ANTA02H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Franz Boas, Ethnology, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach
Document Summary
Huge topic only going to cover a small portion of the discussion. Race has a biological meaning, but not a social meaning. *race has a social meaning but not a biological meaning. *the second notion is the one preferred by anthropologists. American anthropological association has a statement on race that can be found here: http://www. aaanet. org/stmts/racepp. htm: their reasoning starts out with a genetic argument, gradual not abrupt changes, traits vary independently, race is essentially subjective. It also focuses on the history of race: race gets it"s meaning from slavery and colonialism, humans develop in culture and all humans have the ability to learn all cultural forms. Added malay to form a tree: the races degrade as they move further from caucasian, clear example of how cultural and ideological beliefs were injected into science, these categories are arbitrary but still present. Allowed massive immigration from eastern and central europe. Granted irish a status that they hadn"t enjoyed before.
