Historical Views of Human Variation Skin color was one of the more frequently explained characteristics and most systems of racial classifications were based on it because it was so noticeable 1350 B C E ancient Egyptians classified humans based on skin color Red for Egyptian yellow for people of East white for north and black for sub saharan African The first scientific attempt to describe the newly discovered variation among human populations was Linnaeus s taxonomic classification Placed humans into four separate categories Assigned behavioral intellectual qualities to each group Least complimentary descriptions for sub Saharan Africans Typical ranking system for time period reflected European view that they are superior Johann Friedrich Blumenbach German anatomist Classified humans into five races cid 127 White red black yellow brown Realized skin color wasn t the most important trait for classifying humans and showed overlapping expression between groups cid 127 Many Europeans thought of non europeans who aren t Christian as uncivilized and inferior Biological Determinism the concept that phenomena including various aspects of behavior intelligence values morals are governed by biological genetic factors the inaccurate association of various behavioral attributes with certain biological traits such as skin color Cultural variations thought of to be inherited the same way biological traits are Biological deterministic views were constant through the 19th century and even many notables in scientific thinking held these views Francis Galton Charles Darwins cousin Feared that society was being weakened by failure of natural selection to eliminate unfit inferior members Eugenics philosophy of race improvement through forced sterilization of members of some groups and increased reproduction among others Often racist view now discredited Supported by German scientists in Germanys Nazi period cid 127 Many scientists were turning away form racial typologies and in favor of a more evolutionary approach The Concept of Race All contemporary humans are members of the same polytypic species homo sapiens Polytypic species composed of populations that differ in the expression of one or more traits A polytypic species is composed of local populations that differ in the expression of one or more traits Even within local populations there s a great deal of genotypic and phenotypic variation among individuals Individuals who have particular combinations of certain characteristics skin color hair form eye color have placed together in categories associated with specific geographical localities Traditionally called races Race has also been rendered to various culturally defined groups Characteristics such as skin color are highly visible making it easy to immediately and superficially place people into socially defined categories These racial traits aren t the only phenotypic expressions that contribute to social identity Within anthropology the term ethnicity was proposed in early 1950s to avoid the term race Sex and age are also important Ethnicity refers to cultural factors In its most common biological usage the term race refers to geographically patterned phenotypic variation within a species Naturalists were beginning to describe races in ants and nonhuman animals by the 17th century They recognized that when populations of species occupied different regions they sometimes differed from one another in the expression of one or more traits Biologists now almost never refer to races of other species but more typically talked about populations or subspecies In the last 60 years emphasis shifted to examining the differences in allele frequencies DNA differences within and between populations and as well as considering the adaptive significance of phenotypic and genotypic variation Before WW2 most studies of human variation focused on visible phenotypic variation The genetic emphasis that replaced the superficial 19th century view of race based solely on observed phenotype dispelled previously held misconceptions that races are fixed biological entities that don t change over time and composed of individuals who all conform to a particular type Anthropologists recognize that outdated concepts of race are no longer valid because the amount of genetic variation accounted for by differences cid 127 Many biologists still study differences in straits such as skin or eye color because these characteristics and the genes that influence them can yield between groups is vastly exceeded by the variation that exists within groups Human races are a product of the human tendency to impose order on complex natural phenomena This view is meaningless given the current state of genetic and evolutionary science information about population adaptation genetic drift mutation and gene flow Forensic anthropologists find the phenotypic criteria associated with race to have practical applications Identify skeletal remains Another limitation of traditional classification schemes derives from their inherently typological nature cid 127 Meaning categories are distinct and based on stereotypes or ideals that comprise of a specific set of traits Typologies are inherently misleading because any grouping always includes many individuals who don t conform to all aspects in a particular way cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 In any so called racial group there are individuals who fall into the normal range of variation for another group based on one or more several characteristics The characteristics that have traditionally been used to define races are polygenic They re influenced by more than one gene and therefore exhibit continuous range of expressions It s difficult and maybe impossible to draw distinct boundaries between populations with regard to many traits At what point is hair color no longer dark brown but medium brown Or no longer light brown but dark blond Very few genes actually contribute to outward expressions of phenotype Dividing the human species into racial categories isn t a biologically meaningful way go look at human variation Contemporary Interpretations of Human Variation possible Because the physical characteristics skin color hair form that are used to define polygenic