Human Biodiversity: Genes, Race, and History

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Transaction Publishers, 2001 - 321 Seiten

Are humans unique? This simple question, at the very heart of the hybrid field of biological anthropology, poses one of the false of dichotomies--with a stereotypical humanist answering in the affirmative and a stereotypical scientist answering in the negative.

The "study "of human biology is different from the study of the biology of other species. In the simplest terms, people's lives and welfare may depend upon it, in a sense that they may not depend on the study of other scientific subjects. Where science is used to validate ideas--four out of five scientists preferring a brand of cigarettes or toothpaste--there is a tendency to accept the judgment as authoritative without asking the kinds of questions we might ask of other citizens' pronouncements.

In "Human Biodiversity, "Marks has attempted to distill from a centuries-long debate what has been learned and remains to be learned about the biological differences within and among human groups. His is the first such attempt by an anthropologist in years, for genetics has undermined the fundamental assumptions of racial taxonomy. The history of those assumptions from Linnaeus to the recent past--the history of other, more useful assumptions that derive from Buffon and have reemerged to account for genetic variation--are the poles of Marks's exploration.

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PROCESSES AND PATTERNS IN THE EVOLUTIONARY
25
The Gene Pool
32
Evolutionary Narratives
38
Patterns in the Evolution of Species and Culture
44
PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY AS THE STUDY
49
Notes
60
History Biology and the Theory of Progress
66
The Culture Concept Nudges Out the Race Concept
73
Hemoglobin Variation in the Human Species
146
HUMAN DIVERSITY IN THE LIGHT
157
Patterns of Genetic Differentiation
165
Patterns of Genetic Diversity
172
THE ADAPTIVE NATURE OF HUMAN VARIATION
183
HEALTH AND HUMAN POPULATIONS
203
HERITAGE OR HABITUS?
219
GENETICS AND THE EVOLUTION OF HUMAN
237

RACIAL AND RACIST ANTHROPOLOGY
99
PATTERNS OF VARIATION IN HUMAN
117
Genetics and the Human Races
125
Genetics of the Human Species
133
The Genome
139
How do we Establish the Genetic Base
243
CONCLUSIONS
265
Index
314
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