DISCUSSION ON 

 GENETICS AND RACE. 



(Prof. H. J. Fleure, F.R.S., Dr. J. S. Huxley, Dr. G. M. Morant, 

 Prof. A. M. Carr-Saunders, Prof. R. Ruggles Gates, F.R.S., 

 Prof. F. A. E. Crew). 



Joint Discussion by Section D (Zoology) and Section H 

 (Anthropology) on Friday, September ii, 1936. 



Prof. H. J. Fleure, F.R.S. — Racial theory and genetic ideas. 



The newer concept of species makes it possible to consider both the 

 origins of mankind and a classification of mankind in a new light freed from 

 the limitation of requiring the sterility of crosses as a test of specific differ- 

 ence. The fact that human migrations from early times have had a scale, 

 a range and a rapidity unknown among animals is another biological point 

 of the first importance. We may give up both the view that mankind 

 originated from a single pair or a small group and the view that the different 

 groups of mankind originated separately from prehuman ancestors. Rather 

 should we picture groups of beings on the threshold of a full human status, 

 with probably differences within the group as well as between groups, 

 scattered over a wide area as more or less mobile collectors and hunters 

 forming a sort of human network over a wide area of the Old World, stretch- 

 ing at least through North Africa and South-west Asia. The persons in 

 different parts of the network would probably differ, but almost any part 

 might contain individuals similar in many characters to individuals in other 

 parts. With increasing settlement and development of desertic conditions 

 in North Africa and Arabia, some degree of isolation and a high degree of 

 local intermarriage developed and no doubt different variations, at least 

 some of them adaptive, occurred in different regions, so that — 



(a) A number of small remnants of early types remained, sometimes 

 perhaps degenerate as pigmies of the African and South-east Asiatic forests, 

 as blackfellows in Australia, and so on. 



(b) African, Papuo-Melanesian, Eastern Asiatic and North-western 

 groups became distinct, while drifts to America from Eastern Asia added 

 another chapter to the story. These may almost be called sub-species. 



Characters, even those used in discussing so-called race types, are nearly 

 always both genotypic and phenotypic. Stature is closely linked with 

 environmental factors ; nose form may have some such link, perhaps an 

 indirect one. A penetration of characters from the north into the Congo 

 Forest shows that stature diminishes more rapidly than nasal index increases 

 along the zone of penetration. It is most probable that hot, wet conditions 

 and poor food have prevented higher stature from persisting, but it has 

 apparently been more difficult to alter the narrow nose, so we get an aureole 



