4.2: Patterns of Human Variation

Steps

• Students will learn about patterns of human variation ahead of time, through reading (e.g. Explorations Chapter 13). Terms and concepts that are important to define include: polymorphism, continuous variation, cline (or clinal distribution), and non-concordance.
• Students will answer survey questions about their own biologically inherited features
• Once data is collected students will analyze whether the frequency of any of these features is higher within self-identified racial groupings

Conclusion

Students will consider if they found that they were regularly grouped with the same individuals or if they were often grouped with different individuals. Most students should find that they are grouped with different people each time, although it is possible that this varies (especially if they exhibited common traits, like O blood type). The frequencies of these traits are similar to American college students in general. When many traits are examined, students should see that humans do not fall into discrete groups or “races.”

Students will define or provide an example of the following terms/concepts based on the traits that were examined:

• Polymorphism,
• Continuous variation,
• Clinal distribution,
• Non-concordance of traits, and
• Genetic diversity Is greater within-group than between-groups.

For example, students may say “height is a continuous variable” or “the pattern for lactose tolerance is very different from that of skin color, demonstrating non-concordance”.

For Further Exploration

The Race Project. Are We So Different? American Anthropological Association.

References

Rivera, Michael. 2019. “Chapter 13: Race and Human Variation.” In Explorations: An Open Invitation to Biological Anthropology, edited by Beth Shook, Katie Nelson, Kelsie Aguilera, and Lara Braff. Arlington, VA: American Anthropological Association.

Image Attributions

Diversity, Differences, Qualities, Uniqueness by johnhain is used under a pixabay license.