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Research Paper- The Concept of Race

Christopher Neily

Anthropology 1020

April 22, 2017

SLCC-Spring Semester
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Every day we see race and deal with the social classifications and

implications that come with it. But, what is race and its concept? Accordingly, race as

usually regarded, is a "biological grouping within the human species, distinguished or

classified according to genetically transmitted differences" (Encyclopedia Britannica,

15th Edition, 1989). Do we grow up thinking about race as anything but, I think not.

We grow up and think about race as the different skin tones each person has and in

turn, judge by those tones. Let us talk about the social, biological and cultural views

on race and how they are different from eachother.

The definition of race is, the classification of humans into groups based on

physical traits, ancestry, genetics, or social relations, or the relations between them.

(Wikipedia) If you look back through history, you will find the father of Evolution,

Charles Darwin. He defined the concept of race as a variety of subspecies, a

partially isolated breeding population that shows some genetic differences from

closely related populations yet is still capable of interbreeding with the others. This is

significant in the fact that its completely accurate.

When I think of race, I automatically think of the different variations of skin

tone among the human race. I am sure this is the most common way people think of

race. Although as we know, race is much more complex. Biologically race is defined

as, geographically patterned of differences in physical traits among humans.

(Teresa Potter ANTH 1020) From a social perspective, we normally use a

classification system to define race and use it to categorize humans into large

populations. Those are: genetics, language, religion, ethnicity, anatomy and culture.

All the social and physical aspects that help us define race.
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As stated, "The concept of race is a social and cultural construction. Race

simply cannot be tested or proven scientifically,'' this is from the policy statement

issued by the American Anthropological Association. Race is a socially defined

concept that is used to categorize people according to their physical characteristics.

This is how most early and even present humans, categorized the human race.

Clearly, from a scientific point of view, most people misuse the term "race."

While biological classification is a new concept, the classifying of humanity

into groups is nothing new. Some of our earliest records of racial classification can

be dated back to about 1,700 BC in the pyramid of the Egyptian king. (Omoto

1997) This simple classification of four distinct groups was so simple, it was copied

and repeated many times by different groups. In the early half of the 20th century

many different ideas were proposed. One of the most rigid versions was created by

the German anthropologist, Egon Freiherr von Eickstedt. He divided the Homo

sapiens into three subspecies, 38, varieties and 37 sub-varieties (Omoto 1997).

Charles Darwin thought that human variability showed no discernible adaptive

advantages, and so explained diverse skin colors and hair textures by his theory of

sexual selection. Sexual selection is, Natural selection through traits of the

opposite sex. (Teresa Potter ANTH 1020) Darwin believed that different ideas of

beauty, through selection of mates, led to different appearances among diverse

populations.
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Recent genetic studies have shown that there happens to be more variation

within geographic populations than there is between them. Recent studies have also

shown that mitochondrial DNA, traced through generations of worldwide sample of

females, indicate that the divergence and spread of human populations from Africa

was comparatively recent, occurring just a few hundred thousand years ago.

In conclusion, we treat people a certain way based on what race we believe

them to be. Race, as we view and understand it much more complex than just visual

and physical classifications. Our biological construct has a lot to do with where

somebody lives. Ofcourse, race does play a very important role in our lives. Race is a

social, biological and culture factor today. No one is less important because their

biological construct is the same. We live in a social and physical world in which we

assign races to people based on how they look. We all use and have race as part of

our personal identity. Maybe if we all knew the real meaning and definition of race,

social classification and diversity would be nonexistent.

Citations

Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th Edition, 1989

OMOTO, Keiichi. "THE RISE AND FALL OF THE BIOLOGICAL CONCEPT OF RACE."

(n.d.): n. pag. Japan Review, 1997. Web. 2017.

"Race (human Categorization)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Apr. 2017. Web. 20 Apr.
2017.