Talk:Caucasian race: Difference between revisions

:::Forensic anthropologists still use the term, although physical anthropologists consider it both outdated and pseudoscientific. Also they donøt generally "reconstruct facial markers" but simply look at some diagnostic features of the skull such as eye-socket shape, browridges, shape of nasal cavity. It only works in a society where there are fairly sharply socially delineated racial groups - and outside of courts it is not generally considered a reliable way to assess racial group since many other factors than ancestry play into racial categorizations. And even when forensic anthropologists do make an actual reconstruction of the face, it is not particularly reliable as a clue to genetic ancestry as the recent Kennewick results show.[[User:Maunus|·maunus]] · [[User talk:Maunus|snunɐɯ·]] 08:47, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

::::Yes, there are various problems with physical anthropology in general. Same situation in zoology, DNA studies have radically changed (and are still changing) the idea of how we think various animal groups are interrelated, which were based on morphological data, so it isn't unique to humans. Morphological classification is slowly being phased out in [[neoteny]], in favour of DNA classification, but this will be impossible with most fossils, though. As for "Caucasian race", I wouldn't call it "pseudoscience", just somewhat outdated/unreliable science, as it was based on scientific principles, unlike pseudo-science, which is pretty much just baseless and fraudulent claims. [[User:FunkMonk|FunkMonk]] ([[User talk:FunkMonk|talk]]) 08:50, 29 July 2015 (UTC)