Dear all, This is just a preliminary notice that the first 2010 meeting of the Bay Area Biosystematists will take place Tuesday evening, January 19th at the Carnegie Institution for Science on the campus of Stanford University. This webpage has a helpful map: http://carnegiedpb.stanford.edu/content/directions
There will be a panel discussion on the biology and philosophy of race in humans. We have two exciting talks lined up: Quayshawn Spencer of the Philosophy Department of the University of San Francisco (currently visiting at M.I.T.) will present on "A New Approach for Evaluating Scientific Classification and an Application to Cladistic Race Theory" Pete Richerson of the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at UC Davis will speak on "Race versus ethnicity". Here is a short description: Most neighboring populations of humans are very closely related genetically because neighboring groups usually intermarry at appreciable rates. Cultural differences, by contrast, arise quickly and are maintained even in the face of substantial migration by cultural-evolutionary mechanisms that I will describe. Biosystematists might think of humans as a vast adaptive radiation maintained by cultural "pseudo-speciation." More detailed social/dinner plans will go out in a few days. See you all there, Joel Velasco
