Rasse ohne Realität: Warum das Konzept der Unterarten fragwürdig und das der Menschenrassen überholt ist

Why the concept of subspecies is questionable and that of human races obsolete

Abstract

The vast majority of biologists reject the differentiation of humans into “races”. Occasional reference is made to other vertebrates, such as birds, for which “geographic races” have been described, but the term (geographic) race is not actually used in zoological science anymore and has been fully substituted by the term subspecies. For that reason alone, the use of the term race with exclusive regard to humans is inappropriate. The question then arises of whether there are different subspecies within Homo sapiens. The attribution of the status “subspecies” to a group of populations is entirely arbitrary and subjective. There is no rationale as to the degree of genetic or morphological difference necessary for the assignment of subspecies status. Ontologically, subspecies are constructs which are completely lacking biological reality. In this regard they differ substantially from species, which – depending on the underlying species concept – are natural kinds or even things. At first glance, the continental races proposed by J. F. Blumenbach appear to be the human equivalent to subspecies. However, Blumenbach’s “races” do not display distinct characters but occupy a continuum on which it is impossible to draw clear boundaries. This makes it evident that they are constructs of the human mind and not based on biological reality. The genetic variability of modern humans has been influenced by large-scale migrations which have been taking place since the emergence of the species, not just since the era of colonization and globalization. Modern genome analyses reveal gene flow on a global scale which completely contradicts the notion of distinct human races. There seems to be little benefit in racial classification for medical purposes, either, as while allele frequencies are not distributed equally, they also form gradients rather than distinct patterns, making classification just as arbitrary as classification on the basis of other characters. The future lies in individualized medicine based on patient-specific genotyping.