Skull!

[beckmen]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/a-skull-that-rewrites-the-history-of-man-1783861.html

Interesting. So does this mean that maybe race isn't a manufactured idea after all? Like a kind of subspecies thing or something?

(Keep in mind, I have an IQ of a shoebox!)

[Dutch90]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/a-skull-that-rewrites-the-history-of-man-1783861.html

Interesting. So does this mean that maybe race isn't a manufactured idea after all? Like a kind of subspecies thing or something?

The article doesn't say much about that, but it does suggest that the Eurasian and African people may have different ancestors. Based on the contents of the article, I find it feasible that Eurasians (Caucasians, Mongoloids, Arabs, Persians, etc) evolved from a group of Dmanisi people (i.e. Homo erectus) that didn't migrate back to Africa. The ones that did later evolved into H. sapiens. The latter would then be the ancestors of the African peoples (Negroids, Berbers, etc). This could mean that Africans have a different ancestry from the rest of humanity. I guess it's good we made this discovery today and not in the age of slavery, then...... Racists might have a field day with this finding, unfortunately.

That's just my theorization anyway. I always thought races were more than just labels - the differences in skin color, size, facial features etc indicate there has to be some sort of genetic differentiation between races.

[deezelboy]

There's genetic differentation, but no sharp lines or boundaries that you could say 'this person is ,genetically, part of this race, not of the other.'  It's more of a gradation in genes - no specific alleles that are shared in one population but not in any others, AFAIK.

Racists might have a field day with this finding, unfortunately.

Doubt it, considering the Mitochondrial Eve is much more recent.  We can all trace our matrilineal lineage back to Africa around 200,000 years ago. Hence, I think, the idea in the article that the Dmanisis moved back to Africa, if we share any lineage with them (or if not, their descendents wound up extinct).

[beckmen]

That's just my theorization anyway. I always thought races were more than just labels - the differences in skin color, size, facial features etc indicate there has to be some sort of genetic differentiation between races.

I think that is generally the common thinking, but like Deez said, there doesn't seem to be a lot of data to back it up, genetically. Good 'race doesn't exist' and find an array of articles on the matter.

[Hieronymus]

I'm not going to second-guess an expert in the field, but science journalists often don't understand, and therefore don't provide, the whole story.

It's quite possible that, like Lordkipanidze suggests, this hominin was an ancestor of modern humans.  However, it's also possible that this creature was an offshoot which later went extinct, like Neanderthals.  In such a case, this critter could have migrated to Europe while our progenitors remained behind in Africa for a few hundred thousand years.

I don't have enough evidence to endorse either theory offhand, but I think two hominins migrating out of Africa at different times makes more sense than one migrating out and then migrating back in (and then migrating out again).

[Neltharion]

I always thought of the different "races" of humans like different "breeds" of dog, in the terms, they are all the same species just that physically there are differences (phenotype differences for dem sciencey types)

[Dutch90]

I always thought of the different "races" of humans like different "breeds" of dog, in the terms, they are all the same species just that physically there are differences (phenotype differences for dem sciencey types)

I think that's a pretty good analogy.

[Neltharion]

And as with dogs, the pure breeds (Aristocrats, Royal Family) all have bad health, cranky and fuck their cousins.


And are German.

[Hieronymus]

Which is why half-baked notions of genetic, ethnic, or racial purity are, from a purely scientific standpoint, dumb.  But that's neither here nor there.