Notions of 'Race'
Asimov, Isaac
Notions of 'Race' Heredity and the Nature of Man, by Theodosius Dobzhansky. Harcourt, Brace & World. 179 pp. $4.75. Reviewed by Isaac Asimov Qurely, in society today, there can ^ be few more...
...Reviewed by Isaac Asimov Qurely, in society today, there can ^ be few more frustrating tasks for a scientist to attempt than that of explaining, calmly and dispassionately, the true significance of the human variations that give rise .to the notion of "race...
...Or are we, after a blank start, what we are made by the world about us...
...And, Dobzhansky points out, natural selection still operates and, in going forward, we can yet do well, provided only that we strive to do well...
...On the one hand, deleterious mutations can survive more easily now, and on the other, man's use of X-rays and radioactive substances increases the mutation rate...
...This they can find in Dobzhansky's book, if they are willing to accept also the flaws that exist in the views of the super-equalitari-ans...
...But we cannot return...
...Dobzhansky explains the significance of variation within a species and the manner in which genes flow back and forth across the full extent of the species...
...Dobzhansky's essential humaneness shines out most brightly in the final chapters of the book, where he discusses the present state of mankind with respect to mutation pressure and its possible future as it might be affected by the impingement of technology and medicine upon that pressure...
...we cannot let the unfortunate die if they can be easily saved...
...However, even this will suffice for what is to follow...
...If reasonable men are to combat racism, they need the armory of correct understanding...
...Although there may not be superior and inferior races, there is no question, Dobzhansky emphasizes, that in one particular respect or another, there are superior and inferior individuals...
...Even where the scientists are not themselves misled by incomplete studies, the racists among us are always ready to seize upon those studies and convert them (with whatever distortions are necessary) to their own uses...
...ought they not differ in mentality, temperament, and personality as well...
...He tackles over and over, from a variety of standpoints, the problem of nature or nurture...
...The different "races" of man differ markedly in physical characteristics...
...Dobzhansky's task is, primarily, not so much to teach as to unteach, not so much to explain what biologists believe in connection with human variation and "race" but to explain what they don't believe and why...
...It is useful then, to have Dobzhansky point out the dangers of too-easy generalizations from studies of the brain size of different groups, or of too-quick conclusions from the studies of identical twins, of intelligence tests, and of the hoary tales of the Jukes and the Kallikaks...
...No subject on earth is richer in mythology than that of "race," and sincere scientists have contributed to that mythology...
...We inherit characteristics, but we are also, within rather broad limits, molded by our environment...
...The review is, unavoidably, a hasty one, and the reader, if he has no prior acquaintance with the subject, may get only a dim and general notion of the subject...
...This means that "race" boundaries are fuzzy, and that variations, in any respect, between the average of one "race" and that of another, are apt to be smaller in scope than variations in that same respect within the "race" itself...
...Yet if it must be done, if some scientist is to undertake the task, few are as well-equipped for the purpose as Theodosius Dobzhansky...
...we cannot abandon science because it has its dangers...
...Our reaction to racism ought not to delude us into attempting to pour all individuals into one common mold...
...Might there not be ingrained superiority or inferiority in one respect or another...
...In short, it seems plain that stereotypes of any kind applied to sizeable sections of mankind are improper not merely because they are' unkind and impolite, but because they are wrong in fact...
...Are we unchangeably what we are made in the beginning...
...Before getting down to the meat of the book, Dobzhansky gives a review of the mechanics of the process of inheritance, as presently understood...
...The phrase with which he ends the book and which may, perhaps, be considered the key to the whole of his philosophy is "evolution bestows hope...
...Neither is true in itself, asserts Dobzhansky patiently, but both are true in combination...
Vol. 29 • February 1965 • No. 2
