Are there breeds of humans?

Question

i'm just wondering about this for a while...humans are animals,right?so that makes us equal to other animals too,right?and different animals have breeds too,right?

so are there so called "human" breeds?just curious.

Answer 1

This answer will probably stir up a bunch of controversy, but I'm going to give it anyway. Different races could be considered breeds. There are four races, caucasian, african, asian, and aboriginal. Every person on the planet falls into one of those four groups. While we are all "equal", we are different on a genetic level. I think we belong to "races" instead of "species" for the purpose of social order, as being called different species would give racists more ammunition.

***Added note about "breeds"***

In response to the post saying that breeds suggests being bred for selected traits, this HAS been done. During the early stages of the development of the US, Africans were selectively bred to create more efficient slaves. Larger, stronger slaves were bred, while the more intelligent ones (or at least  the ones perceived to be more intelligent) were killed off. This falls into the classification of selective breeding.

On another note, I chose my breeding partner based on physical and mental traits. As in, I decided who I wanted to mother my children on the basis of what she looked like and her mental ability. NOT on the basis of "she'd be a good mother" like so many people do. I subjected myself to selective gene breeding.

Answer 2

yes there r human breeds... just what we call 'races' are, in other words, called 'breeds'...so there are asian, american and other 'races' or so called 'breeds'

Answer 3

yes i think so cos there are white people and black people and other "races' but we don't say breeds we say races

Answer 4

Yes, there are two breeds.

Male and Female.

Of course there are races too, but I won't get into that!

Answer 5

i think so.

Answer 6

Not really.  The idea of human "breeds" (more commonly called "races") has been tried out a number of times throughout history.  While some physical traits do co-occur in some form, generally stemming from a person's geographical region where they or their ancestors come from, these form a continuous gradient of change rather than discrete clusters.  Moreover, the variations are generally pretty subtle and only derive any real importance though our culture imbuing those traits with additional meaning.  Racism is an example of a culture imposing additional meaning--a ranking or ordering in this case--on physical characteristics.  

While it is fair to say there is variation in people's physical traits, it would be difficult to argue they form discrete "breeds" or that those groupings are not entirely arbitrary for all intents and purposes.  

Answer 7

the question says we are like other animals, which have breeds. But not all animals have breeds. the ones that do are generally domesticated, and, as described, were selected for particular traits. there are subspecies of some other animals, which is where natural selection tends to select certain traits that will be beneficial in certain geographical areas of a species range. where these differences are minor, they are called races rather than subspecies. The differences between human races are minor, way too small to be called subspecies or anything else. genetically, individuals of different races are no more separate than any two individuals of the same race.

so, no, there are no breeds, no subspecies, and race has more to do with culture than true genetic differences - for example, the native americans are phenotypically similar to south east asians but can have very different cultures, even within continents, cultures are very different.  

Answer 8

No.

Breeds occur in animals that humans have selectively bred for certain traits (such as dogs, cows etc.). These animals need to be continually selectively bred for the breed not to die out.

If humans hadn't bred these animals selectively there wouldn't be breeds at all. Theoretically, there could be human "breeds" if we selectively bred for certain traits but people don't tend to pick a breeding partner based on how similar they are so unless there was some sort of evil forced selective breeding regime somewhere it's very unlikely to happen.