Re: [tied] The indo european "race"

06-08-03 07:08, Exu Yangi wrote:

> Cladistics aside, you are absolutely right. However, you are far more likely
> to get a set of genes to make you 2+ meters tall if you are watusi than if
> you are chinese.
>
> All I was saying was that there ARE conspicuous regional difference, aka
> "race".

OK, but what's that to do with cladistics? You've mentioned it before,
but I don't understand your point. Cladistics is the art of grouping
taxa on the basis of synapomorphies (shared innovations inherited from a
common ancestor). In evolutionary biology, the method works rather well
in establishing phylogenies above the level of the species, but not
within species, where in the absence of reproductive barriers
reticulation does away with family-tree structures.

Piotr