenists

Answer 3

18th- and 19th- century scholars who believed that all human populations (“races”) could be traced to a single origin (mono + genesis), specifically related to Judeo-Christian accounts of human rights; the diversity of human races were ascribed to exposure to different climates following humanity’s fall from grace as related in the Old Testament

Question 4

polygenesis

Answer 4

in contrast to monogenesis, polygenesis maintains that different human races were created as separate species; note that both monogenesis and polygenesis assign primacy to European people

Question 5

epicanthic fold

Answer 5

a fold of skin of the upper eyelid adjacent to the bridge of the nose covering the medial canthus (corner) of the eye, commonly present in peoples of central and eastern Asian ancestry

Question 6

polytypic

Answer 6

“many types”; refers to the existence of geographic variation within species

Question 7

polymorphic

Answer 7

refers to the existence of alternative forms of a trait (e.g., eye colour in humans is polymorphic)

Question 8

local breeding populations

Answer 8

groups of individuals within geographically dispersed species who find mates in a local region rather than from farther afield

Question 9

cline

Answer 9

a continuous gradient observed in geographical space over which the frequency of expression of a character changes across contiguous populations

Question 10

human leukocyte antigens (HLAs)

Answer 10

HLAs are the chief component of the major histocompatibility complex and regulate the human immune response

Question 11

multilocus analysis

Answer 11

a method for characterizing genetic diversity at multiple sites, or loci, within the genome

Question 12

feeble-mindedness

Answer 12

an artificial construct that suggested that defects of personality, intellect, ethnicity, or behaviour were inborn, and so could be selected against by policies restricting reproduction; sterilization was often the method of choice

Question 13

negative eugenics

Answer 13

programs or policies designed to prevent successful reproduction in targeted groups (via conception or sterilization)

Question 14

positive eugenics

Answer 14

programs or policies advocating reproduction among the favoured sectors of society, typically those of the dominant social and economic classes

Question 15

monozygotic (MZ)

Answer 15

twins derived from a single zygote; commonly called “identical twins,” they result from splitting of the fertilized egg very early in pregnancy (at the blastocyst stage), and so possess the same genome

Question 16

additive effect

Answer 16

in quantitative genetics, refers to a genetic contribution to a trait that either increases or decreases (if the effect has a “negative value”) the degree of expression

Question 17

cultural intelligence

Answer 17

the capacity of humans to acquire early in life complex skills for negotiating social situations

Question 18

pathophysiology

Answer 18

a disturbance of normal body function as a result of disease, genetic disorder, or impaired development

Question 19

placebo

Answer 19

a medical intervention (drug or procedure) that has no demonstrable therapeutic effect, often used in clinical trials