Race (human classification)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Race
Classification
Genetics and differences
Race and genetics
Human genetic variation
Society
Historical concepts
Race
o in Brazil
o in the United States
Racial inequality in the United States
Racial profiling
Racism
in the U.S.
Scientific Racism
Race and...
Crime in the U.K.
Crime in the U.S.
Incarceration
in the U.S.
Race and health
o in the United States
Intelligence
History Race and intelligence controversy
Sports
Related topics
Ethnic group
Eugenics
Genetics
Human evolution
Index
Category
V
T
E
Anthropology
Disciplines[show]
Discipline subfields[show]
Research framework[show]
Key theories[show]
Key concepts[show]
Lists[show]
Anthropology portal
V
T
E
Race is a classification system used to categorize humans into large and
distinct populations or groups by anatomical, cultural, ethnic, genetic, geographical,
historical, linguistic, religious, and/or social affiliation. First used to refer to speakers of a common
language and then to denote national affiliations, in the 17th century, people began to use the
term to relate to observable physical traits. Such use promoted hierarchies favorable to differing
ethnic groups. Starting from the 19th century, the term was often used, in a taxonomic sense, to
denote genetically differentiated human populations defined by phenotype.
[1][2][3]

Social conceptions and groupings of races vary over time, involving folk taxonomies
[4]
that
define essential types of individuals based on perceived traits. Scientists consider
biological essentialism obsolete,
[5]
and generally discourage racial explanations for collective
differentiation in both physical and behavioral traits.
[6][7][8][9][10]

Even though there is a broad scientific agreement that essentialist and typological
conceptualizations of race are untenable, scientists around the world continue to conceptualize
race in widely differing ways, some of which have essentialist implications.
[11]
While some
researchers sometimes use the concept of race to make distinctions among fuzzy sets of traits,
others in the scientific community suggest that the idea of race often is used in a naive
[6]
or
simplistic way,
[12]
and argue that, among humans, race has no taxonomic significance by pointing
out that all living humans belong to the same species, Homo sapiens, and subspecies, Homo
sapiens sapiens.
[13][14]

Since the second half of the 20th century, the associations of race with the ideologies and
theories that grew out of the work of 19th-century anthropologists and physiologists has led to
the use of the word "race" itself becoming problematic. Although still used in general contexts,
race has often been replaced by other words which are less ambiguous and emotionally
charged, such as populations, people(s), ethnic groups, or communities, depending on
context.
[15][16]