Rod Hetzel wrote:
> In class today we were talking about culture, ethnicity, race, and the
> genetic theory of evolution. Two questions came up that I could use
> some help with.
>
> 1. My students had a hard time understanding the following statement in
> our marriage and family textbook: "From a strictly scientific
> perspective, then, so-called racial differences do not exist. Skin
> color, for example, can be defined only on a continuum, just as the
> colors black and white exist on a continuum, with gray in the middle and
> no clear-cut distinctions in between." I was able to help them
> understand how cultural and ethnic identity are more useful and
> informative concepts than race, but many students had a hard time
> understanding how racial characteristics "do not exist." One of my
> students, who is an honors biology major specializing in genetics,
> stated that our marriage and family textbook contradicts what she has
> learned in her genetics courses. Can anyone offer me some specific
> suggestions for making these concepts more clear to my students?
Well, the text may be saying that racial _groups_ are not hard and fast
dichotomies. Maybe they are saying that _pure_ races do not exist (whatever
pure means - probably a straw man). But racial differences exist. Certain
genes are more likely in certain groups than another - e.g. sickle cell in
people of African descent, Tay-Sachs in people of Eastern European Jewish,
short genes amongst Pygmy, short-leg genes amongst Inuit and some Oriental,
blonde hair in Northern Europe, and so forth.
Also, these differences should perpetuate because of assortative mating.
We don't marry random selections from the population of humans. People tend
to marry others similiar, which will perpetuate whatever genetic differences
that exist. So I think the book either means there are no pure races (OK),
or, they are simply wrong. That's my best shot.
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John W. Kulig [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Department of Psychology http://oz.plymouth.edu/~kulig
Plymouth State College tel: (603) 535-2468
Plymouth NH USA 03264 fax: (603) 535-2412
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"One word of truth outweighs the whole world."
Russian proverb
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