Understanding Human Diversity

This book challenges misconceptions about genetics in human life and examines the relationship between ourselves and our ancestry.

Jonathan Marks (Author)

9781009534307, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 4 July 2024

150 pages
17.7 x 12.6 x 1 cm, 0.19 kg

'… this book does its job and would be suitable for anyone who wants a clear-cut analysis of some of the gross misunderstandings - often politically motivated and frequently racist - that have grown up around human diversity. This study is a needed antidote to books such as The Bell Curve … Recommended.' M. J. O'Brien, Choice

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.

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.

Subject Areas: Human biology [PSX]