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The template is named "Historical definitions of race" but it turns out it is the only navigation template on the topic of race we have at present. It seems to be rather larger, so it might make sense to split off a generic "race" template and organise this one along historical lines.
At first glance this seems like a straightforward solution, but there appears to be a "political" angle, as there seem to be people on Wikipedia who wish to present all and any discussion of "race" as purely historical. This is ostensibly nonsense, of course, and (apart from possible ideological motivations) mostly a semantic confusion: in modern scientific (anthropological) literature, the term race has been partially avoided, because of its sociological implications, since the 1980s or so, what used to be called "race" in the anthropological sense is now called "lineage" or "metapopulation" etc. At the same time, race is still pretty much used in its historical meaning in medicine (epidemology) and in official census data.
"Australoid" and "Mongoloid" are very much a contemporary concepts in anthropology and population genetics. The addition of the term "race" is avoided by some authors and not by others, which creates the appearance that the concept is "historical" (as in, obsolete) while it is only the denominator "race" that has been replaced by "population", "metapopulation", "lineage" etc. because it has become taboo in some intellectual traditions since the 1970s. --
dab(𒁳) 08:46, 30 July 2018 (UTC)reply
What you say about the use of "race" in modern (biological / genetic) science is a fringe theory, sorry. Good sources about the consensus in current science can be found e.g. at
Negroid#Criticism based on modern genetics. --
Rsk6400 (
talk) 08:58, 20 July 2020 (UTC)reply
The "diachronic" part has nothing to do with "Historical definitions of race". Although some racists like to connect their fringe theories about race with archeogenetics, the consensus in modern biological / genetic / anthropologic science is that "race" cannot meaningfully be applied to humans in those sciences. I suggest to remove the whole line "Diachronic". --
Rsk6400 (
talk) 09:09, 20 July 2020 (UTC)reply
The Swedish physical anthropologist that created the label "East Baltic race"
Yes, because this is the English encyclopedia, not the Swedish one.
Rsk6400 (
talk) 06:25, 8 July 2023 (UTC)reply
Perhaps a clever Wikipedian could auto-translate the Swedish page to English as so many of those other authors in this English version were? That would be making a contribution rather than undoing an attempt at making a contribution.
"nonsense"? Really? Is that an example of Neutral Point of View or of being uninformed of the topic?
"not helpful, since most of our readers don't know Swedish"? How many common browsers offer a translation with a right click? Or was that just an excuse?
If Rsk6400 is a productive Wikipedian, they should have no problem auto-translating the Swedish page and making a contribution to the English version of Wikipedia. If not, we know what is happening here.
Please, do not reinforce the negative aspects of Wikipedia's reputation. Keep your actions and words positive. Build Wikipedia with your contributions. Do not hinder growth by undoing the attempts of the uninitiated. Improve their efforts. Be positive in your actions.
172.13.183.60 (
talk) 13:37, 8 July 2023 (UTC)reply