ABSTRACT
Arbitrarily defined and geographically localized division of humans. It is ideally equivalent to the zoological subspecies, but the social consequences of allocating humans to groups make it impossible to carry out microevolutionary systematics of humans as one would practice it for other species. For example, human race is transmitted in the United States by a mechanism of folk heredity: The offspring of an interracial marriage either adopts or is assigned the lower-status race of the two parents. And where the assignment to a race is politically significant, having one great-grandparent of a particular race often outweighs having seven of another.
