FW: Skull Wars (was Nature vs Nurture and Blank Slate)

[Karen Watters Cole]

Quite by chance I found these two science articles today that correspond to our Nature vs Nurture debate and Pinker’s new book, The Blank Slate.  These new developments are interesting to a history buff like myself, but may be old news to the real scientists in the group.  – Karen Watters Cole   A NEW LOOK AT OLD DATA MAY DISCREDIT A THEORY ON RACE @ http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/08/science/social/08HEAD.html Excerpt:  “Two physical anthropologists have reanalyzed data gathered by Franz Boas, a founder of American anthropology, and report that he erred in saying environment influenced human head shape.  Boas's data, the two scientists say, show almost no such effect.   The reanalysis bears on whether craniometrics, the measurement of skull shape, can validly identify ethnic origin.  As such, it may prompt a re-evaluation of the definition of human races and of ancient skulls like that of Kennewick Man.   "I have used Boas's study to fight what I guess could be considered racist approaches to anthropology," said Dr. David Thomas, curator of anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.  "I have to say I am shocked at the findings."   Forensic anthropologists believe that by taking some 90 measurements of a skull they can correctly assign its owner's continent of origin — broadly speaking, its race, though many anthropologists prefer not to use that term — with 80 percent accuracy.   Opponents of the technique, who cite Boas's data, say the technique is useless, in part because environmental influences, like nutrition or the chewiness of food, would overwhelm genetic effects.”   FOR SALE: A DNA TEST TO MEASURE RACIAL MIX @ http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/01/health/genetics/01RACE.html Excerpt: “Dr. Frudakis said the test was based on a set of genetic markers known as SNP's, pronounced "snips," that were mostly drawn from public databases.  SNP's are sites along the human genome where alternative chemical letters of DNA, the genetic material, are commonly found, with some people having one letter, some another.   Working with Dr. Mark Shriver of Pennsylvania State University, DNAPrint Genomics has developed SNP's that are diagnostic of a person's continent of origin, Dr. Frudakis said.  These five geographical areas correspond to the major human population groups or races, those of "Native American, East Asian, South Asian, European, sub-Saharan African, etc.," according to the company's Web site.   The SNP's were validated by testing them against a panel of people from the five continental areas, and the accuracy of the overall test has been checked by comparing results with known pedigrees, Dr. Frudakis said.   All human populations have the same set of genes and much the same set of variant forms of these genes, inherited from the predecessor species.  But small differences, mostly a shift in the frequency of common genetic variations, have built up over time in different populations around the world.  Study of these differences has come to the fore largely as a byproduct of two other lines of inquiry made possible by the Human Genome Project.  One is the ability to track ancient migrations out of Africa from the different pattern of DNA changes that have accumulated among populations in each continent breeding in substantial isolation from one another.”   Outgoing Mail Scanned by NAV 2002