The Persistence of Racial Thinking and the Myth of Racial Divergence
S. O. Y. Keita,
Rick A. Kittles,
S. O. Y. Keita
Department of Anthropology, Field Museum of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60605.
Search for more papers by this authorRick A. Kittles
Laboratory of Neurogenetics, NIAAA-National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD 20852.
Search for more papers by this author
S. O. Y. Keita,
Rick A. Kittles,
S. O. Y. Keita
Department of Anthropology, Field Museum of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60605.
Search for more papers by this authorRick A. Kittles
Laboratory of Neurogenetics, NIAAA-National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD 20852.
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
The concept and schema of race continue to exert a major influence on studies of human biology. The racial paradigm informs evolutionary studies in spite of evidence indicating that categories based on external phenotype are not valid. Racial thinking is especially prevalent in studies of Africa. It persists in defiance of genetic data that deconstruct such thinking, probably as a result of the sociocultural milieu, linger research traditions, and a lack of appreciation of the implications of modem genetic studies.
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September 1997
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