Quote:
Originally Posted by ChainLegacy
I personally don't even like to think in terms of race. I find the entire notion antiquated. Genetically speaking, Africa has the most diversity on the planet. All humans are descended from Africans. Africa is home to a huge swath of different cultures that have little in common. Were it not for the Bantu migrations about 1000 years ago, the languages would be even more diverse. Race is a convenient term for simplifying things and has been important historically, but I think we need to start shifting our focus more towards ethnicity if we want to discuss groups of people.
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Race is indeed an arbitrary social construct, but as I understand it, ethnicity refers more commonly to certain subdivisions within a so-called race. For instance, people may speak of the Yoruba, Amhara, or Samburu as ethnic groups within the African or "Negroid" race. However, neither race nor ethnicity are taxonomically precise. Depending on whom you ask, Native Americans and Asians may either be distinct races or part of the same "Mongoloid" race, and people sometimes speak of whole religions like Judaism as ethnic categories.