ABSTRACT
Since its beginnings in the 19th century, anthropology has been concerned, some might say obsessed, with the study of human racial variation. One could also say that race has been an American concern for an even longer period of time, perhaps dating back to August 1619, when the first shipload of 20 African slaves arrived at Jamestown, Virginia, a year before the arrival of the Pilgrims on the Mayflower at Plymouth Rock (Bennett 1964). Yet as the quotations that open the chapter make clear, there is no consensus among anthropologists on some basic questions about race in humans, including whether race even exists. What are human races, and how should they be defined? How many races are there today? Should anthropologists even name races and attempt to classify individuals into racial categories? What is the connection between
the existence of racial classifications and the ugly fact of racism? These are still important questions for anthropologists today.
