Understanding Human Variation

Catalog description

We humans are very unusual primates. We have low levels of genetic variation relative to other primates, yet are diverse in many other ways. This diversity is structured by global geography due to the fact that we, unlike other animals, live on almost every continent on earth. The history of human dispersal and migration across the globe has shaped our patterns of biological variation in complex ways. However, this biological complexity is often reduced to socially-constructed concepts of human diversity, such as race and ethnicity, in ways that are historically contingent. In this course, we will explore the empirical reality of global patterns of human biological variation and set it in its evolutionary and historical context. In so doing, the specific origins of “race” as a category of diversity within the USA will be illuminated and contextualized.