THINKING ABOUT RACE — WASHBURN 375 



as there are methods used to sort races. Some groupings are based 

 on much knowledge and some on very little. Some are undoubtedly 

 nonsense from any point of view. Vocabulary can be multiplied 

 prodigiously to try to reflect each change in method, or we can simply 

 say that the meaning of the word in any given case depends on the 

 operations performed in the creation of that race. The operational 

 point of view (Bridgman, 1936) keeps one's attention constantly on 

 knowledge and methods, and off distinctions that have only a verbal 

 basis. 



The importance of emphasizing operations actually performed is 

 well shown by the word "species." It has been stated recently that 

 all living men belong to one species because all the races can inter- 

 breed. Now at least as early as 1863 (Zuckerman, 1933) it was known 

 that groups of monkeys classed in different genera would interbreed. 

 If one pauses to think that the primates have been classified in 

 museums and anatomical laboratories, it is obvious that tests of fer- 

 tility cannot have been one of the operations actually performed. The 

 species of primates are natural groups which are distinct, that is, every 

 individual can be classified as belonging to one. Species are the 

 smallest natural groups about which this is true, because, since sub- 

 species (races, varieties) intergrade, many individuals fit equally well 

 in more than one group. 



Existing races of man are called "races" and not "species" because 

 their characteristics intergrade. If there were no intergrades between 

 Bushmen and Europeans and if they were classified in some museum 

 using the same methods used for monkeys, they would be put in sep- 

 arate species. As the classificatory system is now used, lack of inter- 

 gradation, and not inability to breed, is the characteristic actually 

 used. The history of how the idea of interspecific infertility arose 

 is worth considering because it shows the necessity for the operational 

 point of view. Species of monkeys were seen living in the same 

 locality and no hybrids were found. Since it was assumed that any 

 monkey would mate with any other (which is not true), the fact that 

 no hybrids were found proved that species were not able to interbreed. 

 Therefore species were thought to be mutually infertile groups. So 

 a conclusion, which is now known to be false, because a criterion of 

 a group which actually was defined entirely differently. If species 

 had been defined in terms of what people did in separating them, 

 inability to cross would never have been considered a specific char- 

 acter for primates. 



METHODS OF CLASSIFICATION AND PURE RACES 



All races of man are mixed, and within any racial group there are 

 always individual variations. After all, even monkeys of the same 

 subspecies collected in the same locality vary considerably (Schultz, 



