Definitions of race

We've been talking a lot about different racial identities in class and I was curious about the currently accepted definitions of race. So I did a little research online and found a couple definitions. As might be expected, the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary's definition is very broad and not terribly enlightening. [1]

race: a family, tribe, people, or nation belonging to the same stock
b: a class or kind of people unified by shared interests, habits, or characteristics
c: a category of humankind that shares certain distinctive physical traits

In 1998, the American Anthropological Association published a statement on race that they believe ``represents generally the contemporary thinking and scholarly positions of a majority of anthropologists.'' They first describe scientific notions of race. The vast majority, about 94% of physical variation lies within commonly accepted racial groups. That is, geographic racial groups only genetically differ from one another by about 6%. This is because human beings have always interbred when they have come into contact with other groups. Because of interbreeding, physical variations occur gradually and are independent of each other. For example, skin color tends to vary according to whether a region is more tropical and sunnier or whether it is a more temperate region, but this is not necessarily tied to eye color or curly or straight hair.

Clearly, race has meanings far beyond physical characteristics. The AAA trace the concept of race to ancient hierarchies used to compare different individuals to God. These hierarchies were given more credibility by Europeans in order to rationalize their colonization of the rest of the world and at its most extreme to justify slavery of non-Europeans. They associated superior traits with Europeans and inferior traits to others. As ideas of evolution and natural selection became more developed, culminating in the publication of On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin in 1859, many Europeans applied pseudo-scientific reasoning to justify their racism. They claimed that whites had evolved further from apes than Africans, and that Africans were therefore more primitive and more suited to manual labor.

Today, anthropologists accept that all humans can learn any cultural behavior, regardless of their genetic background. No one is born with any specific culture or language. Therefore disparities between "racial groups" has nothing to do with biological inheritance but is a product of "historical and contemporary social, economic, educational, and political circumstances." In light of these conclusions, it seems that are notions of race are based almost entirely on visual differences between individuals. As interracial marriages and children become more and more prevalent, will our traditional notions of race fade into obscurity because it will become more difficult for strangers to assign racial identity to others?


[1] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/race%5B3%5D
[2] http://www.aaanet.org/stmts/racepp.htm