THE HUMAN SPECIES 509 



though varying individually, are distinguished as a group by a certain com- 

 bination of bodily characteristics which they owe to their common descent." 

 The criteria of race, so defined, are such things as the distribution of the 

 blood group genes, or phenotypic differences in hair, skin, nose, eyes, 

 stature, and body proportions. 



"Sociological" Races. To the average person, in contrast, "race" is an un- 

 defined complex of bodily traits, cultural phenomena, language, nationality, 

 religion, and geographic location, overlaid with subjective judgments as to mental 

 or moral qualities. The same person may use "race" in various non-comparable 

 and often conflicting senses, with first one and then another of these elements 

 uppermost in mind. Thus we hear of the "White race," the "Jewish race," the 

 "Latin race," or the "Irish race." The first assumes skin color as the basis of 

 differentiation, the second religion, the third language, and the fourth either 

 geographic location or a supposed peculiarity of temperament. Such confusion 

 vitiates most arguments about "race," especially when charged with emotion 

 and prejudice. 



The Nordic "master race" of the Nazi zealots is a myth. True, there is a group 

 of northern European peoples in whom long heads, blue eyes, and fair hair are 

 prevalent and who constitute a Nordic race in the biological sense. But they are 

 no more mysterious in origin, more gifted, or more heroic than other peoples. 

 Only some of them are Germans, and most Germans are not Nordic. Similarly 

 mythical is the "Jewish race" as a distinctive biological entity. There are Jews, 

 and they have had a special history. Some Jews have a recognizable facial con- 

 formation, but more do not. The separateness of the Jews is primarily a cultural 

 phenomenon which has entailed a partial reproductive isolation of certain Jewish 

 groups. 



Although the dominant Nordic, the scheming Jew, the fighting Irish, the 

 inscrutable Oriental, and the brutish Negro do not exist in the biological world, 

 they do exist in the minds of men. They are cultural, not biological phenomena 

 and may be called "sociological races." As Braidwood says, "When enough people 

 decide to think there is such a thing as a race, then there is such a thing as that 

 race — for the people who think it. Habits, customs, choice of clothes, ways of fix- 

 ing food, and even odder things get mixed into the idea of race. It is this sort of 

 race on which race prejudice gets built. One of the problems of the biologist is to 

 know how to fight it. You can't convince a crazy man that he is not Napoleon 

 by showing him scientifically that this is not 1812, that he doesn't speak French, 

 and that his wife's name is not Josephine. So far, science has not been much more 

 effective in reeducating the people with race prejudice." 



The Importance of Race Study. From the standpoint of science we 

 need to know in what ways and to what degree people differ before we 

 can investigate the reasons for their differences. We must also learn to 

 distinguish differences due to culture from those due to heredity. And 

 always we are led by the desire to learn more of the history of our species 

 — man's origins and wanderings, the stages of his biological and cultural 



