Book contents
- Understanding Human Diversity
- Series page
- Understanding Human Diversity
- Copyright page
- Reviews
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- 1 DNA Is Not Our Deep Inner Core
- 2 Our Fate Is Not in Our Genes
- 3 We Are Not 98% Chimpanzee
- 4 Human Variation Is Not Race
- 5 Political and Economic Inequality Is Not the Result of Genetics
- 6 Human Kinship Transcends Genetics
- 7 Men and Women Are Both from Earth
- 8 You Are Not 2% Interestingly Exotic
- 9 We Can’t Breed a Better Kind of Person
- 10 Conclusions
- Summary of Common Misunderstandings
- References and Further Reading
- Figure and Quotation Credits
- Index
1 - DNA Is Not Our Deep Inner Core
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 August 2024
- Understanding Human Diversity
- Series page
- Understanding Human Diversity
- Copyright page
- Reviews
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- 1 DNA Is Not Our Deep Inner Core
- 2 Our Fate Is Not in Our Genes
- 3 We Are Not 98% Chimpanzee
- 4 Human Variation Is Not Race
- 5 Political and Economic Inequality Is Not the Result of Genetics
- 6 Human Kinship Transcends Genetics
- 7 Men and Women Are Both from Earth
- 8 You Are Not 2% Interestingly Exotic
- 9 We Can’t Breed a Better Kind of Person
- 10 Conclusions
- Summary of Common Misunderstandings
- References and Further Reading
- Figure and Quotation Credits
- Index
Summary
Who does not know the most basic fact from the science of genetics, that peas and people reproduce in a similar fashion?
It is taught in high schools. Gregor Mendel discovered the fundamental scientific way that organisms breed, and it works the same way in people as it does in peas. Everyone knows that. They may not remember the specifics, with dominant uppercase A and recessive lowercase a – but they know that humans and peas reproduce basically the same way, because they were taught it, and it’s true.
Now I am certainly not going to try and convince you otherwise. But have you ever actually seen peas reproduce? Thanks to the internet, you can readily see videos of plant breeding. The videos of humans breeding, of course, are posted on more restricted internet sites.
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- Understanding Human Diversity , pp. 1 - 15Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024