08-19-2004, 12:09 PM
Well, Theodosius, talking scientifically - ditch that map. Not only is the term "race" meaningless in human genetics, this is one crappy and inaccurate map.<br>
Some human populations ARE more closely related to each other than to other human populations - Europe and the Mediterranean basin, all the way into central Asia forms one such group, eastern Asia another. But these distributions are clearly different from this "racial" map. India is part of this complex of western Eurasian populations; Central Asia is a region of admixture between eastern and western Eurasian populations, and so, to an extent, is much of Siberia.<br>
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The popular concept of race partly derives from bad pseudo-science and is basically an ideological construct, and a fairly modern one at that; and that's my problem with claims that this (insert major historical figure) guy was "black" and that (ditto) gal was "white", as if this makes them part of, say, the "white" or "black" American community. It's really about colonizing the past for present political objectives.<br>
They were Roman, or Greek, or Egyptian, or Trans-Baikalic Tocharians for all I care; as long as they are describes as members of the historical "ethnicity" or culture of which they were part (or identified themselves with).<br>
Septimius Severus wasn't black or white in the modern American sense: he was a Roman provincial aristocrat from Leptis Magna in what is now Libya, who got lucky and became Emperor. That's all. <p></p><i></i>
Some human populations ARE more closely related to each other than to other human populations - Europe and the Mediterranean basin, all the way into central Asia forms one such group, eastern Asia another. But these distributions are clearly different from this "racial" map. India is part of this complex of western Eurasian populations; Central Asia is a region of admixture between eastern and western Eurasian populations, and so, to an extent, is much of Siberia.<br>
<br>
The popular concept of race partly derives from bad pseudo-science and is basically an ideological construct, and a fairly modern one at that; and that's my problem with claims that this (insert major historical figure) guy was "black" and that (ditto) gal was "white", as if this makes them part of, say, the "white" or "black" American community. It's really about colonizing the past for present political objectives.<br>
They were Roman, or Greek, or Egyptian, or Trans-Baikalic Tocharians for all I care; as long as they are describes as members of the historical "ethnicity" or culture of which they were part (or identified themselves with).<br>
Septimius Severus wasn't black or white in the modern American sense: he was a Roman provincial aristocrat from Leptis Magna in what is now Libya, who got lucky and became Emperor. That's all. <p></p><i></i>
Andreas Baede
