Re: What are race promoters promoting?
Phil Nicholls (pnich@digiworldinc.com)
Thu, 21 Nov 1996 03:10:27 GMT
marho@iafrica.com wrote:
>Finally, after all the toing and froing we have the answer. There is no such
>thing as "race"; there are only "sub-species". Gosh, what a wonderful
>difference that makes.
I see that you have a reading comprehension problem. What I actually
said was that neither term provides a useful way understanding
biological variation.
> Although, I do not know that I am all that happy to be a
>"sub-specimen". There is something disquietingly Hitlerian about the term.
>Nevertheless, if it is politically correct to be a "sub-specimen", then a
>"sub-specimen" I shall have to be.
Among other things, "species" is part of a system of nested
hierarchical catagories and the least inclusive of the lot. The
others you may have learned in biology class (assuming to attended
high school). They include kingdom, phylum, class, order, family,
genus and species.
Each major taxon has subdivisions: subphylums, superfamilies,
infraorders, subclass, etc. A group of related subspecies form a
species.
The term "subspecies" was introduced by population biologists in the
1930's, well before the political right found it useful to invoke the
term "politically correct" to excuse racism and sexism.
>In addition, I love this word "taxonomy". Until I started lurking on this ng I
>thought that it was something that our beloved finance minister imposes when he
>feels the pinch - like taxonomy salary, taxonomy house, taxonomy car etc..
Learning is a wonderful thing. Did it feel good? Maybe you would
like to do it again?
Phil Nicholls
pnich@digiworldinc.com
"To ask a question, you must first know
most of the answer." Robert Sheckley
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