re: definition of race (short)

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For a school audience, I would think that a definition relevant to
their everyday experience would be best. This would, I think,
be a definition of social, rather than biological race: a category
of person identified on the basis of assumed (visible?) biological
markers perceived to derive from a shared biological heritage.
Examples: so-called "Blacks" in the US (which is clearly a social
category rather than a biological one); etc.

This definition is almost an exact parallel to "ethnic group", social
race being destinguished on the basis of presumed biological commonalities,
ethnic group, on the basis of presumed cultural commonalities.

Purely biological definitions of race must have some utility in this
world, but certainly not in this case.

Norman Buchignani e-mail address: BUCHIGNANI@HG.ULETH.CA
Department of Anthropology
University of Lethbridge
Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

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