Race and Human Biological Variation

This entry explores the concept of race in the context of contemporary knowledge about human biological variation. It begins with a disclaimer about the scientific validity of racial categories as a way to legitimately describe differences in the human population on Planet Earth. Next, the entry explores how the term race has been used since the 18th century. Then, areas where human diversity is greater than on the dimension called race are sampled. A brief note about genetics and medicine is included. The last section discusses whether or not genes change during the lifetime of individuals.