What does genetics tell us about human variation?
The modern study of genetic variation, since about the 1970s, tells us essentially that people are similar to those nearby and they’re different from those far away. And that no more tells us that there are three kinds of people than it tells us there are seven, or twelve, or thirty-eight kinds of people. Most genetic variation is encapsulated within any local group that is to say, all human groups have people that are taller, or shorter, or heavier, or skinnier, or more extroverted or more introverted. So the range of different kinds of people is found within all groups and what genetics was able to do was to put a number on that. About 85% of detectable genetic variation is located within groups. To the extent that there is between-group variation, the majority of between-group variation is local, not racial. And the amount of difference attributable to this large group of people versus that large group of people is only a tiny portion of the total of human variation. What accounts f
