Regarding the “countering racism” doubts, I can see how the results should disprove at least some racist worldviews.
I think that an interpretation of human history among racists is the following: the population splits in to clusters, these clusters diverge in different “races”, eventually one emerges as “the best” and out-competes or replaces all others, before splitting again. Historically, this view was used to justify aggressive expansionism, opposition to intermarriage, and opposition to any policy that could slow this process by helping races which were seen as lesser.
I think what he wants to say is that this picture is not supported by the genetic data, which shows instead population clusters which split and merge and split again among different lines, on a fairly fast timescale and without one population replacing the other (except arguably for the Neanderthals, but even then not completely). In other words, there’s no darwinian selection at the racial level, and there has almost never been.
Thanks for the review!
Regarding the “countering racism” doubts, I can see how the results should disprove at least some racist worldviews.
I think that an interpretation of human history among racists is the following: the population splits in to clusters, these clusters diverge in different “races”, eventually one emerges as “the best” and out-competes or replaces all others, before splitting again. Historically, this view was used to justify aggressive expansionism, opposition to intermarriage, and opposition to any policy that could slow this process by helping races which were seen as lesser.
I think what he wants to say is that this picture is not supported by the genetic data, which shows instead population clusters which split and merge and split again among different lines, on a fairly fast timescale and without one population replacing the other (except arguably for the Neanderthals, but even then not completely). In other words, there’s no darwinian selection at the racial level, and there has almost never been.