Race (human categorization)

==== Subspecies ====
[[Race (biology)|The term ''race'' in biology]] is used with caution because it can be ambiguous. Generally, when it is used it is effectively a synonym of ''[[subspecies]]''.<ref name="Keita; Templeton; Long" /> (For animals, the only taxonomic unit below the [[species]] level is usually the subspecies;<ref name="conservation" /> there are narrower [[Infraspecific name|infraspecific ranks in botany]], and ''race'' does not correspond directly with any of them.) Traditionally, [[subspecies]] are seen as geographically isolated and genetically differentiated populations.<ref name="Templeton 1998" /> Studies of human genetic variation show that human populations are not geographically isolated.<ref>{{harvnb|Templeton|1998}} "Genetic surveys and the analyses of DNA haplotype trees show that human 'races' are not distinct lineages, and that this is not due to recent admixture; human 'races' are not and never were 'pure'."</ref> and their genetic differences are far smaller than those among comparable subspecies.<ref>{{cite book |last=Relethford |first=John H. |author-link=John Relethford |editor-first=Naomi |editor-last=Zack |editor-link=Naomi Zack |date=23 February 2017 |chapter=Biological Anthropology, Population Genetics, and Race |title=The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Race |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190236953.013.20 |isbn=978-0-19-023695-3 |quote=Human populations do not exhibit the levels of geographic isolation or genetic divergence to fit the subspecies model of race.}}</ref>

In 1978, [[Sewall Wright]] suggested that human populations that have long inhabited separated parts of the world should, in general, be considered different subspecies by the criterion that most individuals of such populations can be allocated correctly by inspection. Wright argued: "It does not require a trained anthropologist to classify an array of Englishmen, West Africans, and Chinese with 100% accuracy by features, skin color, and type of hair despite so much variability within each of these groups that every individual can easily be distinguished from every other."<ref name="Wright 1978" /> While in practice subspecies are often defined by easily observable physical appearance, there is not necessarily any evolutionary significance to these observed differences, so this form of classification has become less acceptable to evolutionary biologists.<ref name="Keita; Templeton" /> Likewise this [[Typology (anthropology)|typological]] approach to race is generally regarded as discredited by biologists and anthropologists.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":4" />