--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Geneticists believe that anthropologists…" description: "\"Geneticists believe that anthropologists have decided what a race is. Ethnologists assume that their classifications embody principles which genetic sc..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/890/lancelot-hogben-42880_anthropologists_geneticists-believe-that-anthropologists_2290771.png" --- # Geneticists believe that anthropologists have decided what… ![“Geneticists believe that anthropologists have decided what a race is. Ethnologists assume that their classifications embody principles which genetic science has proved correct. Politicians believe that their prejudices have the sanction of genetic laws and the findings of physical anthropology to…” quote by Lancelot Hogben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/890/lancelot-hogben-42880_anthropologists_geneticists-believe-that-anthropologists_2290771.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/890/lancelot-hogben-42880_anthropologists_geneticists-believe-that-anthropologists_2290771.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/890/lancelot-hogben-42880_anthropologists_geneticists-believe-that-anthropologists_2290771.png) > “Geneticists believe that anthropologists have decided what a race is. Ethnologists assume that their classifications embody principles which genetic science has proved correct. Politicians believe that their prejudices have the sanction of genetic laws and the findings of physical anthropology to sustain them.” [Lancelot Hogben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lancelot-hogben/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Scientists and policymakers often misuse genetic concepts to justify social hierarchies and prejudices. **In simple terms:** Science is twisted to support bias. Key Takeaway Questionify scientific claims before applying them socially. Themes science politics prejudice race ethics Mood critical concerned Type analytical cautionary When to use this quote - academic debate - public policy formation - media reporting - education curricula - activist campaigns Key Concepts genetics social construction policy influence Questions to Reflect On - How can we ensure genetic research is communicated responsibly? - What safeguards prevent misuse of scientific findings? A Different Perspective Scientific consensus can be misinterpreted or politicized, leading to harmful stereotypes. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Anthropologists](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/anthropologists/) [Anthropology](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/anthropology/) [Assuming](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/assuming/) [Believe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/believe/) [Classification](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/classification/) [Decided](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/decided/) [Ethnologists](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ethnologists-5381362/) [Ethnologists Assume](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ethnologists-assume-5381361/) [Findings](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/findings/) [Geneticists](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/geneticists-851036/) [Geneticists Believe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/geneticists-believe-5381359/) [Genetics](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/genetics/) [Law](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/law/) [Politician](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/politician/) [Prejudice](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/prejudice/) [Principles](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/principles/) [Race](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/race/) [Race Ethnologists](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/race-ethnologists-5381360/) [Racism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/racism/) [Sanctions](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sanctions/) [Science](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/science/) ## Related quotes > [ETHNOLOGY, n. The science that treats of the various tribes of Man, as robbers, thieves, swindlers, dunces, lunatics, idiots and ethnologists.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ambrose-bierce/ethnology-n-the-science-that-treats-of-the-various-tribes-of-man-as/) [Ambrose Bierce](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ambrose-bierce/) > [“Countless doctors have drawn little tic-tac-toe grids for my parents over the years to try to explain the genetic lottery to them. Geneticists”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-j-palacio/countless-doctors-have-drawn-little-tic-tac-toe-grids-for-my-parents/) [R.J. Palacio](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-j-palacio/) > [“After a handful of geeks sequenced the Neanderthal genome and found a 2% match, they opened the flood gates to hundreds of geneticists that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-gaede/after-a-handful-of-geeks-sequenced-the-neanderthal-genome-and-found-a/) [Bill Gaede](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-gaede/) > [ So what we can answer \[as geneticists\] is questions about biology, about biological ancestry. But to make any sense of that historically we have… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/spencer-wells/so-what-we-can-answer-as-geneticists-is-questions-about-biology-about/) [Spencer Wells](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/spencer-wells/) > [“Geneticists are a group of mathematicians who have taken over the Neanderthal Paleontology Guild. They call the shots now.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-gaede/geneticists-are-a-group-of-mathematicians-who-have-taken-over-the/) [Bill Gaede](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-gaede/) > [As a consequence, geneticists described evolution simply as a change in gene frequencies in populations, totally ignoring the fact that evolution consists of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ernst-mayr/as-a-consequence-geneticists-described-evolution-simply-as-a-change/) [Ernst Mayr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ernst-mayr/) > [Realizing how often ingenious speculation in the complex biological world has led nowhere and how often the real advances in biology as well as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-hunt-morgan/realizing-how-often-ingenious-speculation-in-the-complex-biological/) [Thomas Hunt Morgan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-hunt-morgan/) > [If you talk to geneticists they are constantly finding that your genes are being switched on and off because of the environment. Genes alone…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jeffrey-eugenides/if-you-talk-to-geneticists-they-are-constantly-finding-that-your/) [Jeffrey Eugenides](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jeffrey-eugenides/) > [Writers like Aldous Huxley and George Orwell have imagined the sort of scientific utopia which is coming to pass, but already their nightmare fancies…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/malcolm-muggeridge/writers-like-aldous-huxley-and-george-orwell-have-imagined-the-sort/) [Malcolm Muggeridge](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/malcolm-muggeridge/) > [All the work on heritability was never based on looking at genes; it was based on the similarity between identical twins or between parents…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jerome-kagan/all-the-work-on-heritability-was-never-based-on-looking-at-genes-it/) [Jerome Kagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jerome-kagan/) > [We have long been seeking a different kind of evolutionary process and have now found one; namely, the change within the pattern of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-goldschmidt/we-have-long-been-seeking-a-different-kind-of-evolutionary-process/) [Richard Goldschmidt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-goldschmidt/) > [“Dimly, as if through a veil, geneticists were beginning to visualize patterns and themes: threads, strings, maps, crossings, broken and unbroken lines, chromosomes that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/siddhartha-mukherjee/dimly-as-if-through-a-veil-geneticists-were-beginning-to-visualize/) [Siddhartha Mukherjee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/siddhartha-mukherjee/) > [“Icelanders are among the most inbred human beings on earth—geneticists often use them for research.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-lewis/icelanders-are-among-the-most-inbred-human-beings-on-earth/) [Michael Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-lewis/) > [ Anthropology has always struggled with an intense, fascinated repulsion towards its subject… \[The anthropologist\] submits himself to the exotic to confirm his own inner… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/anthropology-has-always-struggled-with-an-intense-fascinated/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [As a social anthropologist, I naturally accept and even stress the fact that there are major differences, both mental and psychological, which separate the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/louis-leakey/as-a-social-anthropologist-i-naturally-accept-and-even-stress-the/) [Louis Leakey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/louis-leakey/) ## More by Lancelot Hogben > [“The language of mathematics differs from that of everyday life, because it is essentially a rationally planned language. The languages of size have no…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lancelot-hogben/the-language-of-mathematics-differs-from-that-of-everyday-life/) [Lancelot Hogben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lancelot-hogben/) > [Mathematics is the language of size.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lancelot-hogben/mathematics-is-the-language-of-size/) [Lancelot Hogben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lancelot-hogben/) > [Science for the Citizen is ... also written for the large and growing number of adolescents, who realize that they will be the first…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lancelot-hogben/science-for-the-citizen-is-also-written-for-the-large-and-growing/) [Lancelot Hogben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lancelot-hogben/) > [This is not the age of pamphleteers. It is the age of the engineers. The spark-gap is mightier than the pen. Democracy will not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lancelot-hogben/this-is-not-the-age-of-pamphleteers-it-is-the-age-of-the-engineers/) [Lancelot Hogben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lancelot-hogben/) > [There has been no more revolutionary contribution than the one which the Hindus (Indians) made when they invented ZERO.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lancelot-hogben/there-has-been-no-more-revolutionary-contribution-than-the-one-which/) [Lancelot Hogben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lancelot-hogben/) > [With full responsibility for my words as a professional biologist, I do not hesitate to say that all existing and genuine knowledge about the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lancelot-hogben/with-full-responsibility-for-my-words-as-a-professional-biologist-i/) [Lancelot Hogben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lancelot-hogben/) > [There is nothing particularly scientific about excessive caution. Science thrives on daring generalizations.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lancelot-hogben/there-is-nothing-particularly-scientific-about-excessive-caution/) [Lancelot Hogben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lancelot-hogben/) > [The best therapy for emotional blocks to math is the realization that the human race took centuries or millennia to see through the mist…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lancelot-hogben/the-best-therapy-for-emotional-blocks-to-math-is-the-realization-that/) [Lancelot Hogben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lancelot-hogben/) > [It is not enough to show that drug A is better than drug B on the average. One is invited to ask, 'For which…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lancelot-hogben/it-is-not-enough-to-show-that-drug-a-is-better-than-drug-b-on-the/) [Lancelot Hogben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lancelot-hogben/) [Explore all 10 Lancelot Hogben quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lancelot-hogben/) ## More Anthropologists quotes > [As a social anthropologist, I naturally accept and even stress the fact that there are major differences, both mental and psychological, which separate the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/louis-leakey/as-a-social-anthropologist-i-naturally-accept-and-even-stress-the/) [Louis Leakey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/louis-leakey/) > [ Anthropology has always struggled with an intense, fascinated repulsion towards its subject… \[The anthropologist\] submits himself to the exotic to confirm his own inner… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/anthropology-has-always-struggled-with-an-intense-fascinated/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The world of rumor and gossip is like a privileged world with which a social scientist or an anthropologist can take the temperature of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-c-scott/the-world-of-rumor-and-gossip-is-like-a-privileged-world-with-which-a/) [James C. Scott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-c-scott/) > [What did the last Easter Islander say as he chopped down the last tree? The Easter Islanders didnt have anthropologists.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jared-diamond/what-did-the-last-easter-islander-say-as-he-chopped-down-the-last/) [Jared Diamond](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jared-diamond/) > [Shamanism is not some obscure concern of cultural anthropologists. Shamanism is how religion was practiced for its first million years. Up until about 12,000…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/terence-mckenna/shamanism-is-not-some-obscure-concern-of-cultural-anthropologists/) [Terence McKenna](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/terence-mckenna/) > [An anthropologist at Tulane has just come back from a field trip to New Guinea with reports of a tribe so primitive that they…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-letterman/an-anthropologist-at-tulane-has-just-come-back-from-a-field-trip-to/) [David Letterman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-letterman/) > [Modernity sees humanity as having ascended from what is inferior to it - life begins in slime and ends in intelligence - whereas traditional…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/huston-smith/modernity-sees-humanity-as-having-ascended-from-what-is-inferior-to/) [Huston Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/huston-smith/) > [“Increasingly anthropologists are being asked "what can you do for us?" by the people whose societies they are doing research on. It is sometimes…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-seeger/increasingly-anthropologists-are-being-asked-what-can-you-do-for-us/) [Anthony Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-seeger/) > [Anthropologists are a connecting link between poets and scientists; though their field-work among primitive peoples has often made them forget the language of science.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-graves/anthropologists-are-a-connecting-link-between-poets-and-scientists/) [Robert Graves](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-graves/) > [What if the book (of Genesis) is describing a dawning awareness of the world? The anthropologist Edmund Leach has argued that the 'bit' or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-hampden-turner/what-if-the-book-of-genesis-is-describing-a-dawning-awareness-of-the/) [Charles Hampden-Turner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-hampden-turner/) > [People like ourselves may see nothing wondrous in writing, but our anthropologists know how strange and magical it appears to a purely oral people…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/neil-postman/people-like-ourselves-may-see-nothing-wondrous-in-writing-but-our/) [Neil Postman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/neil-postman/) > [Anthropologists have found evidence of romantic love in 170 societies. They've never found a society that did not have it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/helen-fisher/anthropologists-have-found-evidence-of-romantic-love-in-170-societies/) [Helen Fisher](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/helen-fisher/) > [As a journalist, or an anthropologist, the convention is that people are there for you to study, and they are your objects.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annia-ciezadlo/as-a-journalist-or-an-anthropologist-the-convention-is-that-people/) [Annia Ciezadlo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annia-ciezadlo/) > [Anthropologists have often described what happens to a primitive society when its spiritual values are exposed to the impact of modern civilisation. Its people…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-jung/anthropologists-have-often-described-what-happens-to-a-primitive/) [Carl Jung](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-jung/) > [We chose to do this work mathematically, which has the advantage of precision but is not always appreciated by readers. It is perhaps for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/luigi-luca-cavalli-sforza/we-chose-to-do-this-work-mathematically-which-has-the-advantage-of/) [Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/luigi-luca-cavalli-sforza/) [Browse all 91 Anthropologists quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/anthropologists/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Geneticists believe that anthropologists have decided what a race is. Ethnologists assume that their classifications embody principles which genetic science has proved correct. 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