[Taxacom] Race and taxonomy

[Frank.Krell at dmns.org]

Of course, race has a biological basis. Races are differenciated by
phenotypical characters that have a genetic basis. Isn't genetics some
sort of biological? What doesn't have a biological basis is assigning
different races different social values. Racism has no biological
justification. This is probably what this faculty member wants to say.

Frank


Dr Frank T. Krell 
Curator of Entomology 
Editor, Systematic Entomology 
Commissioner, International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature 
Department of Zoology 
Denver Museum of Nature & Science 
2001 Colorado Boulevard 
Denver, CO 80205-5798 USA 
Frank.Krell at dmns.org 
Phone: (+1) (303) 370-8244 
Fax: (+1) (303) 331-6492 
http://www.dmns.org/main/en/General/Science/ScientificExperts/Biographie
s/krellFrank.htm 





-----Original Message-----
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
[mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Karl Magnacca
Sent: Monday, October 06, 2008 12:56 PM
To: TAXACOM at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Race and taxonomy

On Mon, October 6, 2008 7:29 pm, Richard Jensen wrote:
> I have become involved in an interesting discussion on my campus.  One
> of our faculty proposed a new course that included, in its statement
of
> intent, the following clause:  "...race has no biological basis."  I
> took exception to this on the grounds that race is a legitimate rank
in
> the taxonomic hierarchy and can prove useful when dealing with
> variability within species, regardless of whether the species are
> plants, fungi, animals, or humans.

There are multiple issues here.  Just because it has no biological basis
doesn't mean it's not useful.  It can be handy for categorizing
specimens that kinda-sorta look a little different, but grade into each
other.  It is, after all, possible that eventually a biological basis
may be found for them, such as a morphological character no one had
noticed before or genetic differentiation.  At the same, it's an
inherently fuzzy concept, so I don't think it's a legitimate rank.

Karl
=====================
Karl Magnacca
Postdoctoral Researcher
Department of Zoology
Trinity College, Dublin 2
Ireland


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