Race is an illusion, say researchers
Physical features like skin colour and hair type are unreliable
     guides to a person's genetic ancestry, according to a major
     study that further undermines the popular concept of 'race'.

     Brazilian researchers at the Federal University of Minas Gerais
     in Rio Grande do Sul and colleagues at Portugal's University of
     Porto based their results on DNA tests conducted on individuals
     in two groups of people. The results appear in today's issue of
     the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

     Dr Sergio Pena and colleagues used a set of genetic markers to 
     test how closely physical 'race-determining' traits correlated
     with ancestry in Brazil. The researchers used a genetic marker 
     that distinguishes between people from Portugal and those from 
     Africa. The number of times the African marker appeared was 
     reflected in an African Ancestry Index (AAI) for each person. 
     These AAI values can reliably distinguish between Europeans and
     Africans. 

     People who looked 'black' might have expected to score a higher 
     AAI. But in the populations tested, there was little difference 
     in AAI values between groups - whether they were initially 
     classed as black, white or intermediate. 

     The self-nominated 'white' urban men tested in the second group
     also showed AAI values halfway between Europeans and Africans.

     "It is interesting to note that the group of individuals 
     classified as blacks had a very high proportion of non-African 
     ancestry (48 per cent)" the authors said.

     The concept of race - classifying humans into different groups 
     based on physical characteristics that indicate a lineage or 
     'breed' - has been around for centuries, but has no basis in 
     science, the scientists said. The new study further supports 
     this view, and for the first time quantifies it. 

     Dr Robert Attenborough of the School of Archaeology and 
     Anthropology at Canberra's Australian National University - who
     has studied the historical and genetic basis behind race - agreed. 

     It was an old and now discredited concept in science that was 
     based on flawed evidence and personal prejudice, he said.

     Danny Kingsley - ABC Science Online
     Tuesday, 17 December  2002
     http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s748264.htm

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