Dante
I have always been here
- Banned
- #1
Long ago is was argued and I'd say proven that race is really a Social Construct. The Reality that physical characteristics such as skin color and hair texture are not reflected as discrete groups in our genomes, should be evidence enough to convince any interested person of what I am saying here. Yet, we all know that there are still groups of people that would separate themselves and others by a racial thing? A things that does not really exist on a scientific level.
A snippet of long conversation back and forth:
So very briefly with this complex picture, you alluded to it there,even other species that may have fed into the human story. How important is it that we create a sense of our shared humanity? Does this science have a potential to do that?
- I think the answer to that is a very clear yes. (all laughing) I mean, the thing is that more than anything that genetics has shown in the second half of the 20th century and now into the 21st century is quite how closely related humans are. We've talked at the very beginning about the shared genealogy,that the entire population of Europe is the entire set of the ancestors of us all today. We have shown conclusively that the artificial divisions that we created in the17th and 18th century based on physical characteristics such as skin colour and hair texture are not reflected as discrete groups in our genomes, which is the true metric of human similarity and difference. And so that's why we refer to race as a 'socially constructed' idea. It is not biologically meaningful.
All of these things point in one direction, which is to our shared humanity. - Yeah, and on that,it's not just genetics. We are very, very well connected. I mean, just even looking at this late Neolithic plague that stretched all the way from Britain to Russia, it's not just genetics,it's also human connections. We see with the late Neolithic, early Bronze Age, how that lineage, that pandemic could spread all the way from Britain to Russia. This is before planes, trains and cars. So we're always mixing what is very complex trade routes and sharing of information and culture and languages. And it doesn't just have to be this idea of we share genetics to feel this like human unity. - I mean, yeah, it augments what we see at archaeological sites as well in some ways. We have this site in Poulton in Cheshire, which was a medieval cemetery, where we have phases of plague.
There was a Black Death plague epidemic that went through this community more than once.
And at one point, there was a burial of two children. We found out that those children probably died of plague and that they were brothers as well. So when you see those specific contexts and are able to use DNA to add to those specific stories of those individuals within these communities, that gives you sort of a very acute sense of these were human people in the past
having the same reaction and having to respond in particular ways. And that's what the DNA can sometimes help with.
- Yeah, I mean, at least to me, I really get this sense of wonder and thinking about this different ancestry that ultimately connects us all and sort of a sense of vertigo, looking back these hundreds and thousands of generations into the past. I mean, very much shared humanity. But I would also say that, you know, if anyone is sitting and sort of don't believe what is said, Tom mentioned that all the data from ancient DNA in general is publicly available. And if you have a bit of coding experience,you can download it and ask those questions yourself, and that would be doing science.
- Well, thank you very much. Thank you to our panel, Dr. Pooja Swali, Professor Pontus Skoglund, Dr. Adam Rutherford and Dr. Tom Booth. (audience applauding)
note: This is Not a thread about race, as much as it is a thread about science. I would say "the science of race" but there is no science behind the idea of "race."
A snippet of long conversation back and forth:
So very briefly with this complex picture, you alluded to it there,even other species that may have fed into the human story. How important is it that we create a sense of our shared humanity? Does this science have a potential to do that?
- I think the answer to that is a very clear yes. (all laughing) I mean, the thing is that more than anything that genetics has shown in the second half of the 20th century and now into the 21st century is quite how closely related humans are. We've talked at the very beginning about the shared genealogy,that the entire population of Europe is the entire set of the ancestors of us all today. We have shown conclusively that the artificial divisions that we created in the17th and 18th century based on physical characteristics such as skin colour and hair texture are not reflected as discrete groups in our genomes, which is the true metric of human similarity and difference. And so that's why we refer to race as a 'socially constructed' idea. It is not biologically meaningful.
All of these things point in one direction, which is to our shared humanity. - Yeah, and on that,it's not just genetics. We are very, very well connected. I mean, just even looking at this late Neolithic plague that stretched all the way from Britain to Russia, it's not just genetics,it's also human connections. We see with the late Neolithic, early Bronze Age, how that lineage, that pandemic could spread all the way from Britain to Russia. This is before planes, trains and cars. So we're always mixing what is very complex trade routes and sharing of information and culture and languages. And it doesn't just have to be this idea of we share genetics to feel this like human unity. - I mean, yeah, it augments what we see at archaeological sites as well in some ways. We have this site in Poulton in Cheshire, which was a medieval cemetery, where we have phases of plague.
There was a Black Death plague epidemic that went through this community more than once.
And at one point, there was a burial of two children. We found out that those children probably died of plague and that they were brothers as well. So when you see those specific contexts and are able to use DNA to add to those specific stories of those individuals within these communities, that gives you sort of a very acute sense of these were human people in the past
having the same reaction and having to respond in particular ways. And that's what the DNA can sometimes help with.
- Yeah, I mean, at least to me, I really get this sense of wonder and thinking about this different ancestry that ultimately connects us all and sort of a sense of vertigo, looking back these hundreds and thousands of generations into the past. I mean, very much shared humanity. But I would also say that, you know, if anyone is sitting and sort of don't believe what is said, Tom mentioned that all the data from ancient DNA in general is publicly available. And if you have a bit of coding experience,you can download it and ask those questions yourself, and that would be doing science.
- Well, thank you very much. Thank you to our panel, Dr. Pooja Swali, Professor Pontus Skoglund, Dr. Adam Rutherford and Dr. Tom Booth. (audience applauding)
note: This is Not a thread about race, as much as it is a thread about science. I would say "the science of race" but there is no science behind the idea of "race."
