Just be hopeful that Wade doesn't take up airplane wing design as his next hobby. John M Rhodes On 2014-06-29, at 8:47 AM, "Debbie Kennett" <debbiekennett@gmail.com> wrote: > I've just discovereed that Kenan Malik, who wrote the review of Wade's book > for The Times, has made an extended version of his review available on his > blog: > > https://kenanmalik.wordpress.com/2014/06/28/a-fairy-tale-but-oh-so-feeble/ > > Debboe > > -----Original Message----- > From: Debbie Kennett [mailto:debbiekennett@gmail.com] > Sent: 29 June 2014 11:42 > To: Haplogroup I list (y-dna-haplogroup-i@rootsweb.com) > Subject: RE: Recommended book > > I note that no one has been able to answer my question about how many > "races" there are. Coincidentally Nicholas Wade's book was reviewed in The > Times yesterday. Fortunately reviewers on this side of the Atlantic have > been able to see through Wade's dangerous outdated, prejudiced and > unscientific hogwash. It seems that Wade's classification of races is a > purely arbitrary arrangement: > > "Wade insists that a race is a "continental population"... But what is it > about continental groups that distinguishes them as races? And why should > continental groups, as opposed to other population groups, be defined as > races? Wade never tells us; nor even how many races there are. On page 4, > Wade claims "three principal races": Africans, East Asians and Caucasians. > Sixty pages on, the three have become five with the addition of native > Americans and "the peoples of Australia and Papua New Guinea". On page 100, > Wade suggests that "it might be reasonable to elevate the Indian and Middle > Eastern groups to the level of major races, making seven in all". But, "then > many more subpopulations could be declared races, so to keep things simple, > the five-race, continent-based scheme seems the most practical". We could, > in other words, define as many races as we wish to, but for "practical" > reasons Wade will arbitrarily limit it to five. Not, it has to be said, a > particularly scientific approach." > > The reviewer goes on to say: "As with much of this book, it is a fairytale > presented as science." > > I'm not sure if you will be able to read the whole review without a > subscription > > http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/books/non-fiction/article4129896.ece > > Debbie > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to Y-DNA-HAPLOGROUP-I-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message