Review article
RACIAL VARIATIONS OR RACIAL DIFFERENCES: THE GENETIC PRODUCTION OF NEW SOCIAL MYTHS
Stjepan Orešković
; Faculty of Medicine, Zagreb
Abstract
Within the ecology and social ecology the central topics are environmental pollution, sustainable development, risk management and alike. The extinction of numerous plant and animal species is also being extensively discussed. At he same time, it has not been answered to equally important question: how to preserve dozens of different ethnic groups that are just now disappearing for the surface of the Earth. Geneticists have started projects of the genetic material conservation of the dying nations, as well as projects aiming to establish objective differences (variations) among races. That attempt coincides with the fact that this year, 1995, full 200 years passes form the publication of the book ŁDe generis humani varietate naturať. The book has made an enormous influence, mainly negative, on modern anthropology, sociology, populations ecology, and genetics. Blumenbach's taxonomy and human species classification has influenced the creation of wrong ideas on races and racial differences (equally as Carl Linne, with his taxonomy of the biological world, has influenced the entire epistemological field of disputes on the classification methods and hierarchization of the living world). What was the essence of that "pioneering" Blumenbach's attempt in the field of classification of races? Its goal was the development of populations taxonomy that is based on the theory and idea of pure racial type (pure race). Many of these theoretical assumptions can be recognized in contemporary genetic projects researching racial differences (variations), as well as in the practice of the ethnic minority groups control on the basis of genetic material control.
Keywords
populations genetics; racial differences; racial variations
Hrčak ID:
141395
URI
Publication date:
15.9.1995.
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