ANTB21H3 Lecture Notes - Markedness, Physiognomy, Social Fact
Document Summary
How to challenge the seeming natural quality of many social identities (gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, etc. ) the performative aspects of social identities; how language is used to help achieve them; Descent, bodily appearance: physiognomy (facial characteristics), skin colour, skeletal structure. Other qualities: language (structure), interactional behavior (language use), consumption (including food), religion, dress codes, type of work, gender roles, climate, character. Race and later ethnicity originated historically as classifications given to explain visible human variation (nb: human genome mapping has found that 99. 9% of dna b/w any 2 individuals is identical). Historical conditions: knowledge production connected to european imperial expansion, intense in 19th c. , connected to early global relations. Race and ethnicity are not given by nature, but are complex social facts. Supposedly natural characteristics are taken as indexes (signs) of a racial or ethnic essence. Nastisavage: that"s not a white sound it"s called speaking proper english! .
