[Taxacom] Race and taxonomy

[Richard Jensen]

Hi Frank,

Unfortunately, that's not what is being argued. Very simply, his 
position is that there is no biological validity to the concept of human 
races because there is no biological basis for recognizing, under any 
circumstances, such groups. This view, and I am paraphrasing here, is 
essentially that when Linnaeus and Blumenthal (and, later, Coon) 
described human races, they did so because they were motivated, either 
implicitly or explicitly, by the desire (need?) to establish positions 
of superiority/inferiority according to their own socially-driven 
interpretations.

Cheers,

Dick J

Richard Jensen, Professor
Department of Biology
Saint Mary’s College
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Tel: 574-284-4674



Frank.Krell at dmns.org wrote:
> 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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