13: Race and Human Variation

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Keith Chan

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Learning Objectives

Illustrate the troubling history of “race” concepts.
Explain human variation and evolution as the thematic roots of biological anthropology as a discipline.
Critique earlier “race” concepts based on a contemporary understanding of the apportionment of human genetic variation.
Explain how biological variation in humans is distributed clinally and in accordance with both isolation-by-distance and Out-of-Africa models.
Identify phenotypic traits that reflect selective and neutral evolution.
Extend this more-nuanced view of human variation to today’s research, the implications for biomedical studies, applications in forensic anthropology, and other social/cultural/political concerns.

This chapter is a revision from “ Chapter 13: Race and Human Variation ” by Michael B. C. Rivera. In Explorations: An Open Invitation to Biological Anthropology, first edition , edited by Beth Shook, Katie Nelson, Kelsie Aguilera, and Lara Braff, which is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0 .