Cultural Anthropology Race and ETHNICITY

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Oct 30, 2023

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Ethnicity and Race
What is race? We all know people look different. What does race mean?
• In biological terms, a race is a geographically isolated subdivision of a species that can reproduce with individuals from other subspecies of the same species, but does not because of its geographic isolation. • Human populations vary biologically, but there are no sharp breaks between populations. • Human biological variation is distributed gradually between populations along clines. • Ethnicity and race are not synonymous, although American culture does not discriminate between the two terms. What is race?
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• Race is supposed to describe genetic variation but racial categories (particularly early on) are based on phenotypes. • Phenotypes are the product of genetic, developmental, and environmental factors. • There is no clear logical hierarchy to phenotypic traits, thus it is difficult to demonstrate which should be a definitive racial feature. • The so-called three great races (white, black, and yellow) are more a reflection of European colonialist politics than an accurate representation of human biological diversity. • Even skin color-based race models that include more than three categories do not accurately represent the wide range of skin color diversity among human populations.
Fundamental Problems with Race “Hispanic” and “Latino” are ethnic categories that crosscut “racial” contrasts. Note the physical diversity exemplified by these Latina teenagers.
Race is a biological concept Race is a geographically (hence, reproductively) isolated subdivision of a species, or subspecies. If reproductive isolation lasts long enough, then a new species is produced.
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Do human “races” exist? Human populations have not been reproductively isolated long enough to have developed into biological races. Early human classification into races have been dependent solely on the evaluation of phenotype (manifest biology—appearance, skin color, eyes and nose shape, hair texture, etc.).
Only 6% of human genes account for the phenotypical differences seen between “races.” Geographic “types” are ambiguous Greater overall variation exists within each “racial” grouping than between such groups. The phenotypic traits that do exist are largely adaptive in nature.
Distribution of Type “O” blood Skin color is a function of melanin production in the dermis layer of the skin. Melanocytes - cells, located in the basal layer of the skin, produce melanin, a pigment in the skin, eyes, and hair. Skin coloring is adaptive .
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Northern populations, with little sunlight, require minimal pigmentation to produce Vitamin D. Tropical populations require protection from too much ultraviolet radiation and too much Vitamin D. Dark skin protects skin from excessive ultraviolet radiation Light skinned people are maladapted for tropical areas. Dark skinned people are maladapted to northern areas
skin colours shade into each other; there is no line in nature between a white and a black race, or Asian race Simplistic racial categories based merely upon a few traits do not constitute a scientific approach to human biological variability. while there is plenty of genetic variation in humans, most of the variation is individual variation. While between-population variation exists, it is minimal
There are no races in the biological sense of distinct divisions of the human species The physical traits chosen to define race are basically arbitrary and could be things such as red hair, or ear, nose or eye shape terms like Black, White, Asian, and Latino are social groups, not genetically distinct branches of humankind. Race is a real cultural, political and economic concept in society
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Race is … not a fixed, concrete, natural attribute the institutionalisation of physical appearance socially or culturally and historically constructed Categories defined and assigned significance by the society social meaning which has been legally constructed shaped by those in power. an ever changing complex of meanings shaped by sociopolitical conflict racial differences exist and are perpetuated because they have cultural significance
S.Washburn, anthropologist … the number of races will depend on the purpose of classification. I think we should require people who propose a classification of races to state in the first place why they wish to divide the human species.
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Race in US
Spoken as Native Languages
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The Anthropological View Although people obviously differ from each other physically, we are not able to attribute differences in culture to differences in physique (or “mentality”). In our study of culture, therefore, we may regard human race as of uniform quality, i.e., as a constant, and, hence, we eliminate it from our study.—Leslie White (1900- 1975)
Ethnicity Each of us has an ethnicity - frequently confused with race Shared cultural characteristics of a group Includes: national origin, language, traditions, customs, religious beliefs/practices, etc. as well as racial category The American Anthropological Association has recommended that the Census Bureau eliminate the term "race" and replace it with "ethnic origins," noting that many Americans confuse race, ethnicity and ancestry.
The ancient Greeks, for example, saw themselves as first among civilized nations around the Mediterranean But the Greeks did not link physical appearance and cultural attainment. They granted civilized status to the Nile Valley Nubians who were among the darkest skinned people they knew They did not grant it to European barbarians to the north who were lighter skinned than they were People were divided on the basis of religion, class or language or status Race did not exist until the European expansion and exploration beginning around 1500 A Brief History of race
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Slavery Before the 1400s slavery was widespread in state societies but its victims were either recruited internally or from neighbouring groups and were largely physically indistinguishable from slave-holders. i. e. slavery was not based on race Romans slaves pouring wine Slavery was a status that might be held by anyone. Slave descendants could acculturate into the dominant population and did not become permanently demarcated by race. Egyptian slaves
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Europeans did not encounter them on equal terms superior technology, especially military technology, meant Europeans were significantly more powerful After 1500 European exploration brought them increasingly into contact with other human societies
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As a result, exploration quickly turned to conquest and gave rise to an Ethnocentric feeling of European superiority. Pizarro at The Battle of Cajamarca Nov 16, 1532 Francisco Pizarro (1475–1541) Pizarro and 168 Spanish Conquistadores with cannons, guns and horses defeat Atahuallpa, the last independent Inca emperor and an army of 80,000 precipitating the demise of the great Incan Empire.
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This characterization was important because of the way in which the colors black and white were emotionally loaded concepts in European languages especially English The contrasts denoted polar opposites white represented good, purity and virginity black symbolized death, evil and debasement What struck explorers most forcefully were differences in physical appearance particularly skin colour An early distinction emerged between those who had black skin as opposed to those who had white skin.
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After 1500 a racial order built on the ethnocentrism of the various European colonial powers. A Woman with her African Slave. 1804
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Africans, native Americans, and colonised Asians were devalued, intermarriage was prohibited and persons of mixed ancestry were denied same entitlements as those of solely European ancestry The superiority of Europeans was evident in all colonial societies by the late 1600s A Slave Auction Richmond Va 1836
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Races as families or inbred lines • 16 th & 17 th C: race used interchangeably with type, variety, people, nation, generation & species • By the latter half of the 18 th C race is strongly equated with “breeding stock” – Farmers and herders understand animal breeds as highly inbred lineages with heritable characteristics – Emphasizes innateness of characteristics – Value judgments were and are critical to choosing the reproducing members of a line of stock, because one breeds for some specific, valued quality
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The Scientific basis of race The concept of race emerged in modern form between the end of the 18th century and the middle of the 19th. Its emergence is, in part, an aspect of the general growth of scientific enquiry and explanation In the 1700s as Western science developed it began thinking about, and explaining natural and social phenomena and to place the world’s peoples into natural schemes
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Formal Human Classification Linneaus Systemae Naturae, 1758 • Europeaeus – White; muscular; hair – long, flowing; eyes blue • Americanus – Reddish; erect; hair – black, straight, thick; wide nostrils • Asiaticus – Sallow (yellow); hair black; eyes dark • Africanus – Black; hair – black, frizzled; skin silky; nose flat; lips tumid
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culminated in 1795 when Johann Friedrich Blumenbach first used the word “race” to classify humans into five divisions Caucasian Malayan Ethiopian American Mongolian Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752-1840) Blumenbach also coined the term "Caucasian" because he believed that the Caucasus region of Asia Minor produced "the most beautiful race of men".
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He collected hundreds of human skulls and measured them by filling the skulls with lead pellets and then pouring the pellets into a glass measuring cup. His tables assign the highest brain capacity to Europeans (with the English highest of all). Second rank goes to Chinese, third to Southeast Asians and Polynesians, fourth to American Indians, and last place to Africans and Australian aborigines. Samuel G. Morton (1799-1851) 1830s and 1840s Philadelphia doctor and polygenist Samuel Morton set out to prove that whites were naturally superior and that brain size bore a direct relation to intelligence His work helped establish the scientific basis for physical anthropology but also the idea that race is inherently biological
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reanalysed the data discovered that Morton’s racist bias had prevented identification of what clearly were fully overlapping measurements among the racial skull samples he used. Gould in his desire to prove Morton wrong demonstrated the opposite bias and discovered that the skulls of black people were actually larger. He then did a blind test and discovered the overlapping measurements In 1977 Stephen Jay Gould (In the Mismeasure of Man 1981) ,
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Boas in the 1890s broke the link of anthropology with race by showing that language, race and culture were separate things and needed to be studied separately. Showed that mappings of Northwest Coast Native American biological traits, cultural similarities and linguistic affinities yielded different results. Breaking the link between race and anthropology
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The Concept of race under attack The revelation of the Holocaust, and the enlistment of science in its perpetuation, caused a wave of international revulsion. In the 1960s the idea of race itself became the target The anti-racists attacked the notion that the human species was divisible into five or any other small number of races. the result was the gradual disappearance of the concept of race from natural science In the 1960s anthropology affirmed that race does not exist
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