ANT 2000 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Sunburn, 23Rd Parallel North, Rickets
Document Summary
Historically, scientist have approached the study of human biological diversity in two main ways: (1) racial classification (now largely abandoned) versus (2) the current exploratory approach, which focuses on understanding specific differences. Racial classification: the attempt to assign humans to discrete categories. Clines: gradual shift in gene (allele) frequencies between neighboring populations. In theory, a biological race would be a geographically isolated subdivision of a species. A race is supposed to reflect shared genetic material (inherited from a common ancestor), but early scholars instead used phenotypical traits for racial classification. In theory, people of the same race share more recent common ancestry with each other than they do with anyone else. Although long-term genetic markers do exist, they don"t correlate neatly with phenotype. Because of changes in the environment that affect individuals during growth and development, the ranges of phenotypes characteristic of a population may change without any genetic change whatsoever.