Sorting people by color, race and culture in Africa
Our eyes tell us that people look different colors but do our eyes lie to us placing humans into invented color, race and culture categories to suite our needs.
What is race?
Race has no genetic basis. Race is considered by many to be a made up characteristic in order to objectify people who have the same physical characteristics or phenotype such as eye shape, hair texture or skin color. Race is not biological.
What is ethnicity?
An ethnic group is a category of people who belonging to or deriving from the cultural, religious, or linguistic traditions of a people or country. People who identify with each other based on similarities, such as common ancestral, language, social, and cultural experiences. Therefore, ethnic group is a subjective category based on personal feelings, tastes, or opinions of others.
What is culture?
Culture is the learned pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior transmitting knowledge to future generations and these shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices distinguish the person. Culture is a category based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions.
What is color?
Color shapes our perceptions of the world around us. Color is visual, the pigmentation of the skin. Color is a strong sensory sensation that shapes our everyday life. Colors give the sensation of feeling cheerful, depressed, cautious or friendly.
To see color, you have to have light. When light shines, on an object some colors bounce off the object and others are absorbed by it. Our eyes only see the colors that are bounced off or reflected.
The sun’s rays contain all the colors of the rainbow mixed together. All light rays contain color. Light is made of electromagnetic waves. These waves spread out from any light source, such as the sun.
Race by percentages in South Africa
Term Colored in South Africa refers to people of mixed races while Indian and Asian are grouped into one category on the 2018 South African Census. South Africa's Indian population is the largest Indian population outside of India.
DNA African Study
Populations are genetically diverse, and because there is a complex relationship between ancestry, genetic makeup, and phenotype. In 1987, three scientists announced in the journal Nature that they had found a common ancestor to us all, African Eve was a woman who lived in Africa 150,000 years ago.
The theory is all people alive today can trace some of their genetic heritage through their mothers back to this one woman. Dr. Tishkoff , a professor of Genetics and Biology at the University of Pennsylvania studying genetic material variations, human evolution, and disease risk in global populations and her team studied 121 African populations, four African American populations, and 60 non-African populations.
The Khoisan people of Southern Africa was previously thought to possess the oldest DNA lineages, but those of the Sandawe tribe of central Tanzania are older. This suggests southern Khoisan originated in East Africa, according to Dr Tishkoff. Modern humans originated in Africa around 200,000 years ago and then spread across the rest of the globe within the past 100,000 years.
Did you know?
Genotype vs phenotype
Genotype cannot be seen by the naked eye, it is the genetic makeup of an organism. Visible traits are known as phenotypes. A phenotype is an individual's observable traits, such as height, shoe size, eye color, and face shape.
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Ubuntu African philosophy "Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu" means that a person is a person through other people |
What is race?
Race has no genetic basis. Race is considered by many to be a made up characteristic in order to objectify people who have the same physical characteristics or phenotype such as eye shape, hair texture or skin color. Race is not biological.
What is ethnicity?
An ethnic group is a category of people who belonging to or deriving from the cultural, religious, or linguistic traditions of a people or country. People who identify with each other based on similarities, such as common ancestral, language, social, and cultural experiences. Therefore, ethnic group is a subjective category based on personal feelings, tastes, or opinions of others.
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| Sorting people |
Culture is the learned pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior transmitting knowledge to future generations and these shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices distinguish the person. Culture is a category based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions.
What is color?
Color shapes our perceptions of the world around us. Color is visual, the pigmentation of the skin. Color is a strong sensory sensation that shapes our everyday life. Colors give the sensation of feeling cheerful, depressed, cautious or friendly.
To see color, you have to have light. When light shines, on an object some colors bounce off the object and others are absorbed by it. Our eyes only see the colors that are bounced off or reflected.
The sun’s rays contain all the colors of the rainbow mixed together. All light rays contain color. Light is made of electromagnetic waves. These waves spread out from any light source, such as the sun.
Race by percentages in South Africa
Term Colored in South Africa refers to people of mixed races while Indian and Asian are grouped into one category on the 2018 South African Census. South Africa's Indian population is the largest Indian population outside of India.
| Race | Percent |
|---|---|
| Black African | 80.90% |
| Colored | 8.80% |
| White | 7.80% |
| Indian and Asian | 2.50% |
DNA African Study
Populations are genetically diverse, and because there is a complex relationship between ancestry, genetic makeup, and phenotype. In 1987, three scientists announced in the journal Nature that they had found a common ancestor to us all, African Eve was a woman who lived in Africa 150,000 years ago.
The theory is all people alive today can trace some of their genetic heritage through their mothers back to this one woman. Dr. Tishkoff , a professor of Genetics and Biology at the University of Pennsylvania studying genetic material variations, human evolution, and disease risk in global populations and her team studied 121 African populations, four African American populations, and 60 non-African populations.
The Khoisan people of Southern Africa was previously thought to possess the oldest DNA lineages, but those of the Sandawe tribe of central Tanzania are older. This suggests southern Khoisan originated in East Africa, according to Dr Tishkoff. Modern humans originated in Africa around 200,000 years ago and then spread across the rest of the globe within the past 100,000 years.
Did you know?
Genotype vs phenotype
Genotype cannot be seen by the naked eye, it is the genetic makeup of an organism. Visible traits are known as phenotypes. A phenotype is an individual's observable traits, such as height, shoe size, eye color, and face shape.
