Spotlight on Students: Race Essay

The following is an example of exemplary work from one of my Anth 102 students, Carol Vinger.  In this essay Vinger explores the lack of biological evidence to support the concept of race.  This concept is a socio-cultural one but one that is often confused as a biological one.  I hope you enjoy learning more on the topic from Vinger.  

            The debate about separating the different ethnic races of humans into distinctly separate species or subspecies of Homo sapiens has brought about some very polarizing conversations amongst physical anthropologists, biologists, and psychologists for decades.  Proponents for the separation of races into distinct species argue that the difference in skin color, cranial capacity, body shape, and intelligence amongst the racial groups support their position.  Their opponents argue that these differences are merely variations of genotypes and phenotypes amongst all humans, much like hair and eye color, or are influenced by culture and environment.  Racial bias has played a role in findings made by proponents from each of these disciplines in the past, but we know that if proper scientific methods are utilized to prove or disprove their findings, science will ultimately draw out the facts.  This paper will focus on differences amongst racial groups with respect to genetic variation, body type and skin color, and cranial capacity and intelligence utilizing scientific thinking for the purpose of determining whether these races are separate species or variations of one species.

            The AAA’s position on race was published in 1998 and set forth its conclusions based on analysis of genetic variation amongst racial groups and historical classification of race based on cultural bias, the latter of which will be discussed later in this paper.  Careful study of physical variations of genes shows that a single racial group possesses 94% of the total physical variations possible, and geographically separated racial groups differ from one another in less than 6% of these variations (AAA 1998).  This analysis helps support the AAA’s conclusion that all modern humans fall within the single species of Homo sapiens due to their overwhelmingly similar genetic material and physical characteristics. 

            The emergence of Homo sapiens as a species occurred in East Africa nearly 200,000 years ago (Stein & Rowe 2014: 365).  If African migration accounts for the entire world’s human population, one might expect less difference in physical appearance between geographically separated racial groups than actually exists.  For example, Caucasians and Asians have much lighter skin than Africans.  The advantage of darker skin in Africa serves to protect the skin from the ultraviolet rays of the sun in a grassland environment and to prevent the loss of folic acid in the body that lead to infant mortality and lower sperm production (Stein & Rowe 2014: 398).  The advantage of lighter skin in Europe and Asia serves to aid the body in production of Vitamin D and absorption of calcium for stronger bones in an environment with lower sunlight conditions, as well as a decrease in incidents of frostbite in colder climates (Stein & Rowe 2014: 398-399).  Scientists from Penn State University who studied the mutation of lighter skin say they have found the answer.  They isolated the gene known as slc24a5 that mutated 20,000 to 50,000 years ago when Africans migrated to Europe and Asia.  This mutation proved to be a distinct genetic advantage in the North, which led to a decrease in dark-skinned humans and an increase in light-skinned humans in these areas.  They also explain that two separate mutations occurred, one in Europe and one in Asia, which may account for the slightly different color variations between light-skinned Caucasians and light-skinned Asians (Weiss 2005).   

            Likewise, people who live in the extreme northern climates have much shorter and stockier builds than Africans near the equator, who tend to have long and lean builds.  The advantage of longer and leaner builds in Africa provides for more rapid cooling of the skin in hot temperatures; the greater the surface area of the body in relation to mass, the greater the opportunity for the body to sweat and cool itself through evaporation (Stein & Rowe 2014: 399).  Those individuals who did not exhibit the longer, leaner body build had a much tougher time surviving and, therefore, were less likely to pass on their genetic material.  Conversely, the advantage of shorter, stockier builds in the far north is for less surface area for heat loss from the exposed skin in extremely cold climates.  The extra body mass further serves to insulate the body from colder temperatures.  People from the middle latitudes of Europe and Asia tend to exhibit a combination of these body shapes due in part to the mixed climate of cooler winters and warmer summers (Stein & Rowe 2014: 400).  These differences of body size and shape occurred most likely by natural selection since those individuals with the distinct genetic advantage in their particular environment had the greatest chance of survival and, therefore, the greatest chance of passing on their genetic material. 

            Statistics gathered at autopsy by psychologist J. P. Rushton demonstrate that among racial groups, Caucasians have a larger cranial capacity and brain weight than Africans (Rushton & Bogaert 1989).  Physical anthropologists have long associated larger cranial capacity with higher intelligence.  If true, modern females should have a lower average IQ than males due to their smaller cranial capacity, but in fact, the average IQ of females are equal to that of their male counterparts (Nisbett 2007).  An article published by the New York Times in 2007 detailed several psychology and education studies over the last several decades that concluded that Africans score on average 15 points less on IQ tests compared to Caucasians (Nisbett 2007).  The reasons for the lower scores from Africans have less to do with smaller brain weight and more to do with the lack of educational opportunity and environmental factors. 

IQ testing among Europeans and Americans between the 1950s and the 1980s demonstrate an increase in the average IQ from 82 to 100 during that time, a period characterized by great improvements in education and social factors, including improvements in environmental conditions, better nutrition, and a decrease in the average size of the family.  These are commonly referred to as the Flynn Effect (Racialreality 2011).  Africans largely live in much less desirable living conditions than do Caucasians and Asians presently, have little to no access to birth control, and have a different cultural emphasis on education than Caucasians and Asians.  Furthermore, Africans have a protein-poor diet, an essential nutrient for brain growth and intellectual development from gestation through the early stages of childhood (Boundless 2014).  If conditions improve in Africa similar to the educational, nutritional, and environmental gains made by Caucasians and Asians during the last half of the 20^th century, the average IQ scores of Africans, presently at 85, are likely to experience the Flynn Effect and show dramatic gains in the next several decades (Nisbett 2007).

            While this paper primarily focuses on physical variations among Caucasians, Asians, and Africans, there are no two races throughout the entire world that exhibit more than 6% differences in physical characteristics from one another, making modern humans extremely similar to one another (AAA 1998).  Natural selection has adapted only a few physical characteristics within racial groups to better suit their environments.  Proponents for the separation of races into distinctly separate species rely on cultural bias to support their position, which in turn perpetuates the social stigmas associated with skin color.  Sufficient evidence has been established that all modern humans should share the same genus and species, Homo sapiens, despite the very few physical variations among them.   

References

AAAnet.org (1998).  American Anthropological Association Statement on “Race”.  Retrieved from:
http://www.aaanet.org/stmts/racepp.htm

Boundless.com (2014).  Genetic and Environmental Impacts on Intelligence.  Retrieved from:
https://www.boundless.com/psychology/textbooks/boundless-psychology-textbook/intelligence-11/measuring-intelligence-62/genetic-and-environmental-impacts-on-intelligence-243-12778/

Nisbett, R. E. (2007).  NYTimes.com: All Brains Are the Same Color.  Retrieved from:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/opinion/09nisbett.html?pagewanted=print&_r=0

Racialreality.com (2011).  African IQ and the Flynn Effect.  Retrieved from:
http://racialreality.blogspot.com/2011/11/african-iq-and-the-flynn-effect.html

Rushton, J. & Bogaert, A. (1989).  1989 Population Differences in Susceptibility to Aids: An Evolutionary Analysis.  Class handout.

Stein, P.L. & Rowe, B.M. (2014). Introduction to Human Evolution and Prehistory.  United

States of America: McGraw Hill Education.

            In-Text Reference: (Chapter 15: The Evolution of Homo sapiens, pgs. 362-386)

Weiss, R. (2005). Washington Post.com: Scientists Find a DNA Change That Accounts For White Skin.  Retrieved from:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/15/AR2005121501728.html