Race and Genetics: New Study

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
I don't think Brazil's a really good place to do a study, honestly. Brazil is a country with a lot of mixed blood, and the Portugese aren't pure Europeans either, having imported Africans en mass to their own country and interbred.

It doesn't make sense that genetic variations between isloated groups would be reflected. They need to use better groups, such as Icelanders, Jews, Aboriginies, etc.

Well, if you want to show that white people can have genes from a variety of races and still be considered white, then Brazil is probably an ideal place for the study.

The link posted by GP defines race as "a large population that has a gene pool that is substantially different from that of other large populations."

This study shows the problem with this definition. The whites in the study would be considered as part of the white race even though half of the gene markers did not come from Europe. In other words, the gene pool of whites might not be substantially different from Asians or Blacks, or whatever.

[Dr Strangelove]

Just to throw a little fuel into the fire, a recent study showed that most Columbians have native american mitochondria, but european X chromosomes, indicating that at some point in time the Spanish eradicated the men and boys in the area and then bred with the women.

[DaShi]

Yesterday's paper.

[Caligastia]

So we are all exactly the same underneath our skin! What an amazing coincidence! I guess we can all be nice to each other now.

[Drake Tungsten]

Are people shorter than 6ft, with blonde hair and green eyes a different race to all those people who are taller than 6ft, with brown hair and blue eyes?

The divisions between races are obviously abitrary and socially constructed. I'm not saying otherwise. They are, however, usually based on physical characteristics that are genetically determined.

[GePap]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
Just to throw a little fuel into the fire, a recent study showed that most Columbians have native american mitochondria, but european X chromosomes, indicating that at some point in time the Spanish eradicated the men and boys in the area and then bred with the women.

Why would this be a surprise at all: after all, the Spaniards brough few women at first from Spain: someone had to bear all those early Spanish kids, no?

[Az]

btw, that should be Y chromosomes.

[Lefty Scaevola]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
Just to throw a little fuel into the fire, a recent study showed that most Columbians have native american mitochondria, but european X sic chromosomes, indicating that at some point in time the Spanish eradicated the men and boys in the area and then bred with the women.

I do not think that i need a genetic study to figure this out. A simple question of "what do conquistadors do?" would have sufficed.

[Odin]

There are no "pure" races, just areas were certain genes prodominate. For example, blacks aren't a single group, they are many groups that are more diverse genetically than non-africans. One group related to modern Ethiopians crossed from Ethiopia to Yemen and became the ancestors of all non-blacks. Whites and mongoloids arent true groups, they are mixed up with eachother. Some Germans (probably with Hun ancestory) are more closely related to the japanese and Mongols genetically. the mixing occured in late Roman times when central asian groups (Huns, etc.) brought asian genes into the european gene pool. Native Americans seem to form many groups; one group that includes most native americans is related to Siberians. Onother group seems to be related to the Caucasian Aniu of Japan. A few Native American groups even have genetic similarities to Indonesians and some GREEKS!

[Kepler]

Originally posted by Dissident
This study does have one redeeming quality. Is that skin color can be decieving when determining race.

You have it exactly opposite. This study shows that race as a meaningful genetic characteristic is *only* skin color. The other genetic attributes don't correlate the way you would expect if races existed as autonomous gene-complexes.

BTW, a historian named David Roediger has demonstrated fairly conclusively that until the late 1800's the Irish were considered non-white as a race. Why in the late 1800's? Because that's when they accumulated sufficient electoral leverage to matter.

It's a social and political construct. Period.