Racial Theory as a Myth: Scientific Infeasibility and Social Consequences Introduction: From Pseudoscience to Ideology Racial theory is a system of pseudoscientific views according to which humanity is divided into biologically distinct, hierarchically organized groups (races), whose physical, intellectual, and moral characteristics are predetermined and hereditary. Despite its historical role in the social sciences of the 19th and early 20th centuries, modern genetics, anthropology, and biology have completely discredited its main tenets, recognizing them as a scientific myth that served to justify colonialism, racism, and genocide. Historical Genesis: The Birth of a Myth The origins of racial thinking date back to the era of colonial conquests, but its theoretical formulation occurred in the 18th and 19th centuries parallel to the development of the natural sciences. Key points: Carl Linnaeus in "Systema Naturae" (1735) proposed one of the first classifications, where he attributed not only physical but also stereotypical psychological traits to human "varieties" (for example, "Americans" — anger, "Europeans" — inventiveness). Joseph de Gobineau in "An Essay on the Inequality of Human Races" (1853–1855) proclaimed the "Aryan" (northern) race as the creator of civilization, and racial mixing as the cause of its decline. His work became the Bible of racists. Social Darwinism (Herbert Spencer) transferred the principles of natural selection to human society, justifying competition and "the survival of the fittest" among races. These concepts were more a projection of social hierarchies and colonial relations onto nature than the result of research. Key Myths of Racial Theory and Their Scientific Refutation 1. Myth of the existence of "pure," discrete races.The theory claimed that races are clearly defined groups with a unique set of unchanging characteristics. Refutation by genetics: Modern research (in particular, the Human Genome Project) has shown that genetic div ... Read more