Anthropologist disputes impact of race on human biology Oct. 15,
2002 KALAMAZOO -- An expert in biological anthropology will come
to the Western Michigan University campus to question the idea
of using race as a means to understand biological differences in
humans during a lecture sponsored by the Visiting Scholars and
Artists Program Dr. George Armelagos, professor of biological
anthropology at Emory University, will give a slide-illustrated
presentation, "Myths of Race and the Reality of Racism," at 7
p.m. Thursday, Oct. 24, in Room 1032 of Moore Hall. "Race as a
biological concept is of little value," says Armelagos. He says
its actually the use of race as a social construct and its
misapplication that perpetuates racism, and it is actually
racism that continues to have an impact on the biology in large
segments of the population. In addition to Thursday' s lecture,
Armelagos will speak the following day on " Diet and Disease in
Pre-History" to students and faculty in the Department of
Anthropology. He als