Question

Discuss race in regards to biological taxonomy. How does race depict humans as a polytypic species? What are the issues with taxonomic race in reference to humans? minimum paragraph

Answer 1

Historically, the term race has been used in biology as a synonym for subspecies. Whereas the term subspecies was typically used in the description of infra-specific diversity in nonhuman animal species, the term ‘race’ tends to be employed exclusively in the description of diversity present within the human species. Despite this, it is frequently asserted that humans are monotypic (belonging to one species and one subspecies – humans ) and that ‘racial’ diversity is either a socially constructed biological illusion or that it exists only at infra-subspecific scales and is therefore taxonomically trivial. In this manuscript, a case will be made for the hypothesis that humans are, in fact, polytypic and that this has significant implications for fields such as anthropology and medicine

The term race is a traditional synonym for subspecies, however, it is frequently asserted that humans is monotypic and that what are termed races are nothing more than biological illusions. In this manuscript, a case is made for the hypothesis that humans are polytypic, and in this way is no different from other species exhibiting similar levels of genetic and morphological diversity. First, it is demonstrated that the four major definitions of race/subspecies can be shown to be synonymous within the context of the framework of race as a correlation structure of traits.

The issue of taxonomic classification is considered where it is demonstrated that humans possess high levels of morphological diversity, genetic heterozygosity, and differentiation (F(ST)) compared to many species that are acknowledged to be polytypic with respect to subspecies. Racial variation is then evaluated in light of the phylogenetic species concept, where it is suggested that the least inclusive monophyletic units exist below the level of species within humans indicating the existence of a number of potential human phylogenetic species; and the biological species concept, where it is determined that racial variation is too small to represent differentiation at the level of biological species. Finally, the implications of this are discussed in the context of anthropology where an accurate picture of the sequence and timing of events during the evolution of human taxa are required for a complete picture of human evolution, and medicine, where a greater appreciation of the role played by human taxonomic differences in disease susceptibility and treatment responsiveness will save lives in the future.