ANT202H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, Carl Linnaeus, Genetic Drift
Document Summary
60k years ago, anatomically modern humans expanded to occupy planet. Inhabit areas with wide range of ecological ____ Attempts to classify humans by physical characteristics. Classification based on superficial physical traits: subject to strong selective forces. Perceived cultural features: biased euro-centric 18th century preconceptions, ideas continued into present with consequences. 5 racial types = mongolian (yellow), american (red), caucasian (white), malayan (brown), ethiopian (black) Race = discreet units used to explain continuous variation: cannot explain human variation in any meaningful way. Biological variation is real; the order we impose on this variation by using the concept of race is not . Racial traits are anthropometric: skin colour, facial features, head/body/skeletal size/shape. Genetic drift and gene flow affect whole genome. Natural selection affects only subset of loci. Different traits (different loci at genetic level) = very different evolutionary histories. How different evolutionary factors shaped diversity of our species. Examples of biological variation studies in human populations.
