Some factors influencing the relative proportions of human racial stocks.

Abstract

The study of the origin of human diversity is, and must remain, dependent upon data so inadequate as to permit of various quite legitimate conclusions. The study of human variation as it exists today is also based upon inadequate data, but this condition can be, and is being improved. Indeed, as we learn more of the nature of variation in living human populations, we can begin to judge better the relative plausibility of various theories concerning the origin of racial stocks, and the functional significance of the differences which exist between them. In our concentration of interest upon the living, however, we must not neglect to pay attention to the data of the past, even though it be fragmentary. Only by viewing each type of evidence in relation to the other will we be able to construct a coherent and consistent account of how we humans came to be, as...