The social significance of race. Most physical anthropologists have abandoned the idea of classifying human beings into biological races. In many societies, however, people continue to identify themselves and others as members of a particular race, often based on skin color. Thus, whatever its shortcomings on a biological basis, racial classification remains an important sociological factor. Social scientists must recognize the way a society defines racial categories if they hope to understand human behavior. It would, for instance, be difficult to analyze American society without taking into account the commonly used division of that society into "white," "black," "Hispanic," and other races. Yet these categories themselves reveal problems with the concept of race. "White" and "black" represent categories traditionally used to identify biological races. But "Hispanic" refers to the language group of Spanish-speaking people, not to any one biological group. Unfortunately, many social distinctions between races result from racial prejudice and misunderstanding. The biological concept of race is sometimes confused with the idea of ethnicity or nationality. People identify themselves as members of certain ethnic or national groups based on certain geographical, cultural, or religious characteristics. However, these identifications are not based on physical differences. For instance, people sometimes incorrectly speak of the "Arab race," the "German race," the "Irish race," or the "Jewish race." But these labels refer to ethnicity or nationality and have nothing to do with the biological concept of race. Excerpt from the "Races, Human" article, The World Book Encyclopedia © 1999 |