German Espinoza

Research Paper
Anth 1020
The Concept of Race
The beginning of the human race and what the term Race means today has evolved to
much more then where it begun and meant centuries ago. There are many theories regarding the
Origin of the Human Race, and one theory remains that it is thought to have begun in Africa.
Anthropologists have discovered fossils with modern human DNA in Africa and Eurasia. Studies
regarding molecular biology suggest that Human DNA was sought 140,000 to 290,000 years ago
from Arica and DNA with non-African split is as early as 110,000-34,000 years ago and so forth.
(Cashmore, Jennings Page 265). Currently Africa contains the most genetically diverse
population throughout the world. All humans share a single phenotype; a set of observable
characteristics.

In ancient Greece and Rome, slave labor system were the main source of production and
was introduced to many capitalist markets. The concept of slavery was to capture individuals
throughout Europe, Asia and Africa for the output of commodities. During this time in ancient
history, slavery had nothing to do with race and was not a concept of skin color or appearance.
The Greeks referred to anyone who wasnt Greek as Barbarians, as did many other cultures.
Barbarians could be any color, culture or background and came from all over the world.
(Cashmore, Jennings page 306). Slaves were thought up to less than equal because of their nonChristianity beliefs and the Greeks ultimately wanted to merge other backgrounds with theirs.
Their attempt to convert slaves or other backgrounds into their culture would be through
marriage or converting slaves to their beliefs. This historic lifestyle is similar and may have

started the saying When in Rome, do as the Romans do, meaning that no matter where you are
from or what you look like; if you want to be
accepted by the culture you must act like them.

Racial Prejudice against skin color

begun in the 16th century when it was thought
as the blacks from Africa as being an inferior
Figure 1
https://www.pinterest.com/source/richeast.org

race. The idea of blacks being inferior was because

they were thought to tolerate hard labor better as
well as the heat, whereas European whites could not
work as hard. Whites would use this to rationalize
the reasoning for enslaving blacks for their necessity
Figure 2AMERICAN RACISM AND
NATURAL SELECTION

to produce mass labor. (Cashmore, Jennings, page

304). Slaves begun to be branded into slavery by the

color of their skin, making it impossible to escape their reality. When scientist Charles Darwin
created the theory of Natural Selection, in 1858 it was widely thought that blacks were closest
to apes in the evolution chain. (Cashmore, Jennings 306)

Because the concept of race is meaningless, to Anthropologist, the classification of race

is primarily a social issue. It is sought to have been created by the human mind in attempts to
simplify biological complexity by organizing it into categories. (Jurmain, Kilgore, Trevathan,
Page 314). There is not enough genetic variation between individuals in the Human Race to
classify individuals otherwise than the human race. Michael Hadijargyrou argues that DNA

between two different humans no matter what race is 99.9% identical. (Livescience.com). It is
unethical to categorize individuals into race when we are all so much alike.

Many humans from all around the world, share similar traits or even illnesses. There is
evident data that we all came from the same side of the world, or near the same location.
Physical appearance, blood type, head shape or other variations can be more different in an
individual who has a same color of skin as you but similar in an individual with a different skin
color. Scientist believe that the controversy over human race will begin to fade as we begin to
understand genetic diversity better. (Jurmain. Kigore. Trevathan. Page 316). Basically no skin
color or race can be more superior to another because of the similarities between different
cultures and differences between human-beings arise mostly from environmental factors

Bibliography
Cashmore, Ernest. Jennings, James. Racism Essential Readings. Sage Publications
LTD. London. 2001 (Pages 265, 304, 306)

Hadijargyrou, Michal. Race is a Social Concept, Not a Scientific One (Op-Ed). Live
Science. Aug. 29, 2014. WEB. http://www.livescience.com/47627-race-is-not-ascience-concept.html
Jurmain. Kigore. Trevathan. Essetials of Physical Anthropology, Ninth Edition.
2013, 2011. Cengage Learning. (Pages 313-316)

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