Sahelanthropus tchadensis

Sahelanthropus tchadensis - reconstructed skull - picture by Didier Descouens

 a. Homo sapiens b. Pan troglodytes c. Australopithecus africanus d. Reconstruction


Zollikofer, C, Ponce de Leon, M, Lieberman, D., Guy, F., Pilbeam, D., ... Brunet, M.  (2005).  Virtual Cranial Reconstruction of Sahelanthropus tchadensis. Nature, 434, 755-759 Retrieved on January 30, 2012 doi:10.1038/nature03397.

The Social Significance of Race

The SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF RACE

Racism is a doctrine of superiority  by which one group justifies the dehumanization of others based on their distinctive physical characteristics.

• Is a problem because it is about discriminatory ideas, values and attitudes - interpersonal and social, not scientific.
• Political problem used to mobilize support, demonize opponents and eliminate rivals.

Race and Behavior - to date, no behavioral characteristic is scientifically attributable to one "race".  It all has to do with cultural practices.  High crime rates, alcoholism and drug use among certain groups can be explained by culture rather than biology.  People who are defined by poverty and lack of opportunity tend to abandon traditional paths to success because their way is blocked.

• Scandinavians - "cold"
• Americans - "rude"
• Yanomami Indians - "fierce" - Brazil and Venzuelan Native Rain Forest tribes

I'm sure you can think of other stereotypes of cultures and groups.  Try the sports quiz.

Race and Intelligence - There is no connection between race and intelligence.
What is meant by intelligence?  How do you measure it?  Are IQ tests flawed?  In what way?  Are there different types of intelligence?  How would someone from an outside culture score on an American IQ test?  How is it inherited?  (Polygenics)  IQ Lab

There is a highly controversial book called The Bell Curve that argues that the difference in IQ scores between Americans of African, Asian and European descent is unchangeable because it's determined by genetic factors.
Problems with The Bell Curve:

1. It's information violates statistical rules
2. The authors don't use contradictory studies
3. Use flawed studies that support their theories
4. Reasoning = Genes are inherited independently of one another, so genes for intelligence are not inherited w/genes for skin color.
5. Culture shapes the environment.

Extra Credit:  Research The Bell Curve and the surrounding controversy.   Write a one-page essay describing the controversy.  Cite your sources.

Questions to answer for classwork:

1.  Humans are challenged to find ways to embrace and comprehend the range of biological diversity without succumbing to oversimplification, discrimination, and even bloodshed fueled by superficial differences.  How do anthropological approaches to race contribute to meeting this challenge?

2.  From an evolutionary perspective, why is human biological diversity a key component of our collective identity as a species?

3.  How do you define the concept of intelligence?  Do you think scientists will ever be able to discover the genetic basis of intelligence?

Challenging Racial Hierarcies

Anthropology, the Human Challenge: Text

By the early 20th century, some scholars began to challenge false racial hierarchies based on pseudoscientific notions of IQ or head size or skin color.  

Franz Boas (1858-1942) - Father of Modern Anthropology
Ashley Montagu (1905-1999) - student of Boas wrote Man's Most Dangerous Myth:  The Fallacy of Race

Race As Biology - ?

Race - defined as a subspecies or a population of a species differing geographically, morphologically or genetically.

But... There are at least THREE FLAWS to defining race with biology.

1. Arbitrary - How many differences does it take to make a race?  Skin color /= Blood groups
2. No Race has solitary possession of any gene or genes - Frequencies can be different, but the alleles are present everywhere.  The barriers are only cultural.
3. Differences w/in "racial populations" are wider than between populations

There is a COMBINING OF BIOLOGICAL INTO THE CULTURAL CATEGORY OF RACE

While the biological race category is not applicable to human variation, cultures most certainly use the idea of race to categorize people.  They just confuse the two and in doing so, infuse a false sense of scientific correctness into their categories to make them seem more scientific and objective.

Latin Americans classify into the following categories, but the criteria used is apparently what they wear, the language they speak, and where they live and even what kind of shoes they wear!

• Indio (Indian)
• Mestizo (Mixed)
• Ladino (Spanish)

The US. Census Bureau classifies

• White
• Black
• American Indian
• Alaskan
• Asian
• Pacific Islander
• Hawaiian
• Hipanic

But what race are you after you marry?  What race are your children?  Self-categorization.

These racial designations have been and are still being used to classify and then exclude because of "lesser" status.

• Colonial America
• Haiti - still
• Nazi Germany
• Genocide in Rwanda (800,000 Tutsis in 100 days) (show picture in book)

The SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF RACE

Racism is a doctrine of superiority  by which one group justifies the dehumanization of others based on their distinctive physical characteristics.

• Is a problem because it is about discriminatory ideas, values and attitudes - interpersonal and social, not scientific.
• Political problem used to mobilize support, demonize opponents and eliminate rivals.

 BEHAVIOR

Read the biography of Franz Boas and comment on the ways in which he contested the established notions of race in a 2 paragraph essay in your notebooks or on your computers.  Alternatively, you may present your assessment to me in person after class.

Here is another article about Boas head shape studies and the controversy that currently surrounds them.  For extra credit, please write an essay describing the problem Sparks and Jantz have uncovered with Boas' measurements and the theories they have posited. 


Franz Boas.  (2011).  Biography.com.  Retrieved 03:18, Oct 15, 2011 from http://biography.com/people/franz-boas-9216786

Fergus, Charles.  (2003).  Boas, Bones, and Race.  Penn State Online Research.  Retrieved Oct 18, 2011 from http://www.rps.psu.edu/0305/boas.html

Models of Classification

So how do we stereotypically classify people into racial groups?

Try sorting people on this website.

TYPOLOGICAL MODEL
In the 19th and 20th century, Anthropologists and biologists divided all people into distinct geographical groups based on observable traits.

Linnaeus (18th c) - Four Biological Races
Homo Sapiens Europus albescens - ("white" Europeans)
Homo Sapiens Africanus negreus - ("black" Africans)
Homo Sapiens Asiaticus fucus - ("dark" from Asia)
Homo Sapiens Americanus rubescens - ("red" from Americas)

Johann Blumenbach - compared the skulls of the different "races" and determined that the most symmetric and circular skull was of a woman from the Caucasus mountains, and therefore, was at the origin of species as God would have created the most perfect person with these characteristics.  He named this race "Caucasian" and assigned names to the other "races" ; 
Mongolian - the presumed "race" consisting of Asians and other closely related peoples.
Negroid - the presumed "race" consisting of Sub-Saharan Africans.  This was derived from the Latin word for the color black.
These "races" were classified as becoming more and more inferior, the further you looked from Caucasus.


While race is an important (and dangerous) social category in many societies, it is not applicable to people because the division of humans into discrete types does not represent the true nature of biological variation.

Example of Ota Benga as a rationalization for curiosity and mockery.
Watch the Race Timeline Movie.





There are problems with the typological model.

TRAITS?
Can we unambiguously assign a person to a "race" on the basis of skin color, nose shape, body form, blood type?  If we do, the categories would shift.
CONTINUITY?
And then if we do this, is there a continuum?  Are all people either slender, medium or fat?
ALLELES ARE PRESENT EVERYWHERE
No one race has posession of any specific genes, although the frequencies may be different.  The only barrier is cultural.
GENETIC AND ANATOMICALLY ALIKE?
The largest differences in nose width are found among the different people of Africa.

The more traits you add to the classification, the more sub- races you end up with and some people end up excluded altogether.

So what's a better model?  Is it the next example?

The POPULATIONAL MODEL was developed in the 1940's
This states that the only significant groups, evolutionarily, are distinct breeding populations that would be expected to share genetically inherited traits and have a similar appearance.

So to distinguish...  Typological model looks for defined traits to see who around the world has them, while the Populational model looks for breeding populations first and then determines anatomical and physiological traits that distinguish them.  The populational model makes sense in theory, but who can find the problem?  Barriers have broken down at an accelerated rate... there's only a few isolated areas left to type.

CLINAL MODEL - 1960's
People end up marrying within their geographic regions - despite advanced transportation.  See tutorial for more info.
But sometimes there are isolated pockets that are discontinuous from clines.




Review
Watch movie

Typological Model

• A model or system for classifying people based on the false assumption that humans can be unambiguously placed into "races" on the basis of selected traits such as skin color, hair form, and body shape.  Advocates believe there are distinct populations from different geographic locations.  This model is the basis for our "folk categories" of race used around the world.

Problems:
You can't lump people together based on traits, because traits are continuous.  (skinny, medium, fat)
85% of genetic variation exists within "races" and 15% of variation between the races.
The number of races depends upon the number of traits you choose

Populational Model

• A model or system for classifying people based on the assumption that the only biologically distinct groups are long isolated breeding populations whose evolutionary paths have separated from other populations.

Problems:
No one is isolated for long
It's only useful for studying the few isolated breeding populations that still exist
Good in theory, but not in the larger reality.

Clinal Model

• A model for classifying people based on the fact that genetically inherited traits often gradually change in frequency from one geographic region to another --- so they change progressively from one region to another.

Problems:
This system is the closest to an accepted model for classifying people.
Use the example of blood types
Tied to the reality of the fact that we are most likely to mate with someone within our own geographic locality.
Undermined by the reality of discontinuous pockets of isolated communities with a high (different) frequency of traits differing from their surroundings.  (Red hair in England, Type B isolated areas in southern Asia)