Archeology, population genetics and studies of human racial ancestry.

Using traditional classification, many people have tried to determine the place and time of origin of the major human races. Two basically conflicting views have prevailed, one asserting that races developed as local variations in a species evolving phyletically over much of the Old World for up to one million years, and the other view holding that present races are local variations on populations recently expanding into most areas and replacing the previous hominid inhabitants, this occurring since the time of the Neanderthals. Both views are based on the same archeological data. Gene frequency data and time-calibrated genetic distance measures have recently been applied to this problem. Here we show that the probable demographic nature of Pleistocene populations has obscured genetic distances to such an extent that they cannot be used to discriminate between the two viewpoints of racial origins. The racial classifications themselves are probably not useful in this context and obscure the question, so that we presently do not have a scientifically valid understanding of racial origins.