无庸置疑,遗传学研究能大大增进人们对各个种族的特性和人类整体历史的理解。人与人之间在组成基因的DNA(脱氧核糖核酸)序列上的差异是人类历史累进演变的结果。它们记载了“种族”(race)和“族群”(ethnicgroup)的起源,精确地描绘出了那些群体如何在时间的长河中相互混合、分离的图谱。自20世纪80年代中期之后,随着科学手段的不断完善,科学家们已能展示人类DNA数十亿核苷酸整体的排列序图。它的最新成果便是去年初步完成的人类基因图谱。然而,在西方社会,由于历史的原因,种族问题已成为一个极为敏感的政治话题。种族主义的一个基本观念便是认 Undoubtedly, genetics research can greatly enhance people’s understanding of the characteristics of each race and the overall history of mankind. The difference in the sequence of DNA (DNA) that makes up the gene between people is the result of the progressive evolution of human history. They document the origins of the “race” and “ethnic group” and accurately describe how those groups mix and separate in time. Since the mid-1980s, with the continuous improvement of scientific methods, scientists have been able to display a sequence of billions of nucleotide sequences of human DNA. Its latest achievement is the preliminary mapping of the human genome last year. However, in the Western world, ethnicity has become an extremely sensitive political topic for historical reasons. One of the basic concepts of racism is recognition