Showing papers in "Mankind Quarterly in 2002"

The Scientific Fallacy of the Human Biological Concept of Race

Abstract: Key Words: Physical anthropology, forensic anthropology, evolution, Linnaeus, Darwin, Broca, Blumenbach, Carleton Coon, Cavalli-Sforza, F. Boas, Margaret Mead, Ashley Montagu, R. Lewontin, S. J. Gould, L. Lieberman, dismantling race, nazi-fascist racism. A Wrong Approach Modern science try to understand the phenomena of nature through the formulation of hypotheses and their subsequent empirical control by comparing predictions and observations. If a scientific hypothesis receive the empirical validation then it become part of the construction of a paradigm; otherwise, the hypothesis must be simply rejected if falsified by experimental results (Popper 1934; Kragh 1987). That was not the case of the construction of the "anthropological dogma" of human biological concept of race. Physical anthropology originated as an independent scientific discipline during the eighteenth century, and has been affected by an epistemological error from the very beginning. In fact, the existence of races was considered the basic principle of physical anthropology instead of just being a hypothesis amenable to empirical investigation, and therefore for about two centuries physical anthropologists refused to be led by the only criterion of truth that natural sciences recognize, namely empirical validation. However, all scholars who dedicated themselves to that futile classificatory exercise unintentionally contributed to demonstrate that they were involved in a false paradigm, because of the problematic aspects in explaining human biological variability using the taxonomic sub-specific category of race. This difficulty in identifying human races was proved by the high number of subdivisions suggested, which included two to sixty-three races, and differences in the traditional definition of race: Race as synonymous of sub-species, ethnic group, population, and so on (Darwin 1871; Count 1950; Biasutti 1967; Could 1981; Brace 1982). Why did so many physical anthropologists refuse to test the hypothesis of whether human biological variability could be neatly subdivided according to the taxonomic sub-specific categories of race? Why did so many physical anthropologists accept the racial paradigm? Three main constrains, two external and one internal to the scientific process, contributed to this serious error in scientific logic. First, the history of the cultural context from which physical anthropology originated. Second, the history of the social context in which physical anthropologists formulated the concept of race. Third, the broad process of construction of theories within Biological Sciences. The Cultural Context which Conditioned Physical Anthropologists The first reason emerged from a western culture idea that biological and ethnic diversity is very ancient. This concept developed in Egypt during the second millennium B.C., and represented a deep change in perspective. In fact, before then not only humanity but the whole world was considered as a unit. The Egyptians subdivided humankind into four groups, one of which was made up by themselves. They in fact called themselves Remet which simply means "man". In their paintings of the fifteenth century B.C. they were portraid in red, while the Asiatics named Aamu in yellow, the populations of sub-Saharan Africa, the Nubians named Nehesyu, in black, and the Libyans, as well as some western populations named Tjemehu, with yellow hair and blue eyes (Bresciani et al. 1993; Gardiner 1947). Still in ancient times, the father of history Herodotus (490/480430/420 B.C.) gave a physical description to a great number of people in his Historie, and Pliny the Elder (23-79) in his Naturalis historic explained physical differences between Africans and Europeans as a direct consequence of climate. After Herodotus all long-distance travellers, up to the origin of physical anthropology, left descriptions of the peoples they met (Daumas 1957; Duchet 1971; Geymonat 1973). …

Finland's settling model revisited

Abstract: The author examines the competing hypotheses that have been advanced to explain the origin and migration routes of the Finns, including the suggestion that they formerly inhabited parts of the North European plain immediately to the south of Scandinavia during the latter part of the Wurm glaciation. As the ice retreated northwards at the end of the Fourth or Wurm glaciation, the ancestors of the Finns similarly moved into Finland from a more easterly part of the North European plain, along the eastern rim of the expanding lake which later became the Baltic Sea. Key Words: Finns, Saami, Finno-Ugric languages, Indo-European languages, Upper Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Scandinavia, Baltic Sea, North European archeology, Wurm glaciation. In 1980, 1 included a model for the spread of Mesolithic hunters into deglaciating northern Europe at the end of the Ice Age as a chapter of my PhD thesis. A slightly modified version was later published in an article, A model for the early settlement of Finland (1987). The latter was intended as a provocation to prompt discussion, and that it did (Dolukhanov 1989; Leskinen 1989; Welinder 1989; Nunez 1989); though perhaps not enough. Subsequently, I have updated the subject in lectures and papers on various occasions (e.g. Nunez 1990, 1995; Nunez and Taavitsainen 1992). The present article is, as the heading suggests, a reassessment of this 17 year-old model in the light of old and new information. On the Dates Used There is no longer an excuse not to use calibrated radiocarbon dates in Finnish archeology now that the tree-ring calibration curve extends far back enough to encompass the whole of Finnish prehistory. This work uses tree-ring calibration for conventional radiocarbon dates back to 10,000 bp (ca. 9200 cal BC) and the calibration based inferred atmospheric spline of coral data for conventional dates within 10,000-18,800 bp (ca. 9200-22,000 cal BC). Since this may be confusing to researchers used to other dating systems, the calibrated values for dates between 7500 and 22,000 cal BC will be followed by the corresponding conventional dates labeled bp. To avoid an overlap between calibrated dates and those that fall outside the calibration range, conventional dates beyond 18,800 bp will be "adjusted" by adding 3,000 years and labelled BC. Thus 22,000 bp will become 23,000 BC. The 3,000 years roughly corresponds to the difference between the last calibratable conventional date and its calibrated value: 18,899 bp and 21,950 cal BC. All calibrated dates used here have been obtained with Stuiver's and Raimer's (1993) program. As was the case in the original model (Nunez 1987), the central calibrated values have been rounded off to the nearest 100 years. The Original Model The original model is rather general, both because when it was created - and even now - our knowledge of the vast territories involved was very patchy and because simple general models are best suited to explain long-term processes over large areas. Like T.H. White's hawk, I tried to look at late glacial Europe from such a height that details became blurred and the general underlying processes discernible. The model was based mainly on the extant paleoenvironmental and archeological data and assumed the following: 1. During the glacial maximum, ca. 23,000 BC - 19,500 cal BC (ca. 22,000-18,000 bp) human groups had successfully adapted to life in the inhabitable zone in the periphery of the ice sheet - the so-called marginal zone. 2. It took at least four millennia for the ice border to retreat from its maximum position across northern Europe to southern Finland. 3. The territories uncovered by the gradually receding ice sheet logically would have become occupied by those human groups living in adjacent areas of the marginal zone. 4. These groups spread metachronically (time-transgressively) with the gradually retreating ice border, reaching southern Finland by 8000 cal BC (ca. …

The Origin of the Baltic-Finns from the Physical Anthropological Point of View

Abstract: The author provides a comprehensive analysis of the physical anthropology of the Finns and Saami, comparing them with other Scandinavian peoples and contrasting them genetically with the Mongoloid peoples of Asia, notwithstanding the affinities which link the Finnish language with the Uralic and to a lesser extent the Altaic languages. He concludes that both the Finns and the Saami are genetically Caucasoid or European, and that the Finns especially are closely akin to the other North European peoples of Scandinavia.

The role of rhythm and mode in emotional responses to hymn tunes

Abstract: Music has been described as the language of feelings, and it is found in virtually every culture and historical period. It has also often been cited as a trigger for powerful emotional or numinous experiences, including those occurring in a religious setting. This study investigated the differential emotional-spiritual impact of hymns in major and minor modes, and triple and quadruple time, during regular Anglican church services. Significantly higher scores were obtained for hymns in triple time than in quadruple, but there was only a non-significant trend for the superiority of minor over major modes. There were no significant gender differences in scores. Specific aspects of music are difficult to partial out from the holistic composition. Rhythm has been cited as a particularly important element in excitement generation and tune recognition, but research reports are sparse. The fact that triple rhythm frees the listener from the regular beats associated with biorhythms may be a relevant factor in its emotional impact.

The Debate on Race: A Problem of Semantics Rather than of Biology

Abstract: The author surveys the history of the race concept, and suggests that much misunderstanding has arisen due to semantic confusion. To understand the significance of race in the study of man it is necessary to remember that the essence of the concept is heredity, and that the emphasis should at all times be placed on lineage and descent groups rather than on geographical populations. Key Words: Race, speciation, species, sub-species, geographical races, gene pools, breeding populations, descent groups, phylogenetic continua, population genetics, DNA, Linnaeus, Darwin, Max Weber Charles Darwin recognized the existence of human races and was fully aware of the antiquity and significance of human racial differences. His cousin, Sir Francis Galton, with whom he regularly corresponded, had carried out extensive research in the Middle East and Africa, and had already expatiated on the remarkable differences between the various populations which inhabited the world in his day. Although he was not aware of the genetic mechanisms subsequently revealed by Mendel, Darwin realized that the principles which governed speciation amongst plants and animals also governed the human animal. But conscious in advance of the resistance that his exposition of the evolutionary roots of mankind was likely to attract, in 1857 wrote to the co-discoverer of evolution, Alfred Russel Wallace, saying: You ask me whether I shall discuss `man.' I think that I shall avoid the subject, as so surrounded with prejudices; though I fully admit it is the highest and most interesting problem for the naturalist. (Letters of Darwin to Wallace) Later, however, in The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871) he made it very clear that human race differences were in his opinion very substantial, commenting on ... the enormous range of man, which is a great anomaly in the class of mammals, if mankind be viewed as a single species. ...diverged into distinct races, or as they may be more fitly called, sub-species. Some of these, such as the Negro and European, are so distinct that, if specimens had been brought to a naturalist without any further information they would undoubtedly have been considered by him as good and true species. (1871/1874, p.929) In chapter seven of that work he also wrote: ... the various races, when carefully compared and measured, differ much from each other - as in the texture of hair, the relative proportions of all parts of the body, the capacity of the lungs, the form and capacity of the skull, and even the convolutions of the brain. But it would be an endless task to specify the numerous points of difference. The races differ also in constitution, in acclimatization and in liability to certain diseases. Their mental characteristics are likewise very distinct; chiefly as it would appear in their emotions, but partly in their intellectual faculties. The reality of evolution, as revealed by Darwin and Wallace's virtually simultaneous discoveries, is now universally accepted amongst scholars. But the opposition these early investigators of evolution faced from religious critics has been replaced by an equally widespread resistance by present-day egalitarian ideologues to research aimed at exploring the history or extent of group differences between the modern races of man. Indeed, in extreme form, we see strenuous efforts to deny even the reality of race. It may not perhaps always be due to careless scholarship that when reference is made to Darwin's epochmaking Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859) in current literature, the second part of the title he gave to this work, "or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life," is seldom mentioned. But the fact remains that many graduates of today's universities have never even heard of the full title, and that in current literature the term "race" is used in so many different ways that the "debate on race" is bedeviled by semantic confusion. …

Racial Profiling: Is There an Empirical Basis?

Abstract: The disparity between public sensibilities and empirical data has become so extreme that certain topics can no longer be investigated without bringing down cries of "racism". Nevertheless, blacks commit violent crimes at four to eight times the white rate. Hispanics commit violent crimes at about three times the white rate, and Asians at one half to three quarters the white rate. Blacks are as much more criminally violent than whites, as men are more violent than women. Therefore, just as police stop and question men more often than women, they should stop blacks more often than whites. Of the approximately 1,700,000 interracial crimes of violence involving blacks and whites, 90 percent are committed by blacks against whites. Blacks are 50 times more likely than whites to commit individual acts of interracial violence. They are up to 250 times more likely than whites to engage in multiple-offender or group interracial violence. There is more black-on-white than black-on-black violent crime. Fifty-six percent of violent crimes committed by blacks have white victims. Only two to three percent of violent crimes committed by whites have black victims. Violent crime and interracial violence are important, agonizing concerns in this country, and we cannot begin to formulate solutions until we understand the problems.

Aztec Cannibalism and Maize Consumption: The Serotonin Deficiency Link

Abstract: In 1977 Michael Harner suggested that the Aztecs might have practiced cannibalism to obtain animal proteins. A year later, Bernard R. Ortiz de Montellano objected that the Aztecs could obtain all the required aminoacids from vegetable sources, and that their cannibalism was simply a thanksgiving ritual, because its occurrence generally coincided the maize harvest. But at about the same time other researchers showed that maize consumption could provoke brain serotonin deficiency, which, in turn, could provoke some neurobehavioral after-effects, such as the tendency towards aggressive behavior or religious/ideological fanaticism. In this study we attempt to show that a maize diet may cause serotonin deficiency and that this could explain cannibalism and other peculiarities of Aztec culture. The conclusions reached in this study are consistent. with past and recent evidence of cannibalism among the Anasazi, a people that was similarly heavily dependent on maize for their nourishment. More broadly, our findings indicate a probable alimentary background for aggressive or fanatical behavior in populations heavily dependent on foods that can lower brain serotonin. Key Words: serotonin; trp/LNAAs ratio; aggression; fanaticism; maize; Aztecs. Introduction Human Sacrifices among the Aztecs The Aztec human sacrifice/cannibalism complex has been studied from various viewpoints, such as the religious, the social, the economic and the ecological, often in contrast to the exclusion of one another. But in our understanding of religious studies, these various interpretations are not necessarily mutually exclusive since - considering that they concern various levels of research - they can be complementary. We think, really, that religious phenomena, showing numerous aspects, may be studied at various levels: a first research level may regard the biological bases, neurological or ethological, of religious thought (Mandell 1980, Gazzaniga 1985, Burkert 1996, Ernandes and Giammanco 1998); a second level, phenomenologic-structural, the subordinate relationship of human beings to divine beings, the idea that the sacrifice is the main way to communicate with them (Hubert and Mauss 1898, van der Leew 1933, Widengren 1969, Burkert 1983, Carrasco 1995); a third, the relationships between social structures and peculiar shapes of credence and rituals (Durkheim 1912, and the sociological school); a fourth, the economic-ecological one, the material goods used for religious rituals (Firth 1971, Harris 1977, and cultural materialists; Winkelman 1998): goods for sacrifices are of course directed to gods, but they are then usually eaten by human beings. These four approaches can coexist and interact synchronically, and a fifth one may be added, the historical or diachronic aspect. Obviously, for a given religion, results of studies carried out on one level must be coherent with the results obtained for other levels, since a comprehensive study must be non-contradictory. Till now the tendency to favor a particular type of study in exclusion of any other has prevailed (Pals 1996). If this was reasonable in the past, as these various approaches were discovered little by little, it is less excusable now. In this work we examine Aztec religion starting with the cultural materialistic and the neuro-biological aspect, which has been little studied as yet, while bearing in mind the other viewpoints with the aim of preparing the way for a multilevel synthesis. In 1977 Harner suggested the Aztecs might have practiced cannibalism to obtain proteins containing all aminoacids in the proportions required by humans. In fact, Aztecs lacked herbivorous animals as a protein source. According to Harner, ancient hunters had completely killed off the big herbivores in the Mesoamerican area, and small game hunting did not meet the needs of the growing population. "In terms of carbohydrate production, this challenge was usually met by chinampa development and other forms of agricultural intensification; but domesticated animal production was limited by the lack of a suitable herbivore. …

Reply to Professor Lynch

Abstract: Presents the reply of Jared Taylor to the correction and calculations on race and crime made by Michael Lynch. Interpretation on the views of Lynch on violent crimes; Analysis on the construction of the hypothetical City X of 100,000 population; Disproportions on the data of committed criminal violence of Whites.

Misleading 'Evidence' and the Misguided Attempt to Generate Racial Profiles of Criminals: Correcting Fallacies and Calculations Concerning Race and Crime in Taylor and Whitney's Analysis of Racial Profiling

Abstract: In 1999, The Journal of Social, Political and Economic Studies published an article written by Taylor and Whitney that endeavored to demonstrate the efficacy of racial profiling of criminals. In that article, Taylor and Whitney made two significant general errors that influenced their conclusions concerning the utility of racial profiling. Their first error threatens the validity of their theoretical position. The second invalidates their statistical results and conclusions. Taken together, these general errors invalidates their position on race and crime. To be more specific about these errors, Taylor and Whitney ground their argument concerning race and crime on a rather restricted review of extant literature. Excluding their own prior research from considerations, Taylor and Whitney refer approvingly to studies by Hooton, Wilson and Hernnstein, Wilbanks and Rushton, and appear to hold them out as expousing sound criminological explanations of the realtionship between race and crime. In truth, the views on race and crime expressed by these authors have been refuted and rejected by the majority of criminologists (for criticisms of these researchers and their general views on race see: Cernovsky and Litman, 1993; Gabor and Roberts, 1990; Lynch, 1990, 2000; Neopolitan, 1998; Shipman, 1994; Yee et al., 1993; Zuckerman, 1990). Taylor and Whitney also make several methodological errors in their analyses of criminological data sources that generate misleading results and conclusions concerning the appropriateness of racial profiling. Specifically, these errors include: the use of prevalence rates rather than incidence rates; the failure to use race-based population-adjusted comparisons for offender and victimization data; focusing on rare forms of inter-racial crime and generalizing to the entire populations of criminals; and using data useful for addressing racial biases in criminal justice processes (Uniform Crime Report and imprisonment data) to calculate racial differences in offending. To be sure, Blacks are over-represented in criminal justice data. But, Black over-representation in the criminal justice system (measured against the size of the Black population) can not be employed as evidence that Blacks are responsible for more crime than Whites because over-representation may be a measure of processing biases (Mann, 1993). In short, observations concerning Black over-representation in criminal justice data do not directly translate into claims related to racial differences in offending. Taylor and Whitney, however, use criminal justice data as evidence of differences in offending by race. They are not the first to make this error, and the researchers they site approvingly (Rushton, Wilbanks, Wilson and Hernnstein) have also misinterpreted criminal justice data as indicating race differences in offending. Taylor and Whitney's argument. begins with literature based on a misinterpretation of criminal justice data, and justifies this view with what can be described either as purposefully misleading or completely naive analyses of crime and victimization data. In either case, their conclusions are incorrect. Taylor and Whitney's specific focus centers on the fact that "society" seems to express greater concern over Black-on-Black crime when, in fact, Taylor and Whitney believe that Black-onWhite crime is the larger social problem. Had their argument been limited to this minor issue, their point would have some validity (though, as we demonstrate, even this contentions turns out to be incorrect). But, this turns out not to be their point at all. Rather, as they conclude "it is certainly understandable that police should take these statistics into account when searching for suspects, and that they may wish to take more precautions when entering some neighborhoods than others."3 This conclusion, as we demonstrate below, is the result of the inappropriate use, analysis of and generalizations made from criminal justice data. …

Skeletal Age Determination of the Symphysis Pubis for Forensic Purposes: Analysis of an Iraqi Series

Abstract: Skeletal age determination from the symphysis pubis of a series of (17) male and (11) female hip bones was done. Three methods were used and the bone age estimated by each was compared to the documented chronological age. The methods used were Todd's, McKern-Stewart's, and Suchey-Brooks'. The results of statistical analysis were discussed and showed that best estimation of age and correlation with chronological age was achieved by the cast method of Suchey-Brooks. It is concluded that the use of this method in anthropological and forensic studies is strongly advocated.

Gender roles, traditions & generations to come: The staffing of social and political institutions

Abstract: Whatever else a social or political institution may require, ongoing staffing is a necessary, if not sufficient requirement for its continuing existence People are the sine qua non of any community or organization If any community cannot generate a populace, then the organizations within that community lose their viability It is suggested that a sea-change in reproductive dynamics occurred during the 1960's which lent greater survivability to some cultural formulae and lent lesser survivability to alternative cultural formulae Cross-national data are presented which suggest that a community organized around gender complementarity has a competitive advantage, across generations, over a community organized around gender egalitarianism Key Words: Cultural evolution, gender roles, parent-child relations, gender complementarity, women's education, fertility Every child born this day is guaranteed to have a very long line of lineal ancestors The length of the line depends upon whether the measurer is using Homo, hominid, mammal, vertebrate, or biota as the frame of reference As a matter of contrast, no child born this day is guaranteed to have grandchildren: descendants Not all children survive to puberty Not all post-pubescents will have offspring Not all of those offspring will have offspring On the other hand, each person who is alive in 2200 AD will be able to trace his or her lineage back to ancestors who were alive in the year 2000 AD Alternative citizens of the year 2000 AD will have no lineal descendants to represent them in the year 2200 AD This article argues that some cultural formulae bias the chances for their adherents being represented two centuries hence and that alternative cultural formulae bias the chances against their adherents being represented two centuries hence Framed differently, some (sub)groups will behave in such a way as to generate a positive and promising long-term trajectory for themselves and their cultural formulae; while alternative (sub)groups will behave in such a way as to generate a problematic trajectory for themselves and their cultural formulae Furthermore, it is a reasonable inference that the land masses of the planet will not be devoid of inhabitants, but will be teeming with various versions of Homo sapiens in all those places which can sustain life throughout the year This article addresses (i) who those people may be and (ii) how they get there The article is - at base - educed from one essay and one correlation The Essay: Hardin's "Tragedy of the Commons" In his seminal article "The Tragedy of the Commons", Hardin (1968) cleanly and cogently parsed out the problems inherent in the tenuous balance between individual freedom and the viability of the commonweal That is, there are times when individual freedom must be curtailed for the overall society to function efficiently and competitively - in a very competitive world One of Hardin's primary examples was 14 pollution" That is, if everyone were allowed to "pollute" ad libitum, then the commonweal would be threatened with a non-- sustaining environment A second example is "homicide" If everyone would be allowed to murder any and all who annoyed him or her, then anarchy and mayhem would fragment the society The automobile serves as a final example If driving or parking were totally unsupervised, then traffic would be impossibly gridlocked, and transportation would grind to a halt To prevent societal disintegration, society has devised laws and taboos and expectations which limit individual freedom for the good of the group Consequently, "murder", "polluting", and creative parking are all curtailed and erased from the individual's palette of personal liberties The Correlation Across nations, the relationship between rates of natural increase (birth rates minus death rates) and the percentage of women (rather than men ) in institutions of tertiary education is significant and negative (r^sub p^ = - …

Will China become the next hegemonic superpower

Abstract: The authors agrees with Ellis's comment that the Chinese have shown less creative achievement than Europeans during the last five centuries, but argues that over a longer time span Oriental achievements have matched those of Europeans and that if they were to embark on a eugenic program they could surpass Caucasoids. He also accepts Ellis's second point that if and when the Chinese secure world hegemony they might well repopulate the remainder of the world. Key Words: China, eugenics, migration, technological progress Frank Ellis raises two important questions concerning the thesis set out in my Eugenics that at some point in the future China will overtake the West economically and militarily, will become the leading world superpower and will colonize the entire world. First, he expresses doubts about whether the Chinese have the abilities to accomplish this. Second, granted for the sake of argument that the Chinese are able to do this, he doubts whether they would use their power to govern their subject peoples in the benevolent way that the Romans and the British did when they ruled their empires. I will discuss each of these points in turn. As regards the question of whether the Chinese have the abilities to coerce the West into submission by developing superior advanced weapons technologies, Ellis argues that although the Chinese (together with the Japanese, the other major Oriental people) have the high IQ to enable them to do this, they appear to lack the creativity necessary for innovative scientific achievements. In response to this, it is certainly true that since the Renaissance the European peoples have far surpassed the Oriental peoples in creative scientific and technological achievement. However, before this the Chinese scientific and technological achievements were at least as impressive as those of Europeans and arguably superior. According to David Landes "the Chinese were well ahead of anyone else - and certainly of Europe" (Landes, 1998, p.342). For instance, in astronomy the first recorded observations of stars, planets, constellations and comets were made in China around 2300 B.C. It was not until around 2,000 years later than comparable observations were made in Greece. Haley's comet was recorded by Chinese astronomers in 240 B.C. and again in 1066 A.D., but it was not known in Europe until 1450 when it was discovered by the German astronomer Johan Muller and again in 1607, when it was recorded by the English astronomer Thomas Herriot. In A.D. 185 Chinese astronomers were the first to record a supernova explosion. In 365 A.D. they discovered the moons of Jupiter, which were not known in Europe until they were discovered independently by the German astronomer Simon Marius in 1609 and by Galileo in 1610. In agricultural technology, the Chinese were the first to invent the collar and harness for horses about 250 B.C. In 80 A.D. they invented the chain pump for lifting water for irrigation, winnowing machines and multi-tube seed drills. In 240 A.D. they invented the wheel barrow, which did not appear in Europe until 1250. In 530 the Chinese invented a water-- powered mill for shaking and sifting flower. In printing and paper technology, the production of paper from bark and rags was developed in China about the year A.D. 105 by Tsai Lun; paper was not produced in the West until 790, when it began to be made in Iraq. Printing from engraved wooded blocks was invented in China about 650 A.D. The technology spread to Japan where the first printed text was produced in 767. In China the first printed book (a Buddhist scripture) was produced in 868. About 1040, the Chinese developed movable type, made of ceramic, for printing, and in 1100 color printing was invented in China for printing paper money. In Europe, printing was first developed in Germany about 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg and printed paper money was not introduced until the nineteenth century. In mathematics the abacus was invented independently by the Chinese and the Babylonians about 3000 B. …

Medical and Psycho-Social Problems Relating to the Quality of Life of Institutionalized Elderly People

Abstract: The authors investigated the attitudes of elderly people residing in a state-maintained retirement home in the city of Iasi in Romania and identified significant medical, psychological and social problems common to the subjects they interviewed.

Some Recent Books on Eugenics

Abstract: Presents a list of significant studies in the field of eugenics published during the year 2001. Availability of 3200 published books in the Online Computer Library Center search; Results of video recordings search in 2000; Selection of books and video recordings on eugenics in 2000.

The Reality of Race: Contra Biondi and Rickards

Abstract: The article examines the paper by Biondi and Rickards entitled "The Scientific Fallacy of the Human Biological Concept of Race," published in this issue, and presents evidence supporting the scientific utility of race as a conceptual scientific tool. He shows how modern genetic research is validating the findings of physical anthropologists as to the identification of racial groups and their varying degrees of kinship. Key Words: Race, subspecies, breeding populations, taxonomy, genetic markers, human blood groups, human genome, population genetics, forensic anthropology. In their article The Scientific Fallacy of the Biological Concept of Race, Biondi and Rickards are guilty of the same "logical error" they ascribe to scientists who study race: they condemn the latter for inductive thinking. They themselves do what they accuse others of doing: they start with an assumption, that "the human biological concept of race" is "a fallacy," and then search for evidence to prove that assumption. Thus in their second paragraph they set up a straw man so that they can demolish it. "Why did so many physical anthropologists refuse to test the hypothesis of whether human biological variability could be neatly [our italics] subdivided according to the taxonomic sub-specific categories of race?" they ask. But which of the scientists they quote ever claimed that the living peoples of the world could be "neatly" divided into races?" None of the scholars who use the term "race" has ever claimed that. And having made such an absurd claim it is, of course, easy for Biondi and Rickards to assert that anyone who believes in the straw man they have erected is guilty of a "serious error in scientific logic." Their argument is made even more anachronistic by their admission, later in their text, that even Darwin, who referred constantly to "race," made it abundantly clear that "races graduate into each other. 02 The Marxist Basis of the "Anti-Race" Campaign And how do our two authors attempt to explain the survival of the race concept amongst more rigorous scientists in modern times? They fall back on Marxist explanations. As documented by many writers, including Zirkle (1959), Davis (1986), Pearson (1991), and Hunt (1999), Marxists and other far-Left opponents of the concept of race claim that race as an invention devised to justify the "enslavement" of the people of the Third World under the "capitalist-imperialism" of the historically Caucasoid nations of the West. Thus, as recently as April 2001, the Revolutionary Communist Progressive Labor Party, in its publication Challenge, of April 11, 2001, maintained that "...racism will only end when workers make communist revolution and take political power away from the racist and sexist rulers." Biondi and Rickards make it clear that they think along these lines by their several references linking race and fascism, and their suggestion that race has been invented to serve as a useful tool for capitalist-imperialists. To support their claim that race is a fiction rather than a biological fact they cite a vast league of Marxist-thinking and quasi-Marxist scholars who in the mid-twentieth century came to dominate the field of anthropology in the Western world. Franz Boas,' Margaret Mead, Ashley Montagu, Livingstone, Lewontin, Loring Brace, and Lieberman are frequently cited. Herskovitz (1959), himself an admirer of Boas, has documented Boas's far Left background and commitments, and also the enormous influence he had in training Marxists and quasi-Marxist disciples who were to remould American anthropology into a radical quasi-Marxist tradition for at least tow generations. Conway Zirkle's Evolution, Marxian Biology and the Social Scene (1959) documented the influence of Marxist thought, operating through the disciples and fellow thinkers of Franz Boas, and observed that: The co-existence of our rapidly expanding sciences with stupid quack substitutes for science should surprise no one . …

The European Origin of the Finns and Their Relation to the Indo-Europeans

Abstract: The author traces the history of the prevailing hypothesis which assumes that the ancestors of the present-day Finns and Estonians migrated into their contemporary north European homeland as recently as two thousand years ago. Instead, he suggests that during the latter part of the Wurm glaciation, more than ten thousand years ago, when northern Europe was still covered by ice, they and the Saami (Suomi) were hunters and fishers who occupied an area between the Danube and the Ukraine. They subsequently followed the retreating ice northwards into the eastern Baltic, as that area became habitable. His theory, which is regarded as controversial, would see Finno-Ugrian speakers inhabiting northern Europe before Indo-European speaking farmers displaced them in Northern Germany and western Scandinavia.