Why do races differ in behaviour?

[TimbaLanD]

I have come across a variety of races and the most humble of them all are the Japanese. Is it because of their disciplined culture?

[srh]

Technically, I don't think there's such thing as various races of humans. It's one race. The idea of races of human was an invention to justify treatment and mis-treatment of certain peoples by other groups, based upon certain characteristics, the most obvious of which is skin colour. That might just be an idealistic viewpoint though.

 

Behaviour has nothing to do with being of a certain 'race'. Take a japanese person and raise them in a culture where different qualities are encouraged or prevalent, and they will most likely develop with those qualities. So I guess, in a way, culture is the answer to the question.

[TimbaLanD]

I should have used the word “ethnical background” instead of “race”. My apologies.

[Glider]

Yes, it is culture. Many of the behavioural differences attributed to ethnicity are actually associated with culture. This has been found to be the case even with such things as eating disorders. For example, in Japan, anorexia nervosa is virtually unknown. However, among first generation immigrant japanese people living in the UK and USA, the prevalence of anorexia is the same as for the 'indigenous' population.

[Dak]

Technically, I don't think there's such thing as various races of humans. It's one race. The idea of races of human was an invention to justify treatment and mis-treatment of certain peoples by other groups, based upon certain characteristics, the most obvious of which is skin colour. That might just be an idealistic viewpoint though.

 

There are races. it's not a particularly well-defined division, but it's there none the less as a valid clade. 'species' is what we are all one of.

 

there are three main races: caucasians (central/west european), negroids (african), and mongaloid, which, as far as i can tell, means 'others'. i think it includes orientals, but also eskimoes. no idea what aborigionies etc are.

 

there are some obviouse phenotypic differenses, more than just skin colour, but there are also alleles that are distributed amongst people with complete disreguard for racial divisions, so there you go. what 'race' one belongs to isn't that relevent, but it is inportant sometimes, mainly in medicine, with some racial differenses requiring different treatments dependant on race.

 

by-the-by, 'race' isn't a naughty term.

[srh]

There are races. it's not a particularly well-defined division' date=' but it's there none the less as a valid clade. 'species' is what we are all one of.

 

there are three main races: caucasians (central/west european), negroids (african), and mongaloid, which, as far as i can tell, means 'others'. i think it includes orientals, but also eskimoes. no idea what aborigionies etc are.

 

there are some obviouse phenotypic differenses, more than just skin colour, but there are also alleles that are distributed amongst people with complete disreguard for racial divisions, so there you go. what 'race' one belongs to isn't that relevent, but it is inportant sometimes, mainly in medicine, with some racial differenses requiring different treatments dependant on race.

 

by-the-by, 'race' isn't a naughty term.[/quote']

 

Thanks for the info. I guess by aborigines you refer to Australian? I'm guessing they could belong to Mongaloid, having migrated down through south east asia.

 

What differences are there in races that warrant different medical treatment? Is that down to varying immune systems?

[Dak]

http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=6795348

 

From googling around a bit, it seems i might have over-stated the situation with reguard to racial medication (sorry bout that). seems it's being used a bit in clinical trials, and maybe used a little in medicine.

 

it is, at least, being used in a heart treatment drug called BiDil, which is only given to negroids after, IIRC, clinical trials gave oddly divergant results. scientists examined the data given from the shot-gun questionair filled out by the trial subjects, which included ethnicity, and noticed that if only data from white people was taken, that there was no correlation between BilDil treatment and condition, whereas negroid data showed a significant effect in treating the heart condition.