Understanding Human Diversity

About this book

No two people are the same, and no two groups of people are the same. But what kinds of differences are there, and what do they mean? What does our DNA say about race, gender, equality, or ancestry? Drawing on the latest discoveries in anthropology and human genetics, Understanding Human Diversity looks at scientific realities and pseudoscientific myths about the patterns of diversity in our species, challenging common misconceptions about genetics, race, and evolution and their role in shaping human life today. By examining nine counterexamples drawn from popular scientific ideas, that is to say, examinations of what we are not, this book leads the reader to an appreciation of what we are. We are hybrids with often inseparable natural and cultural aspects, formed of natural and cultural histories, and evolved from remote ape and recent human ancestors. This book is a must for anyone curious about human genetics, human evolution, and human diversity.

Contents

1. DNA is not our deep inner core
2. Our fate is not in our genes
3. We are not 98% chimpanzee
4. Human variation is not race
5. Political and economic inequality is not the result of genetics
6. Human kinship transcends genetics
7. Men and women are both from Earth
8. You are not 2% interestingly exotic
9. We can't breed a better kind of person
10. Conclusions

Summary of common misunderstandings
References
Figure credits
Index

Customer Reviews

Biography

Jonathan Marks has worked in biological anthropology and evolutionary genetics and is presently a professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He has been a visiting research fellow at the ESRC Genomics Institute in Edinburgh, at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, and at the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study in Indiana. His work has been published in Science and Nature, and his prolific scholarship has appeared in journals ranging from American Anthropologist to Zygon.