Human Races

First published in 1961, this book provides a contemporary definition of race, the distinction between geographical, local and micro-races, as well as consideration of the major evolutionary mechanisms of race formation in man.

Author Professor Stanley M. Garn was and remains a pivotal figure in the history of biological interpretations of race. He considered racial classification based on physical traits to be imprecise, and believed physical traits to be independent of each other, making classification by the assumption that a population shares certain traits incorrect. He also argued that racial classifications based on physical type seemingly elevated some physical traits to a racial status, but glossed over others, and concluded that racial classifications based on physical type can always be compartmentalized into smaller populations which share more physical traits in common.

Thus, here in his book Human Races, he used three gradations of racial classification which were increasingly more specific in scope: geographical, local and micro.

“Human Races is an attempt to describe what race is, and the mechanisms of racial differentiation in man. It will, I hope, help to dispel the antiquated notions of three “original” races, of the persistence of racial types, and of the role of undirected chance in bringing about racial differences. In their stead, I trust will emerge the contemporary picture of man’s genetic response to local selective factors, the constantly changing nature of the natural populations we call races.”—Author’s Preface