What defines a person's race, ethnicity or DNA? I am 100% Italian, consider myself white, although my DNA supposedly lands me in the Somalid race.

BRY2K

This promises to be a hot topic with varying opinions. I suspect that there will never be a "right" answer to this question. Here are a few responses that I favour: A category of the human species sharing more or less distinctive physical traits transmitted in descent; a concept that has little scientific validity but continues to have a meaning in particular social contexts. Race it is NOT based on biology; it is a CREATED category with historical roots used to classify groups of people. Historically it was not determined by skin colour but by class inequalities (for example, the English defined the Irish as a "lower" race.) http://www.euroamerican.org/library/definitions_race.asp Mar 15 09, 2:11 PM

star_gazer

Generally when people speak of the white race they also mean the Caucasion race. This wiki article should help shed some light on this confusing topic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasian_race Mar 15 09, 6:51 PM

zbeckabee

DNA studies do not indicate that separate classifiable subspecies (races) exist within modern humans. While different genes for physical traits such as skin and hair color can be identified between individuals, no consistent patterns of genes across the human genome exist to distinguish one race from another. There also is no genetic basis for divisions of human ethnicity. People who have lived in the same geographic region for many generations may have some alleles in common, but no allele will be found in all members of one population and in no members of any other. Indeed, it has been proven that there is more genetic variation within races than exists between them. http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/humanmigration.shtml DNA studies indicate that all modern humans share a common female ancestor who lived in Africa about 140,000 years ago, and all men share a common male ancestor who lived in Africa about 60,000 years ago. These were not the only humans who lived in these eras, and the human genome still contains many genetic traits of their contemporaries. Humanity's most recent common ancestors are identifiable because their lineages have survived by chance in the special pieces of DNA that are passed down the gender lines nearly unaltered from one generation to the next. Mar 15 09, 7:46 PM