In 1992, Norm Sauer called for a language shift in which practitioners would move away from the socially loaded term “race” and replace it with the less provocative term “ancestry.” While many heeded the call and moved towards ancestry in their research and reports, the actual approach to research and analysis did not change. In response to this change, there was a large growth in ancestry estimation method development in the early decade of the 2000s. However, the practice of ancestry estimation did not adequately incorporate evolutionary theory in interpretation or trait selection and continued with little critical reflection. In the past decade, there has been an increase in ancestry validation methods with little critique of the “race” concept or discussion of modern human variation or reference samples. To advance, forensic anthropologists need to reckon with the practice of ancestry estimation as it is currently practiced. We are calling for another reform in the axiom focusing on evolutionary theory, population history, trait selection, and population-level reference samples. The practice needs to abandon the terms ancestry and race completely and recalibrate to an analysis of population affinity. Population affinity is a statistical approach based on the underlying population structure that would allow the understanding of how microevolutionary forces act in concert with historical events (e.g., colonization, the Transatlantic Slave Trade, etc.) to shape modern human variation. This is not to be confused with geographic ancestry that all too often can be perceived as interchangeable with social race and as an affirmation of the biological concept of race. It is time to critically evaluate the social and scientific implications of the current practice of ancestry estimation, and re-frame our approach to studying and analyzing modern human variation through a population structure approach.

中文翻译：

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将人类变异和进化理论纳入法医人类学的必要性：呼吁改革

1992 年，Norm Sauer 呼吁进行语言转变，从业者将摆脱具有社会负担的术语“种族”，取而代之的是不那么具有挑衅性的术语“祖先”。虽然许多人在他们的研究和报告中听取了这一呼吁并转向了祖先，但研究和分析的实际方法并没有改变。为了应对这种变化，在 2000 年代的前十年，祖先估计方法的发展有了很大的发展。然而，祖先估计的实践并没有在解释或性状选择中充分结合进化理论，并且几乎没有批判性反思。在过去的十年中，祖先验证方法有所增加，几乎没有批评“种族”概念或讨论现代人类变异或参考样本。推进，法医人类学家需要考虑目前采用的祖先估计做法。我们呼吁对公理进行另一次改革，重点是进化论、种群历史、性状选择和种群水平参考样本。这种做法需要完全放弃血统和种族这两个术语，并重新校准以分析人口亲和力。人口亲和度是一种基于潜在人口结构的统计方法，它可以让我们了解微进化力量如何与历史事件（例如，殖民化、跨大西洋奴隶贸易等）协同作用以塑造现代人类的变异。这不应与地理血统相混淆，地理血统通常可以被视为与社会种族可以互换，并且是对种族的生物学概念的肯定。