ANTH 224 - Race and Human Variation

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

This course examines the nature of human variation, in the contexts of genetics, anatomy, history, and society. The course begins with an historical overview of the study of human biological variation, and what Dr. Dorothy Roberts has called the “fatal invention” of the concept of race. We then move on to survey biological variation, both adaptive and selectively neutral, in humans. Moving from biology and genetics, we examine psychological and historical origins of racial thinking in the United States. This history provides a context for critique of how racial categories are used in modern arenas such as biomedicine and ancestry testing. Through the framework of the developmental origins of health and disease, we review the biological mechanisms whereby social inequality results in health disparity. Over the course of the semester, students learn about why humans vary, what this variation does and does not tell us about people, and the ways in which the social reality of race becomes manifest in biology. Zachary Cofran.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS