Steve Newman

Teresa Loree Potter

Anthropology (Human Origins)
04-30-2015

The concept of race varies tremendously in the eyes of the beholder. Race is a very
dynamic human genus. Race is not interpreted the same anywhere at any given time due to the

different constructs and views set up within a society. Race has many different diversities that
have evolved over a period of time. For example a lot of races are influenced and determined by
the geographical areas of the world they live in. People that live in Africa tend to have tall leaner,
linear body types, people that live in Alaska or places in the northern hemisphere tend to be
shorter and of stockier build.
All humans are members of the same polytypic species, Homo sapiens. People have
particular variations or similarities that have been placed together in categories with specific
geographical localities. Race is used synonymously with species. Since the 1600s race has also
referred to various culturally defined groups, this meaning is still common. For example,
widespread perceptions are that certain physical traits (skin color, in particular) are associated
with intelligence and numerous cultural attributes (such as occupational preferences, and even
morality). As a result, in many cultures a persons social status is strongly influenced by the way
he or she expresses those physical traits traditionally used to define racial groups. Sex and age
are also critically important, still to this day, on average, women get paid less than men.
According to Harvard Summer School women get paid 77 cents to every dollar for men.
Society has developed different assumptions, that they judge individuals based on the ethnic
backgrounds or in other terms such as the colors of their skin. In a historical view of this topic
the term ethnicity was proposed in the early 1950s to avoid the more emotionally charged race.
Over time there has been certain groups, or cults that have taken race to an extreme form of
human degradation. Organizations like the KKK in the southern areas of the United States in the
1950s to 1960s took this to the extreme by torturing and killing anyone of African American
decent.

Biologically speaking the term race refers to a lot more than just humans. It also is
something that is used to identify plants and non-human animals. By the seventeenth century,
naturalists were beginning to describe races in plants and non-human animals (example). Some
of the merits of a biological concept of race are humans are very blessed in the fact that they
have a much higher intelligence level, because of the size of their brain.( Some of the changes
produce a phenotype which confers upon the organism a slight survival advantage compared to
those species without it). The environment generally affects the population with these changes in
such a way that organisms with the slight physiological and cognitive advantage will have a
greater chance of surviving, and consequently of reproducing and passing on its dominant
characteristics to its progeny. Organisms without these advantageous characteristic will be less
likely to survive to pass this characteristic onto their organism.
The problems with our understanding of intelligence and race that is explained by Watson
is based on science rather than political correctness. Intelligence is clearly a far more
complicated issue than standard testing allows. Race is a socially constructed concept, not a
biological one. It derives from people's desire to classify and group people places and things into
categories. Whether people with a genetic predisposition toward fatness will be classified as a
separate race remains to be seen. (Laurence A. Morem)
In 1758 a Swedish botanist named Carolus Linnaeus established the classification system
still in use for various forms of life. He listed four categories that he labeled as "varieties" of the
human species. To each he attributed inherited biological as well as learned cultural
characteristics. He described Homo European as light-skinned, blond, and governed by laws;
Homo American was copper-colored and was regulated by customs; Homo Asiatic was sooty and
dark-eyed and governed by opinions; Homo African was black and indolent and governed by

impulse. We can in retrospect recognize the ethnocentric assumptions involved in these

descriptions, which imply a descending order of prestige. Most striking is the labeling of the four
varieties as governed by laws, customs, opinions, and impulse, with Europeans on the top and
Africans at the bottom. In fact, different populations within all four varieties would have had all
four forms of behavior. (Gloria Ramon).
Science and research affects everyday people in many different ways. Anthropology is a
science which advancements have been insurmountable changes throughout the ages. In some
point in my life someone I love or possibly myself will need lifesaving medical treatment,
perhaps for cancer, and this treatment will almost certainly be based on genetic research. These
studies can be used for good or for bad. Chemical weaponry is a darker side of the advancements
science has made overtime.
During the nineteenth century theories of race were advanced both by the
scientific community and in the general population. Differences in the periodical structure of the
skull, especially the jaw formation and facial angles, revealed the position of various races on the
evolutionary scale. In conclusion in think the concept of race is arbitrary. No one really knows
the exact evolutionary process and how the human race came to be. There are many different
opinions on this matter but the truth is we can only research and scratch the surface. The more
research and resources we put into finding more about race the more we will shift our ideas in
the years to come.

WORKS CITED
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Moran, Lawernce. "Is Race a Biological Concept?"

Sandwalk.blogspot.com. Blogspot.com, 11 Nov. 2007. Web.

23 Apr. 2015.
Jurmain, Kilgore, Trevathan Humans Origins, 2013, 2011

Cengage learning
Harvard summer school, 2014 president and fellows of
Harvard college, 51 Bralle street, Cambridge mass.