Human Races and Subspecies

This is a question that comes up all the time is whether or not the various races of man, however defined, can be considered to be subspecies. No reputable scientist considers the major human races to separate subspecies of Homo Sapiens. Anyway, Homo Sapiens himself is already a subspecies. There was H.S. Neanderthalis, H.S. Idaltu, probably H.S. Rhodesiensis and finally, Homo Sapiens Sapiens.

So a human subspecies would be more like a Neandertal.

This areas is still quite controversial, but the only scientists and theorists who are suggesting that the differences between the races are great enough to constitute subspecies are racialists, many of whom are explicit racists. Almost all are associated with White nationalism, and usually with Nordicism. Nordicists are more or less Nazis.

Now, you must understand the differences between races and subspecies. For instance there is the California kingsnake. There are no subspecies of the CA kingsnake. However, there are numerous races, many of which look radically different from the CA kingsnake norm. They are just called races of the CA kingsnake.

So races are really a level even below that of the subspecies. They are not protected by the Endangered Species Act, and I'm not sure anyone cares about them all that much. They're just sort of regional variants. The reasons that the CA kingsnake races were not split into subspecies is because apparently the genetic differences were too small to warrant a split into subspecies.

At some level X, two living things are split into species. At some lesser level of genetic differentiation Y, a species is further split into subspecies. At some lesser level of differentiation Z, we can start talking about races. I believe that all of the various breeds of dogs and cats are just races.

"Race" and "subspecies" are two terms often conflated in speech, even by biologists, but strictly speaking, they do have different meanings. I do not know any reputable biologist who thinks that any of the various extant human races or subraces, however defined, need to be preserved on solely anthropological grounds in order to preserve their phenotype.

The various human races have been changing all through time continuously. North Africans were once pure African, now they are mostly Caucasian. NE Asians looked like Aborigines until 9,000 years ago, East Indians looked like Aborigines until 8,000 years ago, and SE Asians looked like Negritos until about 5,000 years ago.

Over 10,000 years ago, Amerindians looked like Aborigines. Between 7,000-9,000 years ago, they looked something like the Ainu or Polynesians. Europeans looked like Arabs 10,000 years ago, and 30-40,000 years ago, they may have looked something like Tutsis or Masai. White skin only shows up 9,000 years ago in Europe. Polynesians and Micronesians only show up in the past 2,000 years.

So all of the modern human races and subraces, however defined, have been continuously changing down through time. The notion that they are some kind of unique subspecies in need of conservation like Northern Spotted Owls is completely mistaken and has little basis in modern science.

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