Final answer:
Anthropologists assert that race is a cultural construction with no biological basis. Racial categories are socially invented, varying across cultures, and failing to accurately reflect the genetic diversity of humans. As a social construct, race impacts identity and social dynamics, despite being scientifically invalid as a biological category.
Step-by-step explanation:
When anthropologists say that race is a cultural construction and not a biological trait, they are emphasizing that scientific research has debunked the idea of race as a valid biological category. Instead, the concept of race is understood as a social invention that varies across cultures and historical periods. The idea of race has been used historically to classify people based on physical traits like skin color, hair texture, and eye shape, but these are subjective selections from a vast array of genetic variations. In reality, given that there is more genetic variation within so-called racial groups than between them, racial categorizations do not reflect our genetic diversity accurately.
Several social science organizations such as the American Association of Anthropologists, the American Sociological Association, and the American Psychological Association have officially rejected biological explanations of race. They instead suggest that race is better understood through a sociological lens. This line of thinking finds that racial labels have been arbitrarily assigned and historically used to justify discrimination and uphold power structures.
Biologically, race is not a definable trait. Traits such as skin color, facial features, hair texture, and blood type do not vary in a way that corresponds to the traditional racial categories society has constructed. Moreover, these traits are combined in individuals in a manner that transcends such arbitrary groupings. Thus, while race does not exist biologically, it remains a powerful social construct that profoundly impacts social relations, identities, and systems of inequality.