2- Race in Anthropology Flashcards
General ANTH texts
Race is biologically meaningless
Genral ANTH texts
Clines v. Racial Groups
General ANTH Texts
Race is a social construct
General ANTH Texts
Cultural Anthropology- mentions of racism but not race
Forensic ANTH texts
Index listing for “Race” - “see ancestral groups”
Forensic ANTH Texts
No ancestry or race in index, but discussed in text
Social Race
Anthropologists define it as:
an ethnic group assumed to have biological basis
Why and How
would a forensic anthropologists estimate race or ancestry?
Why?
- biological profile
- database searches
How?
- craniometry
- FORDISC
Biological Race
Anthropologists define it as
“ a division of species by the frequency with which certain hereditary traits appear among its members”
How does our view of race affect how we view human variation?
It affects our view on human variation because most people usually think of biological variation as racial groups. Most Anthropologists say races have no biological meaning- they can not be defined. If we who study biological human variation think that racial groups have no biological meanings and the general public does, that leads to meaning of how we can define them. how the continuing of embracing racial typologies create problems for us trying to understand human biological variation.
- creates social problems
- we assume that there is something shared between the people who check the same boxes.
- similar cultures, appearance’s? not true
How does culture affect physical development and racial characteristics?
Are there any biological characteristics we ca use to distinguish the “big three” races?
No. there are not any. If we think about skin color, that is not going to work.
What are the racial groups in the US?
- Asian/ Pacific Islander
- White
- Black or African American
- Latino or Hispanic
- Middle Eastern
- Native American
- Mixed
What are we saying about a person when we say that they belong to one racial group or another?
We are making assumptions abut them that maybe we do not really understand.
It can be based on culture:
- Where do you live?
- Who do you associate with?
- What is the color of your skin?
Problem = if we are using just one trait - skin color- is not really telling us anything about the people we are looking at…
- if we define people that are alive based on skin color, but then look at their skeletal characteristics to try and define race in a forensics context- we don’t match up with reality.
we do not want to rely on the race concept.
creates outliers.
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