by Andrew Hamilton

ORDINARILY THE STUDY of human evolution focuses on the species as a whole and its supposed descent from prehominid species. But race is preeminently a subspecies phenomenon. Race (as opposed to species) formation and destruction can occur with great rapidity on the microevolutionary as opposed to the macroevolutionary time scale.

The microevolution/macroevolution distinction is important in dealing with most practical issues involving race in an evolutionary context. For a random example of how racial issues that concern us are essentially microevolutionary in nature, glance at Book Review, “Migration and Colonization in Human Microevolution,” Heredity 84 . . . → Read More: Macroevolution, Microevolution, and Race