ANTH 1220 Lecture Notes - Lecture 59: Alterity
17 May 2017
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Knowing someone"s skin colour doesn"t necessarily tell you anything else about them. Of the small amount of total human variation, 85% exists within any local population: about 94% can be found within any continent. That means, for example, that two random koreans may be as genetically different as a korean and an italian. Throughout much of human history, societies have enslaved others, often as a result of conquest of debt, but not because of physical characteristics or a belief in natural inferiority. Due to a unique set of historical circumstances, north america has the first slave system where all slaves shared a common appearance and ancestry. The us was founded on the principle that all men are created equal but the country"s early economy was based largely on slavery. The new idea of race helped explain why some people could be denied the rights and freedoms that others took for granted.
