ANT207H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Gene Mapping, Social Darwinism
Professor Tanya Li Nov. 25, 2016
ANT207 LECTURE 11
RACE & GLOBALIZATION
ARGUMENT INEQUALITY IS NOT NATURAL
• Socially organized, culturally mediated, institutionalized
Ex. class, caste, race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, age
• Role of ideology = to legitimate inequality, make it seem ‘natural’/common-sense
COLONIAL IDEOLOGY
• Racial difference was rationale for a rule—whites over blacks
• Race/ethnic hierarchies also among colonized
• Proposed that world was divided into superior and inferior races
• Ideas of Social Darwinism survival of the fittest
• Irrational/rational character attributed to race
• Debate among colonial officials
- Was racial difference fixed/permanent, or could natives/colonized people progress if
given education/opportunity, etc.
RACE IN U.S.A.
• Boas 1911 showed there was no biological base to race
• No set of attributed that coincide
Ex. skin pigment, with height/character/intelligence
• Range of variation within “group” greater than between (gene mapping now confirms
this; variations do not cluster into racial types)
• Yet race remains powerful as an ideology still legitimates inequality, but with new
names
ETHNICITY: A polite synonym for race?
• Often treatment as fixed (race-like)
• Anthropologists challenge this
Ex. Frederik Barth ethnicity as a social process, linked to inequality
• Boundaries are made through exaggeration, stereotyping
• No ethnicity without “others”
CULTURAL DIFFERENCE: Another polite synonym for race?
• Culture is now often seen as inherited, essential, fixed (race-like)
- “we are not racist, but those people have a different culture—that’s why we cant get
along”
- “they do not share our values”
ANTHROPOLIGISTS’ SOFT CONCEPT OF CULTURE REJECTS FIXITY, ASSIMILATION
TO RACE
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Argument inequality is not natural: socially organized, culturally mediated, institutionalized. Ex. class, caste, race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, age: role of ideology = to legitimate inequality, make it seem natural"/common-sense. Colonial ideology: racial difference was rationale for a rule whites over blacks, race/ethnic hierarchies also among colonized, proposed that world was divided into superior and inferior races, debate among colonial officials. Ideas of social darwinism survival of the fittest. Was racial difference fixed/permanent, or could natives/colonized people progress if given education/opportunity, etc. Race in u. s. a: boas 1911 showed there was no biological base to race, no set of attributed that coincide. Ethnicity: a polite synonym for race: often treatment as fixed (race-like, anthropologists challenge this. Frederik barth ethnicity as a social process, linked to inequality: boundaries are made through exaggeration, stereotyping, no ethnicity without others . Cultural difference: another polite synonym for race: culture is now often seen as inherited, essential, fixed (race-like)