RE: markup race

["Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@ingr.com>]

http://www.balzan.it/english/pb1999/cavalli/paper.htm

A good overview.   He discusses the relationship of 
culture and genetic diversity.  Modeling this would be 
of interest.  Some databases that collect information 
on humans do include DNA support (for example, it is 
required for sex offenders in some venues).  Medical 
records collect such information as well.   An application 
domain such as anthropology or archaeology might require 
it.  

I agree that HumanML is open to critique and should be 
critiqued from every angle.  This is sound and it is 
scholarly.  The scholars must accept that there are 
different theories with varying proofs for their 
application.   These theories interest HumanML in 
that HumanML may provides means to model these and 
means for such models to be shared.  Such models may 
provide data that can be used by other domains 
through the use of visualization, for example, 
avatars that begin as unadorned, faceless, cultureless 
models (essentially, what an H-anim model is) and 
then through modeled behavioral interaction, accumulate 
cultural diversity.  

The first question would be to create markup capable 
of gathering the right details and the genetic markup 
would likely come from a medical domain.  We'd need to 
find that.   The cultural domains we can handle.  These 
paragraphs appear releavant to Volker's intent:

"I don't like the word "race" because it corresponds to old subdivisions
that are inconsistent with genetic reality and unjustifiable by a rational
classification. Moreover, there is no real use of such classifications and,
what is worse, there is always an associated racist flavor. Darwin had
already recognized the difficulty of a rational classification of races in
what is almost a perfect continuum, and noted the futility of racial
classifications, given the enormous variety of numbers and definitions of
races which different taxonomists have traditionally offered, from two to
more than one hundred. The current trend to increased admixture can only
make races even less clear.  

It is important, however, to note that current classifications depend on
external appearance, which is due to very few genes (hereditary factors)
affecting skin, hair and eye color. Body and face size and shape may involve
a few more genes but, like the former, are the result of an adaptation to
climate (including diet and customs, which obviously also depend to a large
extent on climate). Common belief in the "existence" of races must depend on
local uniformity of skin color in different environments: dark in tropical
climate, brown at some distance from the equator, light brown in south
Europe, reaching the highest degree of whiteness in the southern Baltic. To
a very superficial examination, races exist, in the sense that some groups
of individuals are distinguishable and relatively uniform for a few
superficial traits. That there exist "pure" races is pure myth, generated by
the fact that most Europeans are white, subsaharan Africans black, many
Asians brown, and a few further traits may help to distinguish more finely
the geographic origin of individuals. There is no equal uniformity under the
skin. Genetic differences among populations or races, however defined, are
small or trivial compared with those within populations. Below the
superficially uniform veneer, there are no "pure races". Moreover, cultural
differences among ethnic groups have been frequently believed to be of
genetic origin, but the reality is that most of them disappear after two or
three generations of assimilation in another culture, and if some last
longer it is because some cultural traits are more highly conserved than
others. Distinguishing nature from culture is extremely difficult for most
behavioral traits, but cultural differences are often strong in appearance
and labile at the test of time. Some students of twins have, I think, been
betrayed by their enthusiasm for genetics, beginning with the classical
example of Sir Cyril Burt, whose aberrations have been exposed. I am not
pressing a blanket condemnation of all students of twins, but I think the
marvel that some of them have expressed at the fact that a few identical
twins reared apart prefer the same brand of cigarettes should not be taken
very seriously. Another myth which dominated nineteenth century Europe and
continued in the present century is that interracial hybrids are inferior,
and that race admixture is to be avoided at all costs. The degree of genetic
differentiation in the human species is so small that it is impossible that
racial admixture is genetically dangerous. One might expect, on the
contrary, that its absolute opposite, hybrid vigor, is likely to hold, but a
greater degree of genetic differentiation might be necessary for hybrid
vigor to be manifest, except for outcrosses of individuals from highly
inbred populations. There are, however, a few recent examples of very
successful interracial hybrids. They cannot be too many, because there still
is a real social handicap confronting interracial hybrids in most societies,
which limits their numbers and success. 

I consider racism one of the scourges of humanity. There are very few social
environments in which it is absent, and racism is certainly not only a
European or white social disease. My beloved African Pygmies are considered
animals by most of their Bantu neighbors, who think themselves superior
because of the superiority of an agricultural economy, however primitive,
compared with that of hunter-gatherers. The Saami should not be called
Lapps, as they usually are, because the name "Lapps" means "no good" and
they are thus called by their proximate neighbors because they do not
practice agriculture. I find culture, not genetics, distinguishes people.
And every culture has merits, but they give very different chances of
economic and educational success. Is racism innate in human people? I don't
know, but I believe a strong educational effort to eradicate racism is one
of the most urgent needs. It may be impossible to totally eliminate it, but
it should be possible the reduce the criminality with which it is constantly
associated. "

Len 
http://www.mp3.com/LenBullard

Ekam sat.h, Vipraah bahudhaa vadanti.
Daamyata. Datta. Dayadhvam.h