The myth of human races

1. Race is a Slippery Word

Chapter 1 RACE IS A SLIPPERY WORD The term "race" is one of the most frequently misused and misunderstood words in the American vernacular. Peter L Rose Peter 1. Rosel is indeed correct. Race, as applied to human beings, is vague and ambiguous. In common speech, it has a whole range of meanings. To focus on the issue, dictionaries offer little help. For example, the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Lan· guage gIves numerous and contradictory definitions of the word "race": 1. A local geographic or global human population distinguished as a more or less distinct group by genetically transmitted physical characteristics. 2. Mankind as a whole [as in the human race]. 3. Any group of people united or classified together on the basis of common history, nationality, or geographical distribution. 4. A genealogic line, lineage, family. 5. Any group of people more or less distinct from all others: the race of statesmen. 6. Biologically: (a) plant or animal population that differs from others of the same species in the frequency of hereditary traits: a subspecies; (b) or a breed or a strain of a domestic animal. 7. A distinguishing or characteristic quality, such as the flavor of wine. 8. Sprightliness, style. These definitions are at variance with one another For instance, definitions 1 and 3 do not agree. One is a biological definition, the other a social definition. Definitions 2, 4, 5, 7 and 8 are taken from literary usage but have no validity in scientific or social science community. Definition 6 comes closest to the one used in this book. But, as we shall see later, much confusion about race has to 9 10 Alain Corcos do with how great the difference in the frequency of hereditary traits must be between two populations before we can label each of them a distinct race. Race is a slippery word because it is a biological term, but we use it every day as a social term. In the mind of the public at large this leads to great confusion. Social, political, and religious views are added to what are seen as biological differences. All are seen as inheritable and unchangeable defining characteristics of one or another "race" of people. However, most of the differences between groups are in fact cultural . People are of different national origin; they have different religions; they have different political views; and they speak different languages. These differences can be modified as shown by the fact that every day many of us change nationalities, religions, or political views. Most of us can learn language other than the one our parents taught us. Race also has been equated with national origin. For example, writers and historians once spoke of the Roman or English races. However, no Roman race conquered much of the Mediterranean world, but rather people sharing Roman ideas of government, law, language, and military discipline. Among the Roman elites, there were many citizens who were not from the city of Rome or even from the Italian Peninsula, for that matter. Similarly, there is a country called England, but there never was an English race. England was invaded by successive waves of peoples , many of whom differed from other invaders in physical appearance . Hence, no one can point to an English man or an English woman because, among the English, as among other Europeans , there are fair-skinned people, dark-skinned people, tall and short people, long-headed and round-headed people, people with long noses, people with broad noses. Race also has been equated with religion. For instance, Jews are considered by many as belonging to a separate race. The history of the Jews is well known and reveals that originally they were nomadic people, a grouping of pastoral tribes the members of which spoke a Semitic language. They emigrated from the desert border of southern Mesopotamia to Palestine between the seventeenth and twelfth centuries BeE. On several occasions, they were expelled from the place they took as their homeland: a sojourn in Egypt terminated by the famous Exodus; the Babylonian captivity; the conquest by Rome. Thus, even before they were dispersed Chapter One 11 throughout the Roman Empire following the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus (70 AD), there were many occasions for breeding with other people of the Near East. Even if the Jews were originally a homogeneous group, which is unlikely, there has been extensive interbreeding with others from antiquity...