Race: Scientific nonproblem, cultural quagmire

THE ANATOMICAL RECORD (PART B: NEW ANAT.) 278B:23–26, 2004 COMMENTARY Race: Scientific Nonproblem, Cultural Quagmire IAN TATTERSALL* The matter of biological differentiation among human beings has been a perennial concern of physical anthropologists, whose profession grew out of the monogenist/polygenist debates of the 18th century, and who periodically feel impelled to issue sonorous pronouncements on the subject. In spite of (or perhaps because of) the extensive and difficult cultural ramifications of the race issue, such pronouncements have usually presented the matter of race as one that requires extensive bioanthropological exegesis. In reality, however, race is the most banal of biological issues. Within any species, including Homo sapiens, two biological processes are possible: physical differentiation (as routinely occurs in small population isolates) and reintegration (should the resulting differentiated populations come together in the absence of any barrier to mating). The history of Homo sapiens reflects both of these processes: initial differentiation among small, scattered populations in the later part of the Pleistocene, and subsequent reintegration as the human population expanded and these populations came together once more. It is for this reason that, while certain modal physical types can be recognized on any urban street today (differentiation), it is impossible to recognize any clear boundaries between them (reintegration). All of this is perfectly unremarkable in evolutionary terms, and requires no special explanation. The complexities of the race issue are real, of course, and it is important that we come to terms with them; but they will not be resolved by biologists. Anat Rec (Part B: New Anat) 278B:23–26, 2004. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc. KEY WORDS: human evolution; human races; physical differentiation; population reintegration INTRODUCTION fied, usually according to the prevail- The AAPA’s well-meaning and gen- ing standard of political correctness. erally well-informed statement laud- Intellectual fashions come and go in ably berates the typological racial biological anthropology as in any STATEMENT ON THE categorizations of the 19th and early other science, but there is one under- lying constant: Perhaps this is hardly 20th centuries, based as they were BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF RACE surprising, given that physical anthro- “on externally visible traits, primar- One of the many recent manifesta- ily skin color, features of the face, pology (as it is often, revealingly, still tions of this apparent sense of moral and the shape and size of the head called) was born out of the mono- obligation is the Statement on Biolog- and body, and the underlying skele- genist/polygenist disputes of the 18th ical Aspects of Race adopted a few ton” (AAPA, 1996; p. 569), and points century—and the phenomena that were then debated are, of course, still out that categorizations of this kind with us today. Over the past couple of have been used to justify vast injus- centuries, this intellectual legacy has tice and human misery. Yet, al- regularly impelled physical anthropol- Biological anthropology though it contains much wisdom ogists to “explain” the “problem of is perennially haunted about inherited variation within and race” to those less scientifically quali- by the specter of race. among modern human populations, the influence of natural and social environments on phenotypic charac- Dr. Tattersall is Curator in the Division ter expression, the practical prob- years ago by the American Associa- of Anthropology, the American Museum lems that impede the exact or even of Natural History, New York, New York. tion of Physical Anthropologists *Correspondence to: Dr. Ian Tattersall, (AAPA, 1996), as an amendment to the effective physical or genetic charac- Department of Anthropology, American UNESCO declaration of 1964 (Barni- terization of human groups, and Museum of Natural History, Central much more, the AAPA declaration is Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY cot et al., 1965). The UNESCO decla- 10021. Fax: 212.769.5334. E-mail: ration was based on earlier statements clearly confused about the historical iant@amnh.org process by which the complexly in 1949 and 1951 (UNESCO, 1951) DOI 10.1002/ar.b.20013 that were spurred by revulsion at the structured variation among local hu- Published online in Wiley InterScience man populations today must have (www.interscience.wiley.com). atrocities committed in the name of “racial purity” during World War II. come about. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc. 24 THE ANATOMICAL RECORD (PART B: NEW ANAT.) COMMENTARY RACE AND BIOLOGY be sorted broadly into groups using ously resistant to precise, or even to genetic data” (Bamshad and Olson, adequate, definition. And the harder The statement accepts the premises 2003; p. 83), but that at the same time we look, the tougher things become that all modern human populations “groups with similar physical charac- for would-be classifiers. No wonder are descended from a single ancestral teristics as a result of selection can be most molecular geneticists have lately population, that distinctive local pop- quite different genetically” (ibid.). preferred to look at genetic markers as ulations come and go, and that migra- Particularly usefully, they point out evidence for ancient population mi- tion has been an important factor in that racial identities in the cultural grations, rather than as a basis for the past. It even notes that “the global and genetic senses are frequently far defining distinctive modern groups process of urbanization, coupled with from the same thing—something that (see reviews by Olson, 2003; Wells, intercontinental migrations, has the is also stressed by the AAPA and most 2003). potential to reduce differences among other commentators. This consider- The complex history of population all human populations” (AAPA, 1996; ation, especially, cuts to the heart of movements and interminglings subse- p. 570). At the same time, however, in the matter by insisting on the impor- quent to the origin of Homo sapiens is, some respects it treats the current pat- tance of our cultural constructions of of course, a worthy and fascinating tern of human variation as something race relative to its biological founda- subject for scientific study. There is no static, an adaptive response to differ- tions. Yet even though the title of their question about that, and such investi- ing environmental and nutritional article suggests that there is either a gations will certainly continue to ex- conditions in diverse regions of the “yes” or “no” response to it, the au- cite wide interest. But is it wise for world. And it explicitly states that physical anthropologists to continue “Pure races, in the sense of genetically to pose as the guardians of objective homogeneous populations, do not ex- scientific wisdom on the subject of ist in the human species today, nor is race, as the term is generally under- If reasonably stood? I would suggest it is not. For, there any evidence that they have ever existed in the past” (p. 569; italics homogeneous groups of while they are ultimately based on the added). It is as if in order to refute the Homo sapiens did not undeniable facts of biological varia- reality or utility of the notion of race tion, notions of race have become in the world today, one must deny that evolve local above all else cultural constructs. As there was ever any geographically- characteristics at some such (at least until we have some based differentiation among earlier glimmer of understanding of how our human populations by insisting that, time in the past, how peculiar form of consciousness is gen- somehow, human variability has al- can the pattern of erated in the human brain), race has ways been patterned in the same gen- become something that lies, and will eral manner. Yet, if reasonably homo- variation we see today, continue to lie, far beyond the pur- geneous groups of Homo sapiens did with various intuitively view of biology. not evolve local characteristics at some time in the past, how can the recognizable modal RACE IN EVOLUTIONARY pattern of variation we see today, with types, have come various intuitively recognizable PERSPECTIVE about? modal types, have come about? How, The biological basis for both “race” in other words, can we account for and the difficulties of definition the today’s pattern in terms of what we concept raises can be stated quite sim- know about the evolutionary process? thors never directly confront the ques- ply. Everyone agrees that all extant In its effort to minimize the roots as tion of whether, in the biological and historic human beings belong to well as the current significance of hu- sense, race exists or not. Perhaps this the same species. Unquestionably, man races, the statement overreaches is wise, for, as they seem to imply, the modern Homo sapiens constitutes a on the matter of history. correct answer is almost certainly single, closed interbreeding group. The cover of a recent issue of Scien- “both yes and no.” This group is perhaps not perfectly tific American blared the question, Still, however accurate it may be, panmictic (the complexities of human “Does Race Exist?” (Bamshad and Ol- the “yes and no” answer is a perenni- behavior and social and political iden- son, 2003). The article concerned was ally unsatisfying response, and never tities will continue to ensure that), but a balanced overview of molecular ge- more so than in this case. This is be- nonetheless it is one in which inter- netic diversity among modern human cause, intuitively, it seems pointless to breeding among all reproductively populations worldwide and of some of deny that human “races” exist in some normal individuals is at least poten- its implications—particularly for sense. After all, in our cosmopolitan tially possible. Greatly as Homo sapi- health, the only area of the biological society everyone is surrounded by ev- ens may appear to itself to have differ- sciences in which human “racial” data idence for some organized physical entiated in certain respects, such are arguably useful for studying an differentiation among humans—and, objectively minor differentiation has additional risk factor in certain dis- indeed, is part of that evidence. At the not been accompanied in any local ease classes. The authors concluded, same time, however, the “races” we population by the acquisition of be- among other things, that “people can recognize at this broad level are curi- havioral or structural novelties that COMMENTARY THE ANATOMICAL RECORD (PART B: NEW ANAT.) 25 would obligatorily disrupt reproduc- probably much more often on a re- this intermingling is on the initial tive continuity within the species. It is gional scale, the population of Homo stage of regional and local differenti- this fact that sets the ground rules for sapiens was drastically reduced and ation (the contemplation of which ap- evolutionary processes within the hu- fragmented (see, for example, reviews parently makes the AAPA so uncom- man population, and these rules are by Marks, 2002; Olson, 2003). The re- fortable), it lies at the heart of the very different from those that apply to sulting small and isolated demes de- conundrum that while at first glance it the processes that obtain among even veloped distinctive local genotypes seems intuitively ridiculous to deny the most closely related of species. and phenotypes, either for adaptive that “races” exist, on closer inspection Species are historically individu- reasons or as a result of random sam- these units prove to have no clear or ated entities that can regionally differ- pling. Local differentiation in geo- definable boundaries. Any modal type entiate, give rise to other species, or graphically isolated (or at least sepa- that you might care to recognize is go extinct. They cannot, however, rated) populations at an early stage of joined to virtually any other by a gra- backtrack. They cannot blend with the history of our species accounts for dation of intermediates due to popu- other groups of organisms, however the fact that it is possible to recognize lation blending within the species. closely related those groups may be. several broad variations on the theme The tortured history of the race ques- In contrast, populations belonging to of Homo sapiens in the world today. It tion is a classic example of the fact the same species can go both ways also explains why each of these popu- that units of any kind that lack clear because within species, two processes lations is, at least in terms of origin, definition are rarely useful and are of genetic and phenotypic change are associated with a particular geograph- commonly the source of huge misun- possible. The first such process is dif- ical region. derstandings. ferentiation, which is apparently rou- In contrast, over the past 10 –15 kyr tine in all geographically widespread or so, since the polar icecaps last be- populations of complex organisms. RACE IN SOCIAL PERSPECTIVE Differentiation may proceed in a dis- This is above all the reason why phys- crete manner, as when geographical The tortured history of ical anthropologists are unwise to or ecological barriers to reproduction project themselves as the custodians among local populations exist, or it the race question is a of biological wisdom on the classifica- may be clinal, as when populations classic example of the tion (or nonclassification) of human are continuous over large areas. How- types, beyond pointing out that the ever, in any widely distributed spe- fact that units of any evidently complex pattern of human cies, local differentiation of some kind kind that lack clear variation in fact results from an unre- may be expected to occur. Given the markable and evolutionarily routine general pattern of morphological and definition are rarely combination of the processes just ad- genetic variation seen among success- useful and are umbrated. There is nothing special ful vertebrate species today, it is the commonly the source of about the origins of human variation, lack of such differentiation that would and indeed its current pattern places require special explanation in a spe- huge misunderstandings. our species squarely in the realm of cies as widespread as ours is. The sec- organisms in general. Much as we hu- ond intraspecies evolutionary phe- man beings like to differentiate our- nomenon is reintegration. This is the gan to retreat, human demographic selves from the rest of Nature (and the process whereby (when geographical history has largely been one of expan- fact that we are able to do so intellec- or ecological barriers to reproduction sion and the intermingling of previ- tually argues powerfully that there is are removed) the distinctiveness of lo- ously isolated or effectively isolated indeed something special about us), cal genomes and phenotypes are grad- populations. During this period, there is nothing biologically out of the ually erased as genes from both sides Homo sapiens has shown a strong ordinary in the fact that members of a flow throughout the combined popu- overall tendency toward population species that is spread so widely lation. reintegration. Currently, this reinte- throughout the world do not all look Both of these processes have evi- gration is in a relatively early stage, exactly the same, or that certain dently operated, sequentially and in which explains why one can still ob- modal types can be recognized among that order, to produce the pattern of serve several recognizable modal them, provided one doesn’t look too variation we see in Homo sapiens to- types on the streets of almost any closely. To pontificate beyond this day. Indeed, in the rapidly and dra- large city in the world today. But it can, however, rapidly begin to sound matically fluctuating ecological and has proceeded far enough to blur like protesting too much, especially to geographical conditions of the recent thoroughly any sharp edges that members of a species whose most out- hominid past, it is virtually inconceiv- might once have existed. Further- standing common characteristic able that both would not have oper- more, and not least because of the seems to be a desire to make every ated at one time or another. Many basic cognitive equivalence of all nor- issue more complicated than it needs lines of evidence converge to the con- mal human beings regardless of an- to be. Race, like sex, has over the mil- clusion that at least on one or two cestry, this process of intermingling lennia become inextricably mixed up occasions over the past 100 –200 kyr has had a hugely complex history (or with matters of power, economics, since the origin of our species, and set of local histories). And, imposed as and, even worse, politics. Hence, it 26 THE ANATOMICAL RECORD (PART B: NEW ANAT.) COMMENTARY has become something to which biol- implies that they exist— even that they historians, and philosophers—and ogists have relatively little to contrib- exist in some vaguely essentialist even, God help us, to the politicians. ute [at least pending a biological ex- sense—and the more we do so, the planation of the myriad complexities stronger is the implication that they of the human consciousness (Tatter- do, whatever it may be that we are LITERATURE CITED sall, 2004)] beyond insisting on the actually saying. We must find some AAPA. 1996. American Association of cognitive equivalence of all humans. way to take this issue out of the bio- Physical Anthropologists statement on Why the United States government logical arena, to make it evident to all biological aspects of race. Am J Phys An- should insist on classifying my wife’s concerned that “race” is not a biolog- thropol 101:569 –570. Bamshad M, Olson S. 2003. Does race ex- daughter as of a different “race” from ical problem but an anthropogenic ist? Sci Am 289:78 – 85. her mother— or perhaps more impor- one that begs a cultural solution. For Barnicot N, et al. 1965. Proposals on the tantly, in any race at all—mystifies me race, in our species or any other, is the biological aspects of race. J Int Soc Sci as much as it does her. Arbitrary pi- most banal of evolutionary phenom- 17:157–161. Marks J. 2002. What it means to be 98% geonholing is certainly not a matter of ena, and it is given undue implied im- chimpanzee: Apes, people and their biology. Indeed, it runs directly portance when labored exegesis is lav- genes. Berkeley, CA: University of Cali- counter to the current biological ished upon it by “expert” physical fornia Press. 312 p trend, and thus from a biological anthropologists. Why our society in- Olson S. 2003. Mapping human history: point of view it should most certainly sists on retaining a categorization of Genes, race and our common origin. New York: Mariner Books. 292 p be discouraged. But it is unlikely that humanity that will continue to be in- Tattersall I. 2004. What happened in the much will be done to help this cause creasingly at variance with biological origin of human consciousness? Anat by endless repetition of the physical reality is not a conundrum that biolo- Rec (New Anat) 276B:19 –26. anthropologist’s modern mantra that gists (even biological anthropologists) Wells S. 2003. The journey of man: A ge- netic odyssey. Princeton, NJ: Princeton “races don’t exist,” if only because this will readily solve. It is clearly time to University Press. 256 p denial runs counter to human intu- hand the baton to the psychologists, UNESCO. 1951. Statement on race. Int Soc ition. Indeed, to talk at all of races cultural anthropologists, sociologists, Sci Bull 3:154 –158.