[[Bestand:Egyptian races.jpg|thumb|300px|Egyptische voorstelling van verschillende personen met een verschillend uiterlijk]]
'''Rassentheorie'''De (ofindeling van de mensheid in verschillende '''rassenleermenselijke rassen''') is een in de [[antropologie]] gebruiktede groepering van [[mens]]en in verschillende categorieën naar ras op basis van [[fenotype|uiterlijke]] en [[genotype|genetische]] kenmerken. In het verleden werd de term ook in de [[biologie]] gebruikt. Biologisch gezien bestaan er naar hedendaagse inzichten binnen de soort ''[[Homo sapiens]]'' echter geen rassen<ref name="Keita2">{{Citeer journal|last=Keita|author2=Kittles, Royal, Bonney, Furbert-Harris, Dunston, Rotimi| title=Conceptualizing human variation |journal=Nature|date=2004|volume=36|issue=11s|pages=S17–S20|doi=10.1038/ng1455|url= http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/v36/n11s/box/ng1455_BX1.html|quote=Modern human biological variation is not structured into phylogenetic subspecies ('races'), nor are the taxa of the standard anthropological 'racial' classifications breeding populations. The 'racial taxa' do not meet the phylogenetic criteria. 'Race' denotes socially constructed units as a function of the incorrect usage of the term.|pmid=15507998|first1=S O Y|last3=Royal|first3=C D M|last4=Bonney|first4=G E|last5=Furbert-Harris|first5=P|last6=Dunston|first6=G M|last7=Rotimi|first7=C N}}</ref><ref name="harrison1">{{Citeer boek|last=Harrison|first=Guy|title=Race and Reality|date=2010|publisher=Prometheus Books|location=Amherst|quote=Race is a poor empirical description of the patterns of difference that we encounter within our species. The billions of humans alive today simply do not fit into neat and tidy biological boxes called races. Science has proven this conclusively. The concept of race (...) is not scientific and goes against what is known about our ever-changing and complex biological diversity.}}</ref><ref name="roberts1">{{Citeer boek|last=Roberts|first=Dorothy|title=Fatal Invention|date=2011|publisher=The New Press|location=London, New York|quote=The genetic differences that exist among populations are characterized by gradual changes across geographic regions, not sharp, categorical distinctions. Groups of people across the globe have varying frequencies of polymorphic genes, which are genes with any of several differing nucleotide sequences. There is no such thing as a set of genes that belongs exclusively to one group and not to another. The clinal, gradually changing nature of geographic genetic difference is complicated further by the migration and mixing that human groups have engaged in since prehistory. Human beings do not fit the zoological definition of race. A mountain of evidence assembled by historians, anthropologists, and biologists proves that race is not and cannot be a natural division of human beings.}}</ref> en gelden dergelijke indelingen in de wetenschap als verouderd.
