[Dragaera] Boing!

[Jon_Lincicum at stream.com]

Howard Brazee <howard at brazee.net> 
Sent by: dragaera-bounces at dragaera.info
09/08/06 12:26 PM

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Re: [Dragaera] Boing!




>On 1:12 PM Jon_Lincicum at stream.com wrote:
>>  This seems to be a much broader definition of "race" than I would
>>  use.
>>
>>  I would not say that any grouping by sociological paradigm,
>>  independant of
>>  genetic commonalities, really qualifies as a "race".
>>
>>  And certainly, classifying separate genders as separate races is
>>  uncommon, if not downright inaccurate.
>
>Certainly.    But there is no "accurate" definition of race.

I'll cite the wikipedia article on lineage: (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lineage_%28evolution%29)

"Many contemporary biological definitions of race conceptualize races as 
evolutionary lineages within the human species. Genetic data can be used 
to infer population structure and assign individuals to groups that often 
correspond with their self-identified geographical ancestry."

Using this definition, it may be akin to an analogy of colored marbles.

If I have 17 white marbles, and 17 blue ones, then I can divide them into 
two groups: blue ones and white ones.

Now, while this is certainly a superficial distinction, since the marbles 
are otherwise identical, I fail to see how it is an "artifical" 
distinction. It seems to me it is based on an objective observation. 

Majikjon