race

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The breeding of farm animals and domestic animals with certain characteristics results in different "races" (subspecific groups below a biological animal species )

Race is a controversial term for a group of individuals of the same ( animal -) type , which based arbitrarily selected similarities in phenotype (appearance, physiological characteristics, behavior) classifies be. With the demarcation to a certain breed, a direct genetic lineage of all group members is assumed.

Has always been blurred defines the term "race" was formerly applied to all possible levels (about instead of "Art" or "species"). Since the beginning of the 20th century there has been a commitment to sub-specific groups (below the level of the species). With this, breed became largely synonymous with the term " subspecies ". Wolf Schneider wrote in a book about Stern in 1988 : “This definition corresponds to race ; the term 'subspecies' is therefore superfluous. "

In biology , the term is avoided today. Of races is today only in the context of animal breeding deliberately own speaking populations bred with specific characteristics. These then inevitably show great genetic similarities.

The division of the human species into races or subspecies, however, is out of date from a scientific point of view (compare race theory ). The visible differences between people from different geographically separated areas do not lead to objectively definable groups, because optical differences do not necessarily indicate the existence of genetic differences beyond the phenotype - the genetic range of variation within the so-called races is greater than between them: “In humans By far the greatest part of the genetic differences does not exist between geographical populations, but within such groups. [...] External characteristics such as skin color, which are used for typological classification or in everyday racism, are extremely superficial and easily changeable biological adaptation to the respective local conditions ”. To describe the individual belonging to a group of peoples , the term " ethnicity " is common. When it comes to geographical proximity with possible gene exchange, the term population can be used.

Use of terms, definition

Breeding goals for certain breed characteristics can produce sick, deformed, " overbred " individuals (see also torture breeding , inbreeding )

Currently, "race" is taxonomically only used for domestic animals and cultivated plants (compare race (breeding) ), is scientifically obsolete and is more and more out of use. In the rest of biology, the term has been used less and less since the 1950s. Although some biologists believe that it is possible to find human populations with genetic differences that roughly correspond to different ecotypes in other biological species, these populations have nothing in common with the traditionally defined human races, and a use of the term race in a taxonomic sense is never justified due to the extensive gene flow between them.

The naturally occurring diversity within a species is now referred to as “ genetic variation ”.

A definition from animal breeding was formulated by Hans Hinrich Sambraus :

"A breed is a group of farm animals that largely resemble each other due to their common breeding history and their appearance, but also because of certain physiological (= relating to metabolism) and ethological (= behavior relating to) characteristics and performance."

A possible more general definition of race is (in the context of genetics ):

“A phenotypic and / or geographically delimited subspecific group composed of individuals who inhabit a geographically or ecologically defined region and who have characteristic phenotype or gene sequences that distinguish them from similar groups. The number of race groups that one would like to differentiate within a species is usually chosen arbitrarily, but should be appropriate to the purpose of the investigation. "

This definition goes back essentially to the geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky (1900–1975).

Currently, however, the formula “a breed is a breed if enough people can testify” also applies among pet geneticists , which makes it clear that there is no uniform and generally applicable definition of the term here either.

The increasing avoidance of the term is mainly due to the use for " human races ". This concept was and is still used today as a justification for racism . After research on the genetics of human populations , the concept of the human race is scientifically outdated. Anthropologists and human geneticists , especially in the USA, use the - not entirely congruent - term "race", however, in some cases (compare Race (United States Census) ). Its use in the context of biomedical research is still common in North America and has tended to increase again in the context of genomic research in connection with personalized medicine since around 2000, even if this tends to be viewed critically from a technical point of view.

The French National Assembly decided on 12 July 2018 at the initiative of President macrons and his party La République en Marche unanimously to remove "race" from Article 1 of the French Constitution: the after the Second World War, since 1946 it originally as a contrast to the German Nazi racial theories listed term is out of date. In its place comes an emphasis on gender equality ; in addition, " climate protection " should now be anchored in the same article. In Article 3 of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany , the criterion “race” is still listed.

Conceptual history, etymology

The term race has always contained an evaluative component which, when applied to humans, culminated in the Eurocentric idea of ​​an allegedly superior "white race".

The exact origin of the word "race" is unclear; different, widely differing explanations are given. In the literature, derivatives are often used from the Latin "radix" (root in the genealogical sense), from "generatio" (gender in the genealogical sense, but also "kind", in the sense of "essence of a thing"), and "ratio" (also meaning “essence of a thing” or “way”). An alternative derivation of the word leads to Spain; it is called Hispanization of Arabic رأس / raʾs  / 'head, origin' interpreted as raza . Individual uses in the Romance languages ​​have been documented since the early 13th century. In France the word has been used since 15./16. Century attested; it is borrowed from Italian razza , 14th century. Another derivation of a Lombard legal expression * raisa (to tear as "lineage"), however, appears to be largely speculative.

The earliest known use in Spanish literature was in 1438 by the priest Alfonso Martínez de Toledo :

“Assume two sons, that of a farmer and that of a knight: Both grew up in the mountains under the upbringing of a man and a woman. You will see that the farmer will continue to enjoy the things of the village such as tillage, digging, and gathering wood with the cattle; and the knight's son will only rejoice if he is able to hoard weapons while riding and can stab knife. This is what nature intends, so you will be able to observe this day after day in those places where you will live, so that the good of a good race [rraça] will be attracted to his origin and the disadvantaged, a common race [rraça] and origin, regardless of who he is and how rich he may be, will never feel attracted to a different origin than where he originally comes from. "

This early text already contains the idea of ​​unchangeable traits determined by nature and ancestry in the context of secular and ecclesiastical feudal rule . Deviating from the later scientific meaning of a group characterized by common somatic characteristics, the idea here was based on a long line of ancestors, within which excellent quality is not necessarily inherited in connection with recognizable physical characteristics. In a corresponding way, the term was also used in horse breeding .

Entrance into the legal learned the name in the " Estatutos de limpieza de sangre " (Statutes of the "purity of blood"), adopted in Toledo for the first time in 1449 and as early forerunner of the Nuremberg race laws apply. Such laws and ordinances existed in different places and in different versions until the 19th century.

"[...] a church statute was proposed by our Archbishop of Toledo, which demanded that from that day all church oaths of that holy church as well as dignitaries such as canons, food distributors, chaplains and clerics must be old Christians, i.e. without the race of a Jew, Moors or Heretic [...]. "

In France, in the 16th century, the dispute between the nativity (French noblesse de race ) and the official nobility (noblesse de robe) contributed to the fact that the term race became common. In the period that followed, it spread to other countries.

In the 17th century, the French researcher François Bernier used the term synonymously with "espèce" ( species ). He is considered to be the first researcher to use the term in an anthropological taxonomy for the purpose of classifying people. Although the distinction between mankind and the conventional "human races", defined by skin color among other things , was common in the 18th and 19th centuries, the term "race" was initially by no means undisputed. The founder of modern taxonomy, Carl von Linné , divided the human species ( Homo sapiens ) into four “subspecies” in Systema Naturae ; Johann Friedrich Blumenbach , one of the founders of anthropology, distinguished five "varieties". For further use for human races (see History of Racial Theories ).

Since the second half of the 18th century, race has been used as "a natural historical term to designate a group of animals or plants with matching typical, inheritable characteristics of the external appearance", often in the restricted sense of a "noble sex with distinctive, outstanding characteristics obtained through breeding ." Properties".

In German, the French- oriented spelling Race was common from the 18th century until the spelling reform of 1901 . The meaning was relatively broad and indefinite in the sense of "gender, strain, descent, progeny, genus , variety, species (of humans and animals), ie for a group of individuals with certain common characteristics ".

In German colloquial language, the word race was used positively in the novel Die Feuerzangenbowle , published in 1933 , there for the (physical) characteristics of a young woman. Today this noun use has largely disappeared, but lives on in the adjective racy , which is still used to characterize things (e.g. wine ), but also living beings, in a mostly non-biologically determined, general sense ( e.g. spicy, hot, piquant ).

Anthropology (human races)

If you place people from very distant populations next to each other, the great phenotypic variation can give the wrong impression of definable human races. The transitions are mostly fluid and the genetic mix is ​​so extensive that the concept of race is no longer used in science today.

In different social and political milieus and at different times the term “race” was used in different ways. Such subdivisions of mankind were sometimes neutral attempts at classification, but usually, consciously or unconsciously, combined with evaluations, they were misused as the apparent scientific basis for racism , or at least ethnocentrism , and to justify slavery . For most biologists of the colonial era , the superiority of the “white” or “ Caucasian ” race was beyond question, with members of their own nation taking the lead. Many scientists, such as the biologist Ernst Haeckel , considered the difference between the races to be so important that, if applied in a different way than humans, it would suffice to distinguish several species. In Germany and other countries, these categorizations ultimately led to the “ Aryan master race ” of the National Socialists. National Socialist ideas - without being identical with them - could be linked to ideas of leading German anthropologists and human geneticists about the existence of human races, especially in connection with eugenic endeavors and also - for example at the leading University of Jena - to an overall anti-Semitic atmosphere and widespread Presentation of weighty differences between Jews and Europeans.

According to American biochemist and entrepreneur Craig Venter , whose company Celera Corporation sequenced an entire human genome ( DNA ) for the first time and published the result in September 2007,

“[…] The [human] genetic code does not determine a race, it is a purely social construct […] There are more differences between people with black skin [themselves] than between people with black and light skin and there are more differences between so-called Caucasians than between Caucasians and non-Caucasians. "

Corresponding differences in the appearance of people are primarily due to migration , selection as a result of evolution , environmental influences and socio-culturally different developments.

biology

The term “race” came from animal breeding into early biology . There it was used for a long time at different taxonomic levels at or below the species level for the classification and classification of organisms . The definition and use of “race” were not uniform, which resulted in a multitude of different types of races that could neither be clearly distinguished from one another nor from higher or lower taxa . That is why the term subspecies is often used. Especially in the English specialist literature, the breed (also: " subspecies ") is located in the hierarchy between species and breeding line .

Aside from its use for human races, the term was still used after the 1950s in the following contexts:

  • Host race (English host race ): Host breeds are morphologically indistinguishable forms of phytophagous insects or pathogens , which in species with a broad host range on the species level to individual farmers have specialized. The host species of the apple fruit fly ( Rhagoletis pomonella ) , for example, have become known and have been intensively researched for a long time.
  • Ecological breed . Ecological races are lines of development within polymorphic species, which are mostly physiologically specialized in certain environmental conditions. The variation can take place within defined groups or be clinical . Today the term ecotype is mostly preferred for this .
  • Geographic race . Geographical races are mostly parapatric , i. H. Forms of species widespread in adjoining but not overlapping areas that differ slightly but systematically, for example in terms of color or pattern. Since they can be freely crossed with one another, a hybrid zone is usually formed in the contact zone. Geographical races are now taxonomically described in zoology as subspecies : This is sometimes expressly recommended in order to avoid the term “race”. Nevertheless, the geographical forms of the honey bee ( Apis mellifera ), for example, are still referred to as races or subspecies (see article Races of the Western honey bee ).

Breeding

In the breeding of domestic animals and crops , “breed” or “variety” is used to differentiate within a species. This definition is incumbent on the respective breeders or breed associations . In this respect, changes in the definition of when and whether it is a breed can arise over time.

literature

Web links

Wiktionary: race  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Wikiquote: Race  Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolf Schneider : We Neanderthals. Gruner + Jahr, Hamburg 1988, ISBN 3-570-5998-7 , p. 253.
  2. ↑ Martin S. Fischer; Uwe Hoßfeld; Johannes Krause; Stefan Richter: Jena Declaration. German Zoological Society; here: Max Planck Institute for the History of Man, accessed on August 22, 2020 .
  3. ^ Massimo Pigliucci, Jonathan Kaplan: On the Concept of Biological Race and Its Applicability to Humans. In: Philosophy of Science . Volume 70, 2003, pp. 1161-1172.
  4. ^ Günter Jaritz, Elisabeth Wögerbauer, Florian Schipflinger (eds.): Red lists of endangered animals in Austria. Volume 14/4: Old breeds of domestic animals: pigs, cattle, sheep, goats, horses, donkeys, dogs, poultry, fish, bees. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2009, ISBN 978-3-205-78280-3 , pp. 8–9.
  5. ^ Robert C. King, William D. Stansfield: A Dictionary of Genetics. Oxford University Press, New York 1997, ISBN 0-19-509441-7 , p. 285 (English).
  6. ^ Lisa Gannett: Theodosius Dobzhansky and the genetic race concept . In: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences . tape 44 , no. 3 , September 2013, p. 250–261 , doi : 10.1016 / j.shpsc.2013.04.009 (English).
  7. ^ Günter Jaritz, Elisabeth Wögerbauer, Florian Schipflinger (eds.): Red lists of endangered animals in Austria. Volume 14/4: Old breeds of domestic animals: pigs, cattle, sheep, goats, horses, donkeys, dogs, poultry, fish, bees. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2009, ISBN 978-3-205-78280-3 , p.9., Originally "a breed is a breed if enough people say it is", Keith Hammond, head of the Farm Animal Genetic Diversity Unit the FAO
  8. ↑ Timothy Caulfield, Stephanie M. Fullerton et al. a .: Race and ancestry in biomedical research: exploring the challenges . In: Genome Medicine . tape 1 , no. 1 , 2009, ISSN  1756-994X , p. 8 , doi : 10.1186 / gm8 , PMID 19348695 (English).
  9. ^ Announcement: France: National Assembly removes the word "race" from the constitution. (No longer available online.) In: Dlf24 . July 12, 2018, archived from the original on July 14, 2018 ; accessed on September 11, 2019 .
  10. ^ Announcement: France: Climate protection as a constitutional goal. (No longer available online.) In: Dlf24 . July 13, 2018, archived from the original on July 14, 2018 ; accessed on September 11, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Announcement: National Assembly: France deletes the word “race” from the constitution. In: Zeit Online. July 12, 2018, accessed September 11, 2019 .
  12. ↑ a b c Werner Conze , Antje Sommer: Race. In: Otto Brunner, Werner Conze, Reinhart Koselleck (eds.): Basic historical concepts. Historical lexicon on political and social language in Germany . Volume 5, Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-608-91500-1 , pp. 135-178, here p. 137 (first published in 1984).
  13. ^ Nabil Osman: Small lexicon of German words of Arabic origin. 6th edition. Beck, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-406-47584-1 , p. ??.
  14. ↑ Kluge-Seebold, Etymological Dictionary of the German Language, 25th edition, De Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2011, pp. 746f.
  15. ↑ a b Hering Torres, Max Sebastián: Racism in the premodern: The "purity of blood" in Spain in the early modern period. Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-593-38204-0 , p. 219.
  16. ↑ Christian Geulen: History of Racism. Beck, Munich 2007, pp. 13/14.
  17. ↑ Georg Bossong: The Sephardi: History and Culture of the Spanish Jews. Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-56238-9 , p. 66.
  18. ↑ Hering Torres, Max Sebastián: Racism in the premodern: The 'purity of blood' in Spain in the early modern period. Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-593-38204-0 , p. 221.
  19. ↑ Christian Geulen: History of Racism. Beck, Munich 2007, pp. 36/37.
  20. ↑ Imanuel Geiss : History of Racism. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1993, ISBN 3-518-11530-8 , pp. 16/17.
  21. ^ Johann Friedrich Blumenbach: De generis humani varietate nativa. Medical doctoral thesis University of Göttingen. Rosenbusch, Göttingen 1775; The same thing: About the natural differences in the human race. Breitkopf and Härtel, Leipzig 1798, p. 204 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  22. ↑ a b Wolfgang Pfeifer (Ed.): Etymological Dictionary of German. dtv, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-423-03358-4 , pp. 1084-1085.
  23. ^ Charles Hirschman: The Origins and Demise of the Concept of Race . In: Population and Development Review . tape 30 , no. 3 , 2004, ISSN  0098-7921 , p. 385-415 , doi : 10.1111 / j.1728-4457.2004.00021.x , JSTOR : 3401408 .
  24. ^ Rolf Winau: Ernst Haeckel's ideas of the value and development of human races and cultures . In: Medical History Journal . tape 16 , no. 3 , 1981, ISSN  0025-8431 , pp. 270-279 , JSTOR : 25803666 .
  25. ↑ Veronika Lipphardt: Isolates and Crosses in Human Population Genetics; or, A Contextualization of German Race Science . In: Current Anthropology . tape 53 , S5: The Biological Anthropology of Living Human Populations: World Histories, National Styles, and International Networks, April 2012, p. S69-S82 , doi : 10.1086 / 662574 , JSTOR : 10.1086 / 662574 .
  26. ↑ Hartmut Wewetzer: Genesis: Genetic Self-Portrait (Craig Venter). In: Der Tagesspiegel . September 3, 2007, accessed September 11, 2019.
  27. ↑ a b Program announcement: Martin Luther King's Dream: The Illusion of Overcoming Racial Barriers. In: Deutschlandfunk.de. February 8, 2018, accessed September 11, 2019 . ; Original sound from minute 7:50: ondemand-mp3.dradio.de ( Memento from February 12, 2018 in the Internet Archive ).
  28. ↑ T. Gotoh, J. Bruin, MW Sabelis, SBJ Menken: Host race formation in Tetranychus urticae: genetic differentiation, host plant preference, and mate choice in a tomato and a cucumber strain . In: Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata . tape 68 , no. 2 , 1993, ISSN  1570-7458 , pp. 171–178 , doi : 10.1111 / j.1570-7458.1993.tb01700.x .
  29. ^ I. Buddenhagen: Understanding Strain Diversity in Fusarium Oxysporum f. sp. Cubense and History of Introduction of 'tropical Race 4' to Better Manage Banana Production . In: Acta Horticulturae . No. 828 , 2009, ISSN  0567-7572 , p. 193-204 , doi : 10.17660 / ActaHortic.2009.828.19 .
  30. ↑ Michele Drès, James Mallet: Host races in plant-feeding insects and their importance in sympatric speciation . In: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences . tape 357 , no. 1420 , 2002, pp. 471-492 , doi : 10.1098 / rstb.2002.1059 , PMID 12028786 (English).
  31. ↑ Guy L. Bush: Sympatric Host Race Formation and Speciation in Frugivorous Flies of the Genus Rhagoletis (Diptera, Tephritidae) . In: evolution . tape 23 , no. 2 , June 1969, ISSN  0014-3820 , p. 237-251 , doi : 10.2307 / 2406788 .
  32. ↑ James Mallet: Hybridization, ecological races and the nature of species: empirical evidence for the ease of speciation . In: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences . tape 363 , no. 1506 , 2008, p. 2971-2986 , doi : 10.1098 / rstb.2008.0081 , PMID 18579473 .
  33. ↑ Michael A. Patten: Null Expectations in Subspecies Diagnosis . In: Ornithological Monographs . No. 67 , 2010, p. 35–41 , doi : 10.1525 / om.2010.67.1.35 .