277CHAPTER 12
Modern Human Diversity:
Race and Racism
Chapter Preview
Is the Biological Concept of Race Useful
for Studying Physical Variation in the
Human Species?
No. Biologically defined, “race” refers to subspecies, and no sub-
species exist within modern Homo sapiens. The vast majority of
biological variation within our species occurs within populations
rather than among them. Furthermore, the differences that do
exist among populations occur in gradations from one neighbor-
ing population to another without sharp breaks. For these and
other reasons, anthropologists have actively worked to expose the
fallacy of race as a biological concept while at the same time ac-
knowledging the existence of race as a cultural construct.
What Is the History of Human Classification?
European scholars of the 18th through early 20th centuries classified humans into a series
of subspecies based on geographic location and phenotypic features such as skin color,
body size, head shape, and hair texture. Some scholars went a step farther and placed these
types into a hierarchical framework in which the “white” race was
considered to be superior to other races. With time, these efforts
to classify humans into higher and lower forms were discredited
for being racist and unscientific.
Is Studying Differences in Intelligence
among Populations Valid?
These studies are flawed in many ways. First, studies at-
tempting to document biological differences generally
involve comparisons among races—a category that for hu-
mans is biologically false. Second, intelligence is a multi-
faceted phenomenon, and cultures vary in terms of which
aspects of intelligence they value. Third, most instruments
(tests) used to measure intelligence are biased toward
the dominant culture of the people who created the test.
Finally, as a complex set of traits, intelligence cannot be
linked to discrete evolutionary forces acting in a particu-
lar environment.What Are the Causes
of Physical Variability?
Physical variability is a product of underlying genetic vari-
ation as it is expressed in a particular environment. Some
physical traits are controlled by single genes, with varia-
tion present in alternate forms of the gene (alleles). Many
physical characteristics like height, weight, or skin color
are controlled by multiple genes and are thus expressed
continuously, meaning this variation cannot be divided
into discrete categories. Because evolutionary forces such
as natural selection and random drift act on each physi-
cal trait independently, human biological variation can be
studied only “one trait at a time.”