ABSTRACT
In this chapter we look at the issue of taxonomic categorisation. The concept of race, for example, has been used to signify a division of people into different groups. (This is only one way it can be used.) Under this conception, racial divisions are said to have some type of biological foundation, and this generates discrete racial groupings, so that members of each group share a set of biological characteristics that are not shared by members of other groups. These characteristics are inherited from other members of the same racial grouping; and it therefore becomes possible to identify the geographical origin of each race. These inherited characteristics are usually thought of as physical phenotypes, such as colour of hair, skin colour, eye shape and bone structure; however, and this is where it becomes much more complicated and divisive, sometimes these characteristics are used to refer to behavioural phenotypes such as intelligence or criminality. A belief in the concept of race as it is understood and defined here leads to certain social and political practices that discriminate against particular people, and, in addition, to the formation and reformation of categories such as indigeneity, and subsequently to the development of social, cultural and pedagogical practices associated with them. They are not natural kinds.
