The Neanderthal extinction always made me think that erasure of races in our modern times will follow a similar pattern. People think of the Native Americans as getting wiped out by disease/violence over a few years, but their ultimate end (and every other races end) probably will be similar to Neanderthals: slowly getting bred out of existence until finding someone with >2% DNA is a novelty. Same thing will probably happen to any smaller populations as globalization/interbreeding means massive populations like China/India will end up being the majority of the DNA.
I'm always surprised at the opposite. We have such distinct ethnicities. It feels like everyone should be mixed race, but so few are.
I will grant that by some historic definitions you could consider many people mixed race as neighboring cultures combine. But there are still very large and distinctly separate ethnic groups like black, white, asian, etc.
That’s because you’re holding a particular snapshot of a race in your mind. If you really think about it, a lot of people are intensely mixed. Most African-Americans, all Hispanics, the Middle East, Central Asia, all of South Asia are racially mixed. That’s probably half the worlds population.
We could argue a long time about what counts as "mixed" or as a "race". But there are definitely genetic clusters[0]. I don't think it's that surprising given fast travel is a relatively recent invention. The clusters will probably become less distinct over the next centuries.
ericmcer · · focus · HN ↗
naet · · focus · HN ↗
I will grant that by some historic definitions you could consider many people mixed race as neighboring cultures combine. But there are still very large and distinctly separate ethnic groups like black, white, asian, etc.
(I am not mixed race by my wife and son are)
dyauspitr · · focus · HN ↗
olalonde · · focus · HN ↗
[0] <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Principal_component_analysis_of_modern_human_populations.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Principal_component_...