The Race Question - The Statement

The Statement

The 1951 revised statement stated that Homo sapiens is one species. "The concept of race is unanimously regarded by anthropologists as a classificatory device providing a zoological frame within which the various groups of mankind may be arranged and by means of which studies of evolutionary processes can be facilitated. In its anthropological sense, the word ‘race’ should be reserved for groups of mankind possessing well-developed and primarily heritable physical differences from other groups." These differences have been caused in part by partial isolation preventing intermingling, geography an important explanation for the major races, often cultural for the minor races. National, religious, geographical, linguistic and cultural groups do not necessarily coincide with racial groups.

Most anthropologists have classified humans into 3 large groups. Such a classification does not depend on any single physical character such as skin color. There is considerable overlap. With respect to most, if not all, measurable characters, the differences among individuals belonging to the same race are greater than the differences that occur between the observed averages for two or more races within the same major group.

Most anthropologists do not include mental characteristics in their classification of human races. "When intelligence tests, even non-verbal, are made on a group of non-literate people, their scores are usually lower than those of more civilised people." However, overall, available scientific knowledge provides no basis for believing that the groups of mankind differ in their innate capacity for intellectual and emotional development.

There is no evidence for the existence of so-called "pure races" and no scientific justification exists for discouraging reproduction between persons of different races.