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Biologists
have a scientific name for people: they call us HOMO SAPIENS. We
may look a little different from eachother, but we are all Homo
Sapiens. This is because we are all the same species. This word
- SPECIES - means a group of animal creatures who live together,
make families together, and have similar body parts. Two animals
of different species cannot have families together.
Dogs look different from each other, but they are all the same species
- they are all dogs! For biologists, the word RACE means the same
as the word SPECIES. Sometimes people say there is only one race:
the HUMAN RACE. These people understand that we are all human beings!
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In fact,
if you picked any tow random human beings from around the world
and compared their physical traits (body parts) you would find that
there is no more than .2% - 2/10ths of 1% - difference between them.
This means that no matter how different people look, the actual
biological differences between them are very small.
Maybe you have noticed that human beings look different. This has
to do with the magic of ANCESTRY. Ancestry means your parents and
their parents and your parents' parents' parents'. When we are born,
we get half our physical traits from our mother and half from our
father. Our parents got THEIR traits from their mothers and fathers,
and so on. If you go back far enough, you will find that we are
all related!
Biologists have found evidence that our oldest relatives came from
Africa over 100 000 years ago. As people wandered out of Africa,
their body types, skin colors, and other traits changed to adapt
to their new environments - which, depending on where in the world
they were, could have been cold, dry, hot, wet, sunny or dark. This
is how people got to look different from each other. |
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Have
you noticed that the way people look doesn't have much to do with
the way they act? Some people are good at jumping rope. Some people
like to share. Some people are mean. Some people are sad and like
to be left alone. Some people are smart. Some people are good at
flying kites. Some people are happy just watching the clouds in
the sky! And it has nothing to do with the way they look. The way
you look tells you about your ancestry, but it does not mean anything
about who you are as YOU. That's why it's good not to look at someone
and think you know all about them. Just like a magic trick, you
need to turn over the card to see if it's the two of clubs, or the
queen of hearts. Which card are you? |
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