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Is it a physical thing or a cultural thing? Hispanics and Jews for example consist of people of many different geographical races, but they're often considered a "race". Even Muslims are thought of as a race sometimes.
It's physical and mental. After millenia of geographical separation, different groups of humans evolved into different subgroups/breeds/races. Not only are there different physical attributes to be found as a result of environmental factors (for example, Europeans have what is regarded as a narrow, protruding nose in order to preheat ingested air -- useful in the cold climates of Europe), there are also mental factors to be found, such as the European tendency to act altruistically and work together in an orderly manner towards a common goal while often employing creative solutions to complex problems -- useful in what was once a very harsh Europe in terms of climate, Neanderthal marauders, remarkably large and powerful game animals of Old Europe, etc. Natural selection runs its course, and as a result, the most apt organisms of any particular region are the ones to evolve.
It's physical and mental. After millenia of geographical separation, different groups of humans evolved into different subgroups/breeds/races. Not only are there different physical attributes to be found as a result of environmental factors (for example, Europeans have what is regarded as a narrow, protruding nose in order to preheat ingested air -- useful in the cold climates of Europe), there are also mental factors to be found, such as the European tendency to act altruistically and work together in an orderly manner towards a common goal while often employing creative solutions to complex problems -- useful in what was once a very harsh Europe in terms of climate, Neanderthal marauders, remarkably large and powerful game animals of Old Europe, etc. Natural selection runs its course, and as a result, the most apt organisms of any particular region are the ones to evolve.
Since you mention it, Neanderthals really are a different human race in my view, they were clearly different from Homo Sapiens Sapiens, yet capably of reproducing with them, as we learned a couple of weeks ago.
Sorry to say, but I couldn't open the" article" on Wiki, and I don't use Wiki as a source anyway. The topic was what is race? My intent was to represent that, in fact, race does mean color. The caste system was based on Varna, which means color and jati which means birth, life or rank. My premise is based on socio historical information. Sorry, your friend doesn't know much about her homeland. Anyone who tries to say the caste was based on head size or shoe size is just trying to side step that there was and is race aka color.
Cheers
You couldn't open wiki? I just checked, the link is ok. But you don't consider wiki a source, anyway. I find that particularly funny because you yourself provided an Afrocentric source on India. Moderator cut: Please discuss the topic, not each other.
The Indians had castes long before the first Dravidians, let alone Indo-Aryans entered the subcontinent, i.e. when Indians were still pretty much all the same color anyway. Actually, most primitive societies and tribes around the planet used to have such a stratification of society, simply to bring about stability (as depressing as that sort of stability might appear to us modern people, who can decide if they want to become farmers, programmers, soldiers or whatever. Thousands of years ago men usually adopted their fathers' professions and women were occupied being full-time mothers.)
Head size, shoe size?! Moderator cut: Please discuss the topic, not each other.
It's physical and mental. After millenia of geographical separation, different groups of humans evolved into different subgroups/breeds/races. Not only are there different physical attributes to be found as a result of environmental factors (for example, Europeans have what is regarded as a narrow, protruding nose in order to preheat ingested air -- useful in the cold climates of Europe), there are also mental factors to be found, such as the European tendency to act altruistically and work together in an orderly manner towards a common goal while often employing creative solutions to complex problems -- useful in what was once a very harsh Europe in terms of climate, Neanderthal marauders, remarkably large and powerful game animals of Old Europe, etc. Natural selection runs its course, and as a result, the most apt organisms of any particular region are the ones to evolve.
Mental ? a racial category?
When you go back into the time line of European history you read about , Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Asians and Africans. It seem that the people we traditionally call Europeans might have been the last of the three so called "races" to build a great Civilization with a complex system of government. I would by no means call mental capacity a European racial attribute since some of what is culturaly European was deposited there by thousands of years of conquest by all the great races of the world
-what you look like.
-what your parents (i.e., ancestors) look like.
It's what you look like to other people, who will categorize you and profile you accordingly.
People will always idenfity others by race, no matter what word they call it, and the characteristics of race are what the people say they are.
In the Middle East, people with green eyes are called Circassians, regardless of whether their ancestors actually came from Circassia or not. Circassians are not discriminated against, but they are widely expected to exhibit certain fairly trivial personality traits. It is a widely-used identifier---"There's this Circassian guy down at the office who . . . ". So, Circassian become a "race", regardless of whether it is used as a basis for discrimination.
Circassian women are thought to be the most beautiful in the world, and are particularly outstanding among the rather homely middle-eastern women. Even in Europe, Circassian beauty is legendary.
You couldn't open wiki? I just checked, the link is ok. But you don't consider wiki a source, anyway. I find that particularly funny because you yourself provided an Afrocentric source on India. Moderator cut: Please discuss the topic, not each other.
The Indians had castes long before the first Dravidians, let alone Indo-Aryans entered the subcontinent, i.e. when Indians were still pretty much all the same color anyway. Actually, most primitive societies and tribes around the planet used to have such a stratification of society, simply to bring about stability (as depressing as that sort of stability might appear to us modern people, who can decide if they want to become farmers, programmers, soldiers or whatever. Thousands of years ago men usually adopted their fathers' professions and women were occupied being full-time mothers.)
Head size, shoe size?! Moderator cut: Please discuss the topic, not each other.
I couldn't open the "article" that you provided in your post. The word "article" being the opportune word. Give me a citation to support the rest of your post, please.
Race does not exist. There is only one race, the Human Race. We all bleed red, we are all One.
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