Human Races May Have Biological Meaning, But Races Mean Nothing About Humanity

At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace throughout the world the savage races. At the same time the anthropomorphous apes, as Prof. Schaaffhause has remarked, will no doubt be exterminated. The break will then be rendered wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilized state, as we may hope, than the Caucasian and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as at present between the negro or Australian and the gorilla.

- The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex, Volume 1 – by Charles Darwin
The above quote is not to vilify Charles Darwin. On the contrary, I believe Darwin was a scientific hero whose work is the foundation of modern biology. Nevertheless, he was a man of his age. Despite the fact that Darwin was a political liberal from a family of liberals, with pristine credentials in progressive social movements of his day, such as the anti-slavery campaigns, it is clear that he had Victorian biases nonetheless; some of the passages in The descent of man clearly come from a fortunately bygone era, when white scholars and adventurers cataloged and surveyed the unexplored corners of our world, and created taxonomies of the “lower races” as if they were just part of the local fauna. The reality is that Charles Darwin’s age was fundamentally one of white supremacy. In the year 1900, one out of three human beings alive was of European extraction. In the four centuries since Christopher Columbus, Europe and its Diaspora had entered into massive demographic expansion—which many Victorians saw as survival of the fittest. Progressives of the late 19th and early 20th century, such as H. G. Wells, foresaw a future where the “higher races” would naturally marginalize those peoples who were lesser participants in civilization. Such was taken as the judgment of nature.
How 100 years do change things. And yet just as Darwin could not help but reflect the presuppositions of his era, so we in our day can not help but channel the zeitgeist. Like Charles Darwin, today’s scholars have concluded that humans are fundamentally an African species. But unlike Darwin they conclude from this that there is a biological, essential unity of humankind, such that talk of “civilized” and “savage” is rendered moot and irrelevant. We do look through the mirror of our ages darkly, seeing startlingly different insights from the same shadows of reality. Whereas racist assumptions and beliefs were supported by interpretations of science of the 19th century, today we attempt to harness science in the opposing direction.
The topic of human variation, and more plainly, race, is fraught. The past century has seen a wild swing from the widespread acceptance of the idea that human races are real, with big, important differences, to the opposite position: that race is fundamentally an illusion, a social construction of the human mind. But both of these arguments are mistaken. The established modern consensus about the equality of people, irrespective of race, is morally and ethically justified. But these beliefs we hold to be true do not derive from the natural science, which doesn’t present a clear moral lesson.

Assertion: Because most genetic variation occurs within races, two random individuals from different races may be genetically closer than two random individuals from the same race.

The image above, from a 2009 paper, is one of the clearest refutations of such assertions. An evolutionary chart, or phylogeny, of human population is not difficult to construct. Multiple different genetic methodologies have converged upon the same general pattern of Africans differentiating from non-Africans, and West Eurasians differentiating from East Eurasians, and so forth. Why? Though on any given gene, one may be more similar to an individual from some distant population than an individual from the same population, when looking at the average across many genes, there is a clear pattern whereby individuals from the same populations tend to share variants in common.
We can see this point by making an analogy between populations and families. Blue eyes are inherited in a roughly recessive fashion. That means that two brown-eyed parents may have two children with blue eyes (as in the chart to the left), while two people who are unrelated may share the same blue eyes. Clearly on that particular gene, two unrelated individuals can be more similar than parents and their own offspring. But it doesn’t follow from this that parents and offspring are less genetically similar overall than strangers with the same eye color. Rather, it tells us to be careful of extrapolating from just one gene when it comes to thinking about overall patterns of genetic relatedness.

Assertion: “We are all Africans”

Credit: Science

Today this assertion needs the qualifier “mostly.” To make a long story short, the “strong form” of the “Out of Africa” model of human origins seems to be falsified by the most recent genomic data. Rather, it looks as if modern human populations are a synthesis of a dominant “Out of Africa” lineage, flavored with assorted other populations, until recently known as “archaic modern humans.” The most famous of these were Neanderthals, but it looks as if they may just be the first in a long list of other ancestors humans interbred with. In fact, some hunter-gatherer African populations, the Pygmies and San, may harbor very deeply diverged ancestry from the mainline African stock. These are hominin lineages which separated from the lineage which led to the “Out of Africa” migration nearly ~1 million years ago, only to recombine in the last few tens of thousands of years with these hunter-gatherers (in contrast, the divergence between Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans occurred on the order of ~250,000 years ago).
What does all this imply? On a deep level, in terms of morals and ethics, pretty much nothing. If the human tree becomes more busy and complicated, does that entail that our moral and ethical systems should become more complicated and nuanced? I suspect that most people would react in horror at such a reconsideration, which goes to show that the precise nature of recent African origins for humanity was more of an icing on the cake, rather than a concrete basis of one’s motivation for human decency. How humans came about is less important than the fact that we are all human.

Assertion: Because modern humans are a young species, there has not been enough time for major differences to emerge between populations.
This is false. 5 to 10 thousand years ago a set of strangely mutated humans arose. They continued to be able to digest lactose sugar as adults, in contravention of the mammalian norm. In fact, humans are the only mammals where many adults continue to be able to consume milk sugar as adults. The rapidity of this shift has been incredible. 5,000 years ago almost everyone in Scandinavia was lactose intolerant. Today, very few are. The area of the European genome responsible for this shift is strikingly homogeneous, as a giant DNA fragment “swept” through populations in a few dozen generations.
The literature on recent human evolution is still evolving, so to speak. But it is clear that during the Holocene, the last 10,000 years, our species has been subject to a wide array of selective forces. Lactose tolerance, malaria tolerance, differences in color, hair form, and size, seem to be due to recent adaptations. And because of different selection pressures human populations will evolve, change, and diversify. Our African ancestors left 50 to 100 thousand years ago. If 10,000 years was enough time for a great deal of evolution, then the “Out of Africa” event was long enough ago to result in genetic diversification, which we see around us.

Assertion: Race is a social construction and a biological myth.
Race, the way we have traditionally thought of it, is indeed a social construction. But whether racial groups are purely a biological myth is debatable. There are serious biologists who believe that race is a useful framework. Race may be a biological myth, but there is no unanimous consensus on this topic, and those who dissent from the position that it is a myth are not marginal cranks. 100 years ago almost everyone agreed that race was real, and that the consequences of race entailed that populations should be subject to different standards of treatment. Today almost no one agrees with the proposition that populations should be subject to different standards of treatment (besides racism-countering policies like affirmative action), but there is disagreement on whether race is real or not.
The key issue is to move beyond the term race. Rather, the question is this: does evolution apply to humans? If so, then we must remember that variation is the very stuff of evolution. Not only does variation emerge as an outcome of evolution, but it is the raw material of evolution. The creationist Duane Gish is wont to say that if you tell people they are animals, they will behave like animals. The reality is that humans are animals, but we are no less human for it. Similarly, people fear that if you admit that populations may be biologically different it may lead some to conclude that they are morally different. But the fact is that different populations are biologically different, and none are less human for it.

SUMBAWA - Cultural Aspects (My college Object)

ATTENTION: I got this from my lecture when he was teached me in class, this is one of my college object about Sumbawa. i hope this document can help some, but please try not to copy paste this because this is actually not mine so if you just want read it's ok but please don't copy paste it because this document was made by him and this is Anthropologist document. and for your info about Sumbawa, my lecture said that there is only one scientiest who success to have research there, because sumbawa is so hard and got confused culture, so i hope this document help some people who want to learn about this tribe.

  Who are Tau Samawa?

—Tau Samawa is a mix entity. It consists of people that differ biologically (negroid, veddoid and proto malay) and culturally (jawa, bugis, makassar, banjar, melayu, sasak).

—Local historian claimed, there also a native people of Sumbawa that proved by the Ai Renung pre-historical site (Manca 1984).

 

Various sources indicate numbers of small kingdom in Sumbawa from coastal area to hilly mountains.

—Negarakertagama (1364)- Utan Kadali, Seran dan Taliwang.

—According to Manca (1984):

—Ropang : Kerajaan Dewa Mas Kuning and Kerajaan Datu Naga

—Moyo Hulu: Kerajaan Ai Renung, Dewa Awan Kuning and Perumpak

—Moyo Hilir: Kerajaan Gunung Galesa

—Sumbawa: Kerajaan Gunung Setia

—Empang: Kerajaan Tangko

—Plampang: Kerajaan Kolong

—Lape: Kerajaan Ngali and Dongan

—Utan: Kerajaan Hutan

—Taliwang: Kerajaan Taliwang and Jereweh (see also Dikbud 2002; Raba 2003)

—Nobel title: 

 

—King and the nobel family (Dewa, Mas, Datu, Sultan; Lalu, Daeng) à Jawa, Sulawesi and Lombok

 

—Superstitious belief à spirits (baki, leak, kono), magic (burak, sekancing, lome-lome, pedang pekir) à Islam dan Hindu

 

—Villages name à kampung bugis, mandar, bajo, arab

 

 History and Ethnic Identity :

—Their history shapes ethnical identity

—Sumbawa as a cultural and racial melting pot (G.J. Held 1953 dan Goethals 1961)

 

 

         Identity:

—To outsider they consider themselves as tau samawa

—But, between them Len desa, len adat à nucleation (Goethals, 1961)

 

 

—Dynamic identification roots in:

1.Bilateral kinship (and preference marriage)

2.Rivalries between vassal state (kampong)

—Goethals (1961: 14-15)“…conflict of kin-based loyalty often seemed to become the rule more than the exception”.

—Goethals (1961: footnote no. 25 page. 112) stated “…it must... be emphasized that the broad historical pattern in both eastern and western Sumbawa has been one of highly fractionated political rivalries where government has always been strongest at the local level”. 

 

Inter-community Relationships

—Dynamic identification as a tools to understand inter-community relationships.

—Stereotyping as a way to identify others.

—Land (in term of territory) used as based for stereotyping others.

—Samawa tanja makassar  (Samawa looks like Makassar)

—Utan basaja’ bae

—Rangking Pakajang Rate

—Aru-ara Tatebal (hurly-burly Tatebal)

—Pasiki Lenangguar

—Gambo Pamangong (the conceited  Pamangong/Moyo)

—Semamung pangantong bola (Semamung’s are good liar)

—Beraning anosiyep (fearless people of sunrise area)

—Merang Taliwang (Frighten people of Taliwang)

(Manca, 1984)

 Cosmology:

—View about self:

—Considering themselves as verses

—Tutu si lenas mu gita

—Mara ai dalam dulang

—Rosa dadi umak rea.

—Ila, Pamendi and Jangi

—Myth and supernatural beliefs     

  

 Religion:

—Islam is religion of most sumbawa people

—Each village had their own mosque (mesigit)

—Idul Fitri (belepas) and maulud nabi (munid)  are among the most important celebration

—In Ramadhan (bulan puasa) people spent their time in mosque (especially the elder and the young). It is associated with explicit religious obligations.

—Hajj is considered as important step in ones live.

 

Language:

—Despite various dialects, people of sumbawa consider their language as oneàbasa samawa

—According to Manca (1984: 23):

1.Each village in southern part had their own languageà basa Ropang, Suri, Selesek, Lebah, Dodo, Beru, Jeluar, Tanganam and Geranta, which called as languages of Ropang Mountain.

2.Basa Samawa is spoken by people of Batu Lanteh and coastal area in northern part from Empang to Seteluk.

3.In western part (now kabupaten sumbawa barat) there are Taliwang and Jereweh language which are more like bahasa sasak

—Goethals (1967: 33) stated that language of Taliwang differ considerably from those in eastern part of Sumbawa.

 

 Traditional knowledge:

—Knowledge about landscape. Every places had their own name.

—Daily activities (Economy)à subsistence activities, hunting and gathering food.

Importance of land:

—As a hunter and gatherer, swidden agriculturer, or as a farmer land have important role in Samawan culture

—swidden parcel (Rau) à see it importance in national context  (Bumi Gora). Dove (1984) stated 4 % of the cultivated land. 

—Hunting (Nganyang) à Pulau Moyo 

—Cattleman (Lar) à Provincial programm (Bumi Sejuta Sapi) 

—Farming (Orong/keban) à past name of the island (Pulau Nasi). 

—At village level, Goethals (1975) devided land category in Rarak into:

1.Omal: previously cultivated terrain which has undergone the swidden cultivation cycle at least once, and usually many times. Recognized as the "property" of individual villagers

2.Tua: These are timber reserves, or woodlands, scattered throughout the village tract in small isolated parcels. Such parcels are recognized as village property.

3.Kelasir: Best defined as the only mapped, formally titled real estate which is registered and recognized as such by the present regional government

 

Sacred Sites:

—Grave. In many cases abandoned, but…

—Sell his father’s grave…(ka jual kuber bapak)

—Jango kuber

—Abandoned sites used by people among them (considered as “not a good person”)

—Sacred grave. A well known way to solve problems.

 

WTF!! They Should Learn about Geo-politics!!

oh yeah its about my friend, when she was visited NZ (New Zealand) and got like package tours to visit one island called fraser island for 5 night there.. actually i should be with her in that time.. but its just because i didnt get time and i didnt interest a lot to visit this country because the price is so expensive for this only trips (i feel) its AU$986...

she got experience to visit one famous rainfall there and to see how much this island is so awesome.. fraser island is one of the best island there..
my friend got pissed off after she back from tours..
i asked, " so how was NZ?"
she answered, "stupid country"
i asked again, "hahahaha why?"
my friend answered, "the tour guide asked me when i was in tours, "so where are you from , then i answered indonesian".
the guide asked, "indonesia? where was it exactly? and then my friend just answered "its near from here, did u ever seen map? or did u ever heard about Bali? its between malaysia and australia!!!! (i feel like she got pissed off here)
then the guide just answered "im sorry sure i know Bali, so its near of indonesia?"
pffffffff my friend didnt answer..
whats the hell this guide is tooo stupid..


i just laughed to listen this..

well..
i have the same experience also. when i got cyber space friend from Texas and started the conversation like this..
X: hello there, where are you from?
me: i'm indonesian, you?
X:  im from texas, where is this indonesia?
me: (actually i got pissed off here, wtf he didnt know indonesia then i answered "its near of singapore and we got like more than 17000 islands how come u didnt know zzzzzz?"
X: WOW its awesome i didnt know yet..
me: so u heard about bali island?
X: are u kidding? of course i know Bali..


i just laughed and mad, how come the foreigners was more know Bali than Indonesia...
in fact Bali is part of indonesia...

so from this blog i just wanna to tell all foreigners that my country is so rich..
indonesia is Bali and Bali is indonesia..
so please learn about geo-politics..


zzzzzzz...

Indonesia Culture VS Japan Culture???

Ada banyak hal perbedaan antara budaya Jepang dengan Indonesia, namun disini vero hanya menampilkan beberapa saja. #No Offense

1. Ketika di kendaraan umum:

• Jepang: Orang-orang pada baca buku atau tidur. 
• Indonesia: Orang-orang pada ngobrol, ngegosip, ketawa-ketiwi cekikikan, ngelamun, dan tidur. 

2. Ketika makan dikendaraan umum:

• Jepang: Sampah sisa makanan disimpan ke dalam saku celana atau dimasukkan ke dalam tas, kemudian baru dibuang setelah nemu tong sampah. 
• Indonesia: Dengan wajah tanpa dosa, sampah sisa makanan dibuang gitu aja di kolong bangku/dilempar ke luar jendela. 

3. Ketika dikelas:

• Jepang: Yang kosong adalah bangku kuliah paling belakang. 
• Indonesia: Yang kosong adalah bangku kuliah paling depan. 

4. Ketika dosen memberikan kuliah:

• Jepang: Semua mahasiswa sunyi senyap mendengarkan dengan serius. 
• Indonesia: Tengok ke kiri, ada yang ngobrol. Tengok ke kanan, ada yg baca komik. Tengok ke belakang, pada tidur. Cuma barisan depan aja yang anteng dengerin, itu pun karena duduk pas di depan hidung dosen! 

5. Ketika diberi tugas oleh dosen:

• Jepang: Hari itu juga siang atau malemnya langsung nyerbu perpustakaan atau browsing internet buat cari data. 
• Indonesia: Kalau masih ada hari esok, ngapain dikerjain hari ini! 

6. Ketika terlambat masuk kelas:

• Jepang: Memohon maaf sambil membungkukkan badan 90 derajat, dan menunjukkan ekspresi malu dan menyesal gak akan mengulangi lagi. 
• Indonesia: Slonong boy dan slonong girl masuk gitu aja tanpa bilang permisi ke dosen sama sekali. 

7. Ketika dijalan raya:

• Jepang: Mobil sangat jarang (kecuali di kota besar). Padahal jepang kan negara produsen mobil terbesar di dunia, mobilnya pada ke mana ya? 
• Indonesia: Jalanan macet, sampai-sampai orang susah nyebrang & sering keserempet motor yg jalannya ugal-ugalan. 

8. Ketika jam kantor:

• Jepang: Jalanan sepiiiii banget, kayak kota mati. 
• Indonesia: Ada Oknum pake seragam coklat2 pada keluyuran di mall-mall. 

9. Ketika buang sampah:

• Jepang: Sampah dibuang sesuai jenisnya. Sampah organik dibuang di tempat sampah khusus organik, sampah non organik dibuang di tempat sampah non organik. 
• Indonesia: Mau organik kek, non organik kek, bangke binatang kek, semuanya tumplek jadi satu dalam kantong kresek. (make it simple hahahaa) 

10. Ketika berangkat kantor:

• Jepang: Berangkat naik kereta/bus kota. Mobil cuma dipakai saat acara liburan keluarga atau acara yang bersifat mendesak aja. 
• Indonesia: Gengsi dooonk... Masa naik angkot?! 

11. Ketika janjian ketemu:

• Jepang: Ting...tong... semuanya datang tepat pada jam yg disepakati. 
• Indonesia: Salah satu pihak pasti ada dibiarkan sampai berjamur & karatan gara-gara kelamaan nunggu! 

12. Ketika berjalan dipagi hari:

• Jepang: Orang-orang pada jalan super cepat kayak dikejar doggy, karena khawatir telat ke tempat kerja atau sekolah. 
• Indonesia: Nyantai aja cyinn...! Si boss juga paling datangnya telat!

This is My indonesia, And I Will Fix It :D

one day i will make indonesia become better than this and then i will show to the world that indonesia is not only as the most coruptor country, but i will show them that indonesia has high quality of civilians and gd attitude..



pkoknya bhineka tunggal ika ya.. smangat generasi muda :D jgn mau di injak2 lgi sma bangsa lain..we must study and learn a lotttt more knowledge so our nations can be better than this..
gak akan biarin negara2 tetangga mengambil pulau2 indonesia..jangan mau dibodohi investors luar yang hanya ingin membodohi negara ini dan menguasai alam indonesia.
jadi berjanjilah bahwa kita harus memperbaiki generasi kita yang sudah kacau dengan mencoba peduli terhadap negara dan semua isi alamnya dan belajar mencintai persatuan ini..
negara kita adalah kaya, tetapi kalau negara kaya akan tetapi SDMnya kurang berkualitas tentulah akan menghancurkan negara itu sendiri..
berjanjilah pada negara ini bahwa kita sebagai generasi muda akan memperbaikinya dengan jalannya masing-masing kita.
buat negara ini bangga pada kita dan satu hal ,"jangan berkata tentang apa yang negara bisa berikan kepada kau tapi berkata apa yang bisa kau berikan pada negara."

 potret remaja indonesia:
1. Remaja di Indonesia sebagian besar adalah pecinta produk luar negeri ( kalau pake produk dalam negeri katanya kampungan/kamseupay/norak)

2. Pengendara sepeda motor berusia remaja/ ABG selalu dengan kecepatan tinggi dan sama sekali tidak memperhatikan keselamatan orang lain ( kalau ada ABG naik motor pelan2 katanya cemen )

3. Anak2 sekolah (SMP/SMA) mengendarai sepeda motor tanpa helm, bergerombol dan dengan suara knalpot yang kaya kentut kebo

4. Remaja putri yang menggunakan jilbab mungkin akan sangat haval nama2 personil sm*ash, super junior DLL daripada nama2 nabi.

5. Remaja muslim indonesia, terutama yang ABG akan sangat hafal lagu2 SM*ASH, SUJU atau yang lainnya. tapi sayangnya mereka banyak yang tidak hafal dengan AYAT KURSI, dan surat-surat pendek al-qur'an yang sudah mereka kenal sejak kecil

6. Remaja indonesia sebagian besar rela mengeluarkan uang ratusan ribu bahkan jutaan untuk menonton konser Justien Biber, SUJU, Lady Gaga....sedangkan untuk amal di masjid dan yatim piatu 5 rebu aja masih hitung2....

7. Remaja di Indonesia sebagian besar rela antri berhari2 untuk mendapatkan tiket konser Justin Biber, Suju, Lady Gaga DLL......

8. Remaja di Indonesia lebih banyak menghabiskan pulsa daripada orang tuanya....

10. Remaja di Indonesia sebagian besar akan marah ketika di kritik dan mencela pengkritik sesuka hatinya.

11. Sebagian besar pelajar Indonesia lebih banyak membicarakan hal2 lain selain pelajaran sebagai pengisi waktu luang mereka

12. Gaya berpakaian pelajar putri di Indonesia sebagian besar sudah sangat vulgar dan cenderung menonjolkan bagian tubuh mereka, dan ketikas di kritik maka yang akan terjadi adalah no. 10.

13. Wanita2 indonesia mendambakan pria ganteng dan kaya, sedangkan mereka tidak terlalu cantik dankaya juga.

15. Remaja cowok di negeri ini sebagian besar menyukai wanita berpakaian minim (termasuk ane) dan wanita2 indonesia memenuhi nya...

16. Pelajar2 di negeri ini lebih gemar mengecek status mereka di jejaring sosial daripada mengecek PR yang harus mereka kerjakan besok.

17. 80 persen warga suatu kota akan tahu nama walikota dan 40 persen dari yang tahu itu tidak tahu nama wakil walikotanya.

18.Pelajar indonesia 90%nya memakai contekan di setiap ujian terutama di Ujian Nasional

19. Remaja Indonesia, 70% lebih sudah tidak perawan ( no offese sorry. its a fact)

20. Remaja Indonesia paling sering melakukan aborsi diantara negara2 lain.

mulai sekarang sebagai generasi muda marilah sama2 kita memperbaiki diri kita terlebih dahulu dan termasuk saya dari hal-hal kecil seperti ini, saya pun mengakui bahwa saya masih jauh dari kesempurnaan.
akan tetapi kita sebaiknya peduli daripada sama sekali tidak dan mengingatkan sesama. :)