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Race is one of the most contentious issues that face us today. Anthropology's contribution to this discussion involves the objective examination of the facets of human variation and conclusions about what that variation entails, how it came about, and what it does and does not mean. Armed with such information, we are better able to confront the social, ethical, political, and personal aspects of race. Scientific data from evolutionary biology, biological anthropology, and genetics show us clearly that while human biological variation exists across geographical space and can be examined and explained, the human species simply cannot be divided up into any number of meaningful biological units. In other words, biological races do not exist for our species. Race, of course, does exist, but it is a cultural classification—based on a society's knowledge of human diversity, its history, and its attitudes about various human groups. Just as societies culturally translate sexual differences into gender categories, they also translate human biological and cultural diversity into racial categories. Political, ideological, and economic motivations have led societies to propose connections between racial categories and biological traits. Differences in cultural level have been interpreted to reflect differences in intelligence or evolutionary level. IQ test scores have been said to show differences in intellectual abilities between races. There is no sound evidence for such profound biological differences. Rather, there are logical reasons for differences in test scores and level of technology that are grounded in what anthropological data and theory have shown us about the nature of culture as an adaptive mechanism and about the complex environments in which we, as individuals and members of our societies, live. |