ANTH 1120 Lecture Notes - Thrifty Gene Hypothesis, Lactase Persistence, Vitamin D Deficiency
25 Nov 2011
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Anthro*1120: concept of race : a social construct not biologically valid, relationships between evolutionary processes and cultural-environmental contexts, adaptive significance of human variation, as we change/evolve, so do other organisms. Polymorphisms: main focus of human variation studies (2 or more alleles) How adaptive a gene/trait is depends on the environment. Dark moths and light moths in industrial england. Directional selection: a particular trait seems to be positively favoured; average values shift over time. Normalizing selection: the average values do not change, but extremes removed. Balancing selection: when a heterozygous combination of alleles is positively favoured even though a homozygous combination is disfavoured. Humans classify things (order world around us) Draws on the biases of the classifier. Racial classifications: product of social/cultural beliefs re: Historical and contemporary discrimination inferiority/superiority anthropologists : concept of race cannot be applied to human variation. Different populations not clearly classifiable by discrete traits.
