Jason Mejia

Dr. Teresa Potter

Anth-1020

4, August 2017

Concept of Race

Race has been described as a group of people who perceive themselves and are

perceived by others as possessing distinctive hereditary trace., by author Tracey E. Ore.

According to Frank Miele he went to an anthropology library at the University of California-

Berkeley when he found that, contrary to popular belief, through their examination of the art and

literature of non-European civilizations shows that race was not constructed out of nowhere by

Europeans in the Age of Exploration to justify dispossessing and oppressing people of color. He

explains that civilizations of Egypt, Greece, Rome India and China and even Islamic civilizations

show that from AD 700 to 1400 shows that they classified various peoples in broad racial

groups. Based on characteristics of skin color, hair form and head shape just like Europeans did.

Another characteristic that group the groups they encountered was behavior.

In a biological sense, race tries to be traced back to humans common ancestor, the

chimpanzee. In modern times, modern biological concepts of race can be implemented

objectively with molecular genetic data through hypothesis- testing. This Is used to see if

biological races exist in human and in out closest evolutionary relative. Unlike human

chimpanzees are subdivided into races, adaptive traits like skin color have been used to

categorize human races but not by adaptive traits. The reasoning is that there is not criteria for

choosing one adaptive trait over another to define a race. Humans have a lot of genetic diversity,
but to an article called Biological races in human its more due to individuality and uniqueness

of a person and not race.

In anthropology, its been studied that all living humans belong to a single species, the

Homo Sapiens, and we share a common descent. All living populations in parts of the earths

geographic areas have evolved form the ancestral group over the same amount of time. This has

been referred to as Biological Variation. Its said that there is great genetic diversity and in pure

races, of genetically homogenous populations, do not exist in human species today. In different

geographic areas of the world, there are obvious physical differences between populations.

Differences are inherited and others like body size and shape are influenced by way of life and

nutrition and other aspects of environment.

Its popular view that in human nature they must categorize thinks to make reality more

real, using it as a coping mechanism. For example, categorizing the color of skin to but your self

above or belittle someone on a hierarchy. They will group everyone of that skin color and the

that you will now their status and your status. Tasha Spawn author of The Concept of Race.

Believes that race is a dynamic human category. She explains that it is not the same anywhere at

any given time due to the different constructs that have been set by society, and the translation of

that construct. As an individual, whether on purpose or not when you look at another person,

especially those of different skin color or different culture you will of some sort put this

individual some sort of stereotype.

The construction of society Is based on the recipe according to Tasha Spawn, for race

throughout societys history. She states that in America, race started out as a decision of whether

people of darker skin were animals or not. She claims at one point even in science, such as
biology would argue that due to biological factors, some races were superior to others by their

color of skin.

Race and its concepts are defined in two different ways. In a social perspective and in a

biological perspective. Biologically, science use race to trace out lineage back to our ancestors,

to trace back to our origins and how human came about in evolution. In a social perspective race

has been shaped and shifted through the centuries, to what society deemed correct in their time.

In my personal beliefs race is still used a construct of superiority, issued like racism and

stereotyping still exist in todays world and I believe they wont be changing anytime soon.

Biologically speaking we might differences in genetics, but like biologist have explained thats

due to our diversity and through the changes and adaptations of our environment. In the end we

are one species and color of skin, or being culturally different should label you as a different type

of human being.
 References

http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.libprox1.slcc.edu/plink?key=10.83.10.81_8000_1456403799&site

=edslive&scope=site&type=0&mode=bool&lang=en&cli0=FT1&clv0=Y&cli1=DISCIPLIN

E&clv1=&bquery=race%3a+the+reality+of+human+differences