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Loading... Troublesome Science: The Misuse of Genetics and Genomics in Understanding Raceby Rob Desalle, Ian Tattersall (Author)
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It is well established that all humans today, wherever they live, belong to one single species. Yet even many people who claim to abhor racism take for granted that human “races” have a biological reality. In Troublesome Science, Rob DeSalle and Ian Tattersall provide a lucid and forceful critique of how scientific tools have been misused to uphold misguided racial categorizations.DeSalle and Tattersall argue that taxonomy, the scientific classification of organisms, provides an antidote to the myth of race’s biological basis. They explain how taxonomists do their science—how to identify a species and to understand the relationships among different species and the variants within them. DeSalle and Tattersall also detail the use of genetic data to trace human origins and look at how scientists have attempted to recognize discrete populations within Homo sapiens. Troublesome Science demonstrates conclusively that modern genetic tools, when applied correctly to the study of human variety, fail to find genuine differences. While the diversity that exists within our species is a real phenomenon, it nevertheless defeats any systematic attempt to recognize discrete units within it. The stark lines that humans insist on drawing between their own groups and others are nothing but a mixture of imagination and ideology. Troublesome Science is an important call for researchers, journalists, and citizens to cast aside the belief that race has a biological meaning, for the sake of social justice and sound science alike. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)576.5Natural sciences and mathematics Life Sciences, Biology Genetics and evolution GeneticsLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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The authors' main conclusion is that modern genomics (based on DNA analysis of people worldwide) refutes the idea that humans can be divided into the traditional categories of race. Among other aspects that challenge the racial categories is (a) that there are no objective criteria by which such categories can be identified genetically; and (b) that any categories one might seek to define intergrade imperceptibly with others. As noted back in the early 1960s by Frank Livingstone, "there are no human races, there are only clines". The authors devote one chapter specifically to refuting Nicolas Wade's A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History, a work widely disparaged by scholars for its flawed science and racialist perspective. In fact, their title is a riff on (and implicit rebuttal to) Wade's book.
I have mixed views on this book. On the one hand, the arguments are well-founded and convincing. On the other hand, the book is quite technical, and written well above the level of readers that lack training in genetics. Indeed, though a biologist (not a geneticist), I found much of it heavy going; and the color graphics (which I am glad were included) were of only marginal assistance. A much more effective work would have presented the genetic science in ways accessible to the educated reader. Such would not only have been possible, but should be viewed as essential. If another writer with expertise in human genomics were to undertake such a book, it could be a welcome addition to public discourse on one of the more important scientific issues of our time. ( )