How Can Human Variation Be Best Described?
It is clear that all of the models fail to adequately carry out the entire job. The typological model is the most unsound because presumed racial traits are not found exclusively within defined races. In addition, focusing on new sets of traits often results in assigning people to different races, despite the fact that they were lumped into the same race before. The populational model makes sense theoretically but fails to account for most of the distribution patterns around the world because we do not limit our breeding to isolated populations. The clinal model comes the closest to grasping the real nature of human variation. However, it is undermined by the occasional discontinuous distribution resulting from migrations and the few remaining small isolated communities. The patterns of human variation around the world are not only highly complex but also are constantly shifting through time. Furthermore, the rate of change in the patterns has been accelerating as our numbers grow and
