What do evolutionists think about the origin of races?

Question

I am writing a paper and I would like to know this view point.

Answer 1

Evolutionists think that humans migrated from places because of weather and other adverse conditions. Genetic differences (caused by environmental conditions) are perceptible by humans, but races are a social construction.

Answer 2

Yes, I agree with another response, it is a social construct.

Answer 3

They think that we all began as one race in Africa. Dr. Spencer Wells has done extensive DNA research and his findings show that we were once all a people similar to the Bushmen in Southern Africa. He believes that we dispersed from Africa by walking along the shore, headed north into the middle east and went towards Turkey. Some people went south into India, along the coast, and eventually went from island to island and arrived in Australia. The rest of the group went into Eurasia, where Kazakhstan is now. They stayed there for a while with some heading north into what is now Siberia, others east into Asia and some going west into Europe. He believes that the "races" developed to improve the chance of survival in their new surroundings. The Asians got their look because of being in isolation. The Europeans needed lighter skin in order to be able to absorb enough Vit D in a low sun area. The Africans retained the high melanin in their skin, creating the dark color, as a natural sun screen.

In other words, we adapted to our environment creating what is perceived as "race".

Answer 4

Race is a social construct as others have said. For there to have truely been a different race of people then they would have to have been isolated. There would have to have been enough time for them to genitically mutate so that they couldn't breed with the other humans. Similar to how Humans and Apes cannot interbreed today.

Answer 5

There is no race in evolution, it's just normal variability in a species.

My tiger cat, black cat and gray cat are the same species...but where would you write a paper that called people "evolutionists?" that's hardly a scientific term!

Darwin did use the word race at one point to mean species, but he was talking about things like the races of pidgeons.

Answer 6

different races developed do to different climates in the area of they lived. For instance, White people's hair holds more heat to the scalp making them better suited for a cold climate. Blacks hair allows more heat to escape from their body adapting them to a warmer climate

Answer 7

Race is a social construction!

Answer 8

Race is  myth,, from a biological point of view in humans.  If you look at biometric feature, (nose size and length, hair, skin color, etc.) there are no discontinuities geographically--they simply vary along gradients.

The "races", if you look at their descriptions fit the people in the places in Africa, Asia, Australia and the Americas where Europeans first came in contact with the "natives".

Race is an important social distinction, since people seem to need to be able to divide group into "Them" and "Us", but tends to vary with the society.  Brazilians, for example have very different racial taxonomies that the US.