ANTH 1003 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Mulatto, Hypodescent, Binary Opposition
Document Summary
Race is a culturally constructed category, based in perceived physical differences. The concept of race implies hereditary differences between people and is used to justify social stratification. While anthropologists note that race is culturally constructed, this does not mean that we should not study it. Race becomes a social fact with enormous impact on the circumstances of their lives. Sociocultural construct, not relate to biological reality. Racial categories differ from society to society, even within societies at times, and are not stable over time. Races do not correlate with genetic variation. The human population emerged in africa and spread from there (only a subset of all the variation spreads through migration) http://www. understandingraceorg/home. html. People are more that 99. 9 percent identical at the level of their dna, the human genome project has found. Dna can trace where some of a person"s ancestors are from and about certain features that are associated with racial categories, but cannot tell you the person"s race.
