Biological Aspects of Race - Term Paper Example

Biological Aspects of Race Introduction Biologically, a race is defined as a breedingpopulation that is geographically isolated, sharing specific characteristics at high frequencies as compared to other populations of the same species. This paper discusses the biological variations among populations, their differences, the aspect of racial classification and categories. Reflection Racial categories have been based on social behavior and character traits rather than biological attributes. Traits used to determine and categorize people on races included; their skin color, facial features, size, shape as well as the underlying skeleton.

The categories were derived from the 19th century scientific traditions. However, these notions have been used mostly to support some racist doctrines and the old concepts of race have fostered institutional discrimination in the society. A racial prejudice that involves the mistreatment of people of a certain race result in psychological distress and social damage (Wiley, 714). Societies have universally accepted this idea that, naturally, humans fall into racial groups. It is true that different people have had mixed ancestry crossing racial boundaries, but there are also undeniably clear physical differences between various populations of the world.

The physical differences may reflect genetic differences used by researchers to pinpoint people’s geographical origins. Genes reflect geography certainly. Human genetic differences, on the other hand, do not fall along boundaries that could define race. Without defined boundaries that can guide us, the human racial categories continue to be the product of the human choice. Our definition of race reflects not only biology but culture, history and politics (Cadena, 2000). Human racial groups do compose breeding units that initially were geographical and at times temporarily isolated.

However, they could interbreed, producing viable offspring that are also within the species of Homo sapiens. The molecular techniques that have been developed recently to examine genetic differences between populations and individuals such as DNA have produced clear evidence that population differences exist within the human species but racial differences do not. Race should therefore not be equated with ethnicity that is a self-described category with the three components of ancestry, culture and language.

These components have affinities to some ancestral groups. The genetic differences that exist between groups, therefore, do not correspond to some historical racial categories (Sarich and Frank, 2004). Biological differences seen between human beings are a reflection of social and natural environments as well as hereditary factors. Differences could also be as a result of the interaction of both. Human populations have a great genetic diversity and in the genetic homogenous populations, pure races do not exist in our human species today, neither is there evidence that they ever existed in the past.

The genetic differences found between populations consist of frequency differences of inherited and environmentally malleable traits (Wiley, 1996). Intermarriages and mating between members of different human groups depend on the specific individuals, and no biological justification restricts marriages between people of different racial categories. There has been no cultural, religious or linguistic group, or an economic class that can constitute a race. The global urbanization process coupled with intercontinental migrations, however, plays a role in reducing differences between human populations.

People in the world today are appearing to possess an equal biological potential to assimilate any human culture. The racist political doctrines, therefore, find no foundation in the scientific knowledge that concerns the modern or the past human populations (Sullivan and Nancy, 2007). Conclusion There has been no scientific evidence or justification of racial differences between human populations. The differences seen between human populations are as a result of physical, cultural, environmental and hereditary factors.

Racial classification should therefore not be used as a tool for racial discrimination in the society. Works Cited Marisol de la Cadena. Indigenous Mestizos: the politics of race and culture in Cuzco, Peru, 1919-1991. duke university Press, 2000. Sarich, Vincent, and Frank Miele. "Race: The Reality of Human Differences (Boulder, CO." (2004). Sullivan, Shannon, and Nancy Tuana, eds. Race and epistemologies of ignorance. SUNY Press, 2007. Wiley. “AAPA Statement on Biological Aspects of Race.

” American Anthropologist. 100 (1996): 714-715.