My Reaction to Shreeve's "Terms of Estrangement"

James Shreeve, author of Terms of Estrangement, Discover magazine 1994 

Main Points:

Shreeve's main issue is whether the term "race" should be used in science and other professions such as police work or medical research. He interviews many experts to see what their opinions on it are. Most of his experts are anthropologists, and most of them (especially Armelagos, Marks, Smouse, Sauer, Lewontin and Brace) feel that the word "race" is NOT a scientific category that can be defined for humans. This follows the 1996 declaration by the American Association of Physical Anthropology (see via Moodle link). In other words, the categories are impossible to make because various geographical populations such as African, Asian, or European have not been isolated; they are all connected to each other and there are innumerable mixes. 

Thus, Shreeve's interview data seems to point to a consensus that race is a traditional socio-cultural perception of human categories based on sets of visual characteristics such as skin color, eyes, and shape of facial features. It is connected to geography and migration and genetic change, but there are no clear "bushel basket" categories. It is not scientifically definable. However, at the same time, it is undeniable that police find the word useful for finding identities of suspect with quick visual sets of traits, and medical researchers find that medicines can be developed for certain types of people within a country such as American Blacks, who have different genetic tendencies than American Whites. Those are just genetic tendencies or "sub-populations" or "sub-cultures", not "races". 

My Reactions:

My main question is "So what? What should we do with Shreeve's information?" Most of us are not anthropologists, so how is this connected to us? I understand that the term "race" comes from a European tradition from Linnaeus and Blumenbach and is not based on real science. People are different, but there are no clear categories that can be made. The genetic differences are mixed and complex based on human migration from Africa to other parts of the world. 

OK, if somebody asks me, "What is your race?", what will I say? Will I say "There are no races of humans, but my ancestors are mostly from Europe." 

Next, what will my children Michael and Mei say? The question "What is your race?" does not make sense to them at all. I guess they could say "We are biracial, with genes from a European father and Japanese/Asian mother, but that muddles the issue. Their best answer is probably "The word race should not be used, but our father's ancestors come from Europe and our mother's come from Japan."

Something like that? In any case, I think it is very valuable for us to EXAMINE where "terms of estrangement" come from. The word race is responsible for a LOT of suffering around the world. If it has no scientific basis, we should abandon it, and look for other words that more accurately describe our differences. Perhaps ethnicity is a better word?