ANT101H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Eugenics, Cultural Bias, Carl Linnaeus
Document Summary
History of the study of human variation. Linnaeus 1758 - classificatory: separated humans into 5 categories. Europaeus (white, serious, flowing blonde hair, smart, active, inventive, strong, ruled by law, wears tight clothing) Asiaticus (yellow skinned, greedy, ruled by opinion, wear loose clothing) Afer (black skin, silky skin, ruled by priest) Monstrosus (accommodating large palidonians, other deformed and imaginary people) Illustration of how culture forms the way you see the world: count de buffon. Problems in classifying humans: humans are both the investigators & subjects. Hard to view outside of an individual"s cultural norms: inequalities & injustices. Using cultural bias to determine those who have this gene. Used biology to reinforce social prejudices: charles davenport. Eugenics used darwin"s theories to justify their beliefs. Ernest hooton: important because he broke from eugenics movement, polymorphism. A species with alternative forms (alleles) of particular genes. Polytypism: the study of differences between groups. Distinction between racial & racist studies: racial, racist.
