ANTHRO 128B Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Craniometry, Biological Determinism, Chiropractic
22 Jun 2018
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Week 1:
01/10: AAA Statement on Race
oScholars and gen. public = conditioned to viewing human races as natural/separate
divisions within human species based on physical differences
oAnalysis of genes indicates greater variation within racial groups than between them
(94% lies within so-called racial groups)
oConventional geographic "racial" grouping differ in only 6% of genes
Neighboring populations - overlapping of genes and phenotypic expressions
oIdea of race has always carried more meanings than physical differences
oModern concept of race modeled after ancient theorem of Great Chain of Being
(posited natural categories on a hierarchy stablished by God/nature)
Race was a mode of classification linked specifically to people in colonial
situation
19th century: used race as justification for retention of slavery
Magnified differences among Europeans, Africans, Indians
US society leaders fabricated cultural/behavioral characteristics associated with
each race (superior traits - Europeans, negative/inferior traits - blacks and Indians)
Arbitrary and deeply embedded
Race is an ideology about human differences which subsequently spread
Strategy for dividing, ranking, and controlling (colonial periods,
Holocaust)
oHuman cultural behavior is learned (understood at end of 20th century) and we are
conditioned as infants at birth
No human is born with built-in culture/language - regardless of genetic
propensities, they are developed within meanings and values = culture
oAnthropology basic tenet: human beings have capacity to learn any cultural behavior
Racial world was invented to assign some groups to perpetual low status
So-calld racial groups are NOT consequences of their biological inheritance but products of
historical and contemporary social, economic, education, and political circumstances 01/10:
The Mismeasure of Man; p. 51-61
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