# Can homo-sapiens be classified into distinct sub-populations?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-homo-sapiens-be-classified-into-distinct-sub-populations/627121>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 3, 2012, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-homo-sapiens-be-classified-into-distinct-sub-populations/627121 "2012-07-03T18:16:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2012, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-homo-sapiens-be-classified-into-distinct-sub-populations/627121/21 "2012-07-05T13:59:14Z")

</div>

> [@bldysabba](#):
>
> I have no dog in that fight. But skimming through those threads has made me curious to know if there _are_ sub-populations into which humanity _can_ be sensibly sub-divided. If so, what are they?

Sure. I like to divide humanity into myself and everybody else. It’s just as sensible as any other division, and much easier to keep track of.

If I’m feeling broad-minded I could include my brother, since he has pretty much the same mix of genetic information as I do. But most days I’d rather leave him out of the group. 🙂

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2012, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-homo-sapiens-be-classified-into-distinct-sub-populations/627121/22 "2012-07-05T14:08:18Z")

</div>

> [@John\_Mace](#):
>
> So, you’re saying there ain’t no mountain high enough? Ain’t no river wide enough?

🙂 Walked into that, didn’t I?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2012, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-homo-sapiens-be-classified-into-distinct-sub-populations/627121/23 "2012-07-07T07:51:20Z")

</div>

> [@John\_Mace](#):
>
> The problem isn’t that humans can’t be subdivided genetically, it’s that there are an arbitrarily large number of ways to do it. If we assume that people pretty much stay in the same place (see below for when we don’t assume that), then you can distinguish the Scots from the English, the English from the French, the French from the Spanish… In fact, you can distinguish almost any geographic area from another. So, which are the “right” ones?

If you do it with a priori reasoning like you are, I agree it would be fairly arbitrary, and difficult to defend. But statistical analysis of data is often used to throw up clusters defined by the data itself, based on similarity/dissimilarity of certain variables in the data. Assuming here that genetic information about populations is usable as such a criterion, a similar analysis could bring down(not do away with) the level of arbitrariness. You would then be left to define how many groups and by observing the level of within-group and between-group variance, it could be possible to arrive at a defensible number. Based on some of the (non-race oriented) responses I was reading about division into sub-populations, I’d figured that was what was being done. When I think about it some more, it actually seems quite unlikely that so much genetic data is available.

ETA:

> [@](#):
>
> Originally Posted by **John Mace**  
> So, you’re saying there ain’t no mountain high enough? Ain’t no river wide enough?

was classic 😃

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-homo-sapiens-be-classified-into-distinct-sub-populations/627121.md?page=1)