Post by JasonMalloy on Dec 8, 2003 21:29:19 GMT -5
Neat forum Dienekes. 
I realize that in a sense this forum is largely a continuation of the racial anthropology discussion group, that had its own special areas of focus, so perhaps these suggestions will have limited topical appeal - and there's nothing wrong with that btw - but I'll throw them out for consideration anyhow.
There are currently four main HB-D categories here, and all four are devoted to race and ethnicity (granted the fourth category, only partially), as well as half of the other main section. Now, while in our fragile current world zeitgeist, race might be the tempting forbidden fruit of Human Biodiversity discussion (perhaps much more engrossing than it would be otherwise, but this is debatable), it remains, quite certainly, only a somewhat slender fraction of the topic. In fact all manners of human group differences are smaller than the largest amount of diversity which is found in individuals.
Now, while I'm a race junkie as well (a matter of public record), I don't think it is a bad suggestion that an entire category be reserved for the larger elements of diversity: the personality, ability, psychological, emotional, and behavioral traits that distinguish individuals. This is not complete without its equally large companion topic: The commonalities that establish an
underlying uniformity, a human nature.
This would include discussion of Sociobiology, or evolved social traits; behavioral genetics, the search for what role genes play in individual differences; and general psychology topics such as psychometrics, cognitive/consciousness science, and temperament research.
If race is to remain the primary focus of this discussion board, then perhaps additional manners of group differences would be subsumed under the human nature category recommended above, but if actual human biodiversity is the main concern I think there are some other large group differences that might warrent their own primary category sections: Foremost, of course, male-female differences, but also important are sexual orientation differences, not to mention social "types" which might represent genetic niches, such as the warrior/athlete, the artist, the nerd, and the psychopath/sociopath.
Thoughts?
I realize that in a sense this forum is largely a continuation of the racial anthropology discussion group, that had its own special areas of focus, so perhaps these suggestions will have limited topical appeal - and there's nothing wrong with that btw - but I'll throw them out for consideration anyhow.
There are currently four main HB-D categories here, and all four are devoted to race and ethnicity (granted the fourth category, only partially), as well as half of the other main section. Now, while in our fragile current world zeitgeist, race might be the tempting forbidden fruit of Human Biodiversity discussion (perhaps much more engrossing than it would be otherwise, but this is debatable), it remains, quite certainly, only a somewhat slender fraction of the topic. In fact all manners of human group differences are smaller than the largest amount of diversity which is found in individuals.
Now, while I'm a race junkie as well (a matter of public record), I don't think it is a bad suggestion that an entire category be reserved for the larger elements of diversity: the personality, ability, psychological, emotional, and behavioral traits that distinguish individuals. This is not complete without its equally large companion topic: The commonalities that establish an
underlying uniformity, a human nature.
This would include discussion of Sociobiology, or evolved social traits; behavioral genetics, the search for what role genes play in individual differences; and general psychology topics such as psychometrics, cognitive/consciousness science, and temperament research.
If race is to remain the primary focus of this discussion board, then perhaps additional manners of group differences would be subsumed under the human nature category recommended above, but if actual human biodiversity is the main concern I think there are some other large group differences that might warrent their own primary category sections: Foremost, of course, male-female differences, but also important are sexual orientation differences, not to mention social "types" which might represent genetic niches, such as the warrior/athlete, the artist, the nerd, and the psychopath/sociopath.
Thoughts?
