Talk:Contemporary views on race

If this article is primarily on human races, it is surprising that there is no section on anthropological views. Physical anthropology is the branch of science that specifically specializes in human evolution and genetic variation. Slrubenstein 16:09, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

It'll take a lot of trial and error to get the right salient comparisons. If you've got an idea, go for it. --Rikurzhen 20:53, Feb 11, 2005 (UTC)

Fact
I added the "citation needed" tag because I have no idea of who is this guy and no references are provided. His claims are so outlandish that they should be assorted with a citation or a book, something to put him into context. And "others think" is totally unreferenced. "African" race? Wow !!! If that's not a "clash of civilizations" POV... Lapaz


 * It is amazing that someone who claims to know so much about the history of the concept of race doesn't know who Luigi Cavalli-Sforza is. He's probably one of the most famous living geneticists out there, and though he claims to not believe in typological notions of race he is the main scientific force behind the controversial Human Genome Diversity Project and the Genographic Project. --Fastfission 03:41, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

Dark Tichondrias's changes
"Genetic views on race" is an awkward expression, and much of the article discusses biological race in general, or is stub sections meant to discuss non-molecular biology topics. I think expanding the article in the originally planned directions is a better idea than the move. The Human genetic variation already has coverage of that topic in more detail than in this article, and is probably the place for additional material on the subject. There is also Race in biomedicine.

Biopiracy refers to something completely different than the charge of reifying pre-assumed racial categories. The Cavalli-Sforza article has the source for this quote, and it turns out to be a concern about possible commercial use of data that would be collected for the proposed Human Genome Diversity Project, not about theory of racial classification.

Also, on Rikurzhen's earlier material:

I did not see anything in Cavalli-Sforza's book that gave particular emphasis to a four-race concept. Cavalli-Sforza mainly discusses tree models with a different number of branches at each level, while recognizing that there has also been cross-mating which is not described by a tree model.

--JWB 16:41, 15 June 2006 (UTC)


 * JWB, thank you for your contributions. I also prefered the previous title. If I've misremembered CS's book, then please correct the text. There's no need to keep something that's a mistake. If you're intersted in expanding the article, you may have a suggestion for other literature that attempts to enumerate "races". --Rikurzhen 23:33, 15 June 2006 (UTC)


 * Thanks, I will move the article back to the previous title after waiting for feedback from others, then try to edit as you suggest.--JWB 17:28, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

The previous title would be fitting to change back to if contemporary views were added instead of just genetic views. --Dark Tichondrias