Dragon Horse
SuperMentor
Joined: 07 Feb 2007
{Posts: 1829 }
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 Posted: Fri 20 Feb 2009 13:26 Post subject: More Recent Anthro Studies on "Race" - from 2008 -2009 |
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Understanding race and human variation: Why forensic anthropologists are good at identifying race
Stephen Ousley 1 *, Richard Jantz 2, Donna Freid 2
1Department of Applied Forensic Sciences, Mercyhurst College, Erie, PA
2Department of Anthropology, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN
American forensicanthropologists uncritically accepted the biological race concept from classic physical anthropology and applied it to methods of human identification. Why and how the biological race concept might work in forensic anthropology was contemplated by Sauer (Soc Sci Med 34 [1992] 107-111), who hypothesized that American forensic anthropologists are good at what they do because of a concordance between social race and skeletal morphology in American whites and blacks. However, Sauer also stressed that this concordance did not validate the classic biological race concept of physical anthropology that there are a relatively small number of discrete types of human beings. Results from Howells (Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology 67 [1973] 1-259; Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology 79 [1989] 1-189; Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology 82 [1995] 1-108) and others using craniometric and molecular data show strong geographic patterning of human variation despite overlap in their distributions. However, Williams et al. (Curr Anthropol 46 [2005] 340-346) concluded that skeletal morphology cannot be used to accurately classify individuals. Williams et al. cited additional support from Lewontin (Evol Biol 6 [1972] 381-398), who analyzed classic genetic markers. In this study, multivariate analyses of craniometric data support Sauer's hypothesis that there are morphological differences between American whites and blacks. We also confirm significant geographic patterning in human variation but also find differences among groups within continents. As a result, if biological races are defined by uniqueness, then there are a very large number of biological races that can be defined, contradicting the classic biological race concept of physical anthropology. Further, our results show that humans can be accurately classified into geographic origin using craniometrics even though there is overlap among groups. Am J Phys Anthropol 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. |
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122209166/abstract
| Quote: | Race and global patterns of phenotypic variation
John H. Relethford *
Department of Anthropology, State University of New York College at Oneonta, Oneonta, NY 13820
email: John H. Relethford (relethjh@oneonta.edu)
*Correspondence to John H. Relethford, Department of Anthropology, SUNY College at Oneonta, Oneonta, NY 13820, USA
Abstract
Phenotypic traits have been used for centuries for the purpose of racial classification. Developments in quantitative population genetics have allowed global comparison of patterns of phenotypic variation with patterns of variation in classical genetic markers and DNA markers. Human skin color shows a high degree of variation among geographic regions, typical of traits that show extensive natural selection. Even given this high level of geographic differentiation, skin color variation is clinal and is not well described by discrete racial categories. Craniometric traits show a level of among-region differentiation comparable to genetic markers, with high levels of variation within populations as well as a correlation between phenotypic and geographic distance. Craniometric variation is geographically structured, allowing high levels of classification accuracy when comparing crania from different parts of the world. Nonetheless, the boundaries in global variation are not abrupt and do not fit a strict view of the race concept; the number of races and the cutoffs used to define them are arbitrary. The race concept is at best a crude first-order approximation to the geographically structured phenotypic variation in the human species. Am J Phys Anthropol 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. |
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122209158/abstract |
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