Marks' 2002 book
What it Means to be 98% Chimpanzee argued that there is a significant gap between scientists' knowledge of genetics and their understanding of its functional significance. Marks' published works include many scholarly articles and essays. He is an outspoken critic of
scientific racism, and has prominently argued against the idea that "
race" is a natural category. In Marks's view, "race" is a negotiation between patterns of
biological variation and patterns of perceived difference. He argues that race and human diversity are different subjects, and do not map on to one another well. This view is now the stated consensus of the
American Association of Biological Anthropologists. As described in his book
Is Science Racist?, Marks considers science to have four epistemic qualities:
naturalism,
experimentalism,
rationalism, and a primary value on
accuracy. In this book and in
Why I Am Not a Scientist, he argues that anthropologists have an ambiguous relationship with science because their goal of illuminating the human condition requires both scientific and
humanistic frameworks. In reference to the titles of his books, Marks has stated that "he would like it to be known, for the record, that he is about 98% scientist, and not a chimpanzee." ==Selected works==