| 3. Farewell to Races |
| Saitou, Naruya (National Institute of Genetics, Japan, nsaitou@genes.nig.ac.jp) |
| Ever since J. F. Blumenbach proposed racial classification
based on physical characters, terms ending with “-oid” have been frequently
used. If we are interested in differentiation of human populations from biological
viewpoint, however, we should use population names based on their area of
habitation. Topological patterns of genetic affinity trees closely resemble
the geographical constellation of six areas. I thus proposed new classification
of human populations applicable only until end of Pleistocene based on this
finding; African, West Eurasian, East Eurasian, Sahulian, North American,
and South American (Saitou 1995, Human Evolution, vol. 10, pp. 17-33). Four
clusters surrounding Pacific Ocean can be further grouped to form "Circum-Pacifican"
superculster. The global movement of ancient human populations until end
of Pleistocene can be traced even if we use data obtained from present-day
populations, because human movements accelerated only within last 10,000
years. We can easily predict that global human population is toward genetic
homogenization if current high rate of gene flow between populations continues.
Same prediction can be applied to ethnic and cultural differences. Those
differences as well as their significance will gradually decrease if present
civilizations continue to flourish. |
| SAITOU, Naruya Professor, Division of Population Genetics, National Institute of Genetics, Japan I study human evolution at genetic level. My main interest is genetic changes responsible for defining humanness, and is analyzing ape genomes to find those. I also study genetic affinity of modern human populations with special reference to Asian population. My major works include: Genes dream of 3.5 billion years - evolution from bacteria to human (Daiwa Shobo, 1997, in Japanese). |