Midterm Flashcards
1
Q
Race
A
- Is a social construct, made by people and society
- Way of thinking that was framed by humans
- Made to guide human encounters and construct power
- From 1850-1950 scientists thought there was scientific differences of race (which is false)
- Race is an idea, a structure of inequality, and a scientific myth
2
Q
Classical Ideas of Race
A
- Ancient Mediterranean World
- Prejudice and discrimination existed, but it was not based on race, it was based on where you came from (geographically, lineage)
- Stereotypes were used to put down others, but did not have a firm thinking system
- Slavery existed but was independent of race
3
Q
Muslim Expansion
A
- Islam emerges as religion in 7th Century in what is now Saudi Arabia
- It quickly spread and within 150 years engulfed almost the entire Mediterranean through violence and conquest
- Term “barbarian” now had more to do with religion than race
- New prejudices were used against people (Arab vs. Non-Arab, cities, districts)
- Physical features were used to identify people but racism as we know it did not exist yet
4
Q
Crusades
A
- 1095-1298
- Christians wanted to regain control of Jerusalem which was then controlled by Muslims
- This series of wars resulted in a renewed intense contact between two groups of people that did not really interact with each other
- Christians not only had to find ways to justify the violence and brutality, but they also had to recruit people for their crusades
- Used religion as a motivator and focused on the difference, rationalizing their conquest through idea of Muslim inferiority
- Visual markers were used (ie. Prayer bump, hijab, Christian cross)
- New social hierarchies were formed
- The human thing was to discriminate against others in your region (ie. Laws against Christians and Jews in Muslim lands – paying taxes, building restrictions, reverse was true for Muslims in Christian lands)
- The crusades are an important historical marker in understanding human difference
5
Q
Oceanic Expansion
A
- Game changer in the way Western European’s saw themselves, others, and the world
- Most Western European’s were not connect to the Mediterranean world and therefore had a want and need to learn about the world, the map helped them learn about a world they knew nothing about
- Northern European views of the world were limited, and when thinking about the world they thought about their place within it
- Started to create social hierarchies which were seeds of racial taxonomies
- This idea was spread and established through travel writings, Europeans read this to fulfill their need of knowing
- Spanish explorer Jose de Acosta thought European’s were superior and came up with three categories of barbarians (European’s not included – above this)
- Rational peoples – could read and had laws (not Christians)
- People’s without regular use of letters -had laws (Christians)
- Savages -can’t read, have no form of law (Indigenous peoples)
6
Q
Ortellius’ Map
A
- First map established in 1571
- Significance is that there was no science yet, so travel writings were the way in which people gathered all information
- First visible, tangible thing people had to understand what was happening in the world
- Shaped the way European’s saw themselves, others, and the world at large until the 20th Century
- (by 1600 people did not identify by colors but rather where they came from or what language they spoke)
7
Q
Settler Colonialism
A
- Settler colonialism – the structure (social, cultural, political) that dictates relationships between groups of people; was the role of difference in empire and conquests
- Thought of white superiority triggered acting of white superiority, this thinking justified disposition of Indigenous peoples on native lands
- Settlers wanted land without anyone on it, given idea that anyone who didn’t look like them was inferior
- Jamestown 1607 – first successful Western European settlement in North America; European’s first worked in tandem with the Indigenous People and after becoming powerful enough they enacted hierarchy, thus setting the tone for conquests of the world
8
Q
Dawn of Modernity
A
- Beginning of 18th Century
- Rise of human science to answer reason for human difference
- 1735, Carolus Linnaeus publishes book (Systema Naturae) that developed comprehensive system of classification that describes modern idea of race
- Cataloged and categorized four different groups of people – based on geography, and further skin color – which was the first time Western European writing that skin color was used to identify people
- White = Europeans, Dark = Asia, Red = Americas, Black = Africa
- People started to latch on to this idea, it is the genesis of the idea of race as we know it today
9
Q
Race in Age of Modernity
A
- 1750-1850
- Race emerges as three things
- Became central organizing concept of Western intellectual life – way people organized their thoughts and actions towards themselves and others
- Major component of political culture – race became a central concept in governments and how people engaged with the government
- Significant means of structuring human identities and differences – time where being white was one of the main ways European’s identified themselves (white represented power)
- Increasingly connected world through flow of goods and people – question of how to guide human encounters still exists and sharpens idea of race at this time
10
Q
Monogenesis
A
- Origin of humanity becomes important in Western Enlightenment when race and religion intersect
- Group of intellectuals between 1700-1850 who believed that all humans had one origin rooted in Christianity, all human beings came from god in form of Adam and Eve
- Most popular way of understanding difference in Western Europe until 1850 since role of faith was central in their lives
- Problems with it were explaining why everyone looked different (Africans and Europeans), doesn’t really make sense/have facts, some monogenesists believed that everyone was created equal except Indigenous people (couldn’t believe you were equal if you were going to conquer them)
- Degeneration Theory - people treated poorly not on origin but on development, people degenerated as a species through making poor choices, didn’t make good decisions and could not be trusted to participate in government
- Key thing is that no one could agree how many races there was – but white was always at the top, and this was used to justify European Supremacy in the world
11
Q
Polygenesis
A
- Origin of humanity becomes important in Western Enlightenment when race and religion intersect
- Belief that human origin was in multiple places at multiple times
- Most popular belief for the minority – people who were not all necessarily atheists but people who didn’t believe religion shaped the world around them
- Became popular in the 1850s because it explained white supremacy in the world
- Believed skin color explained why non-whites were naturally inferior, humanity was perceived as being white (dehumanizing of non-whites)
- Idea developed that civilization itself comes from white people and where there had not been white people there had not been civilization, by this logic all non-white people were outside of progress
- Polygenesis advocated for “racial Contract” – white people agreed to bring progress, modernity, and civilization to places outside of Western Europe, in return non-whites had to accept their proper place
12
Q
Scientific Racism
A
- 19th century
- People adopting scientific methods to try and give more proof to idea of white supremacy
- Created because people who considered themselves to be academic weren’t please with these theories because they thought there wasn’t enough scientific proof
- Ex: craniometry – measurements of skulls to try and quantify human differences; measuring foreheads for skull capacity
- This “science” supported existing ideas of racial categories and rankings between people
- Resulted in race catapulting as the leading factor in understanding human differences in the world
13
Q
Aryanism
A
- Trying to identify the origins of white people led to the belief that the source of white supremacy was the Aryans
- The book “Reg Vida” had theory that first white people were the Aryans and that they emerged first in India
- Book was powerful and gave justification that white people had origin and place in India, had to identify orders of white people
- Aryans were seen as the “best of the best,” they gave Europeans their supremacy, the success of civilization was because of them, they had a responsibility to bring purity back and save the world
14
Q
Social Darwinism
A
- Strongest/fittest should survive and flourish in society, while weak/unfit should die
- These ideas travelled around the world, read by people globally (translated in many languages) – flow of idea of race throughout the world
- Ideas were not spread by Darwin himself – based on interpretations of his work
- Idea of global hierarchy developing as result of social Darwinism, non-Western Europeans understood their power because of this
- This is moment in history (second half of 19th century) is when race now matters and guides almost everything, is the leading factor of global relations
- Ideas became global reality, meant different things to different people
15
Q
Social Darwinism in Latin America
A
- Most states would become independent in the first half of the 19th Century, the colonizers were Spain and Portugal
- They knew race was being used against them, Darwin said that inferior status could be improved, so they took this idea and formed post-racialism or color blindness
- Rejected colonial supremacies and challenged white supremacy
- Flawed because race mattered to the state
- Saw race mixing as a good thing, believed it demonstrated improvement aka trying to “whiten”
- Did not celebrate indigenous roots but rather racial mixing
- Didn’t acknowledge race but if you did a census it would ask for your race
- Problem of race is not a white problem, it is a human and global problem
16
Q
Social Darwinism in China
A
- 1895 war between Russia and Japan, Japan wins
- First time in modern history where a non-white nation defeated a white nation, served as proof that yellow people were not inferior to whites, used as motivation to prove their global rights
- Chinese people were in the midst of a reform movement, and used this yellow success along with social Darwinism to imagine a new future for themselves in the world
- Ideas of Social Darwinism through short essays by Yan Fu
- (used what was useful for them and disregarded the rest)
- Fu said that Japanese victory proves that yellow people weren’t inferior and should be on top of pyramid with white people
- Super problematic thought!!
- Fu believed:
- The yellow race and white race were locked in a cultural or racial war and that it was essentialized, driven by the fact that yellow people were not only equal but superior to whites
- Because Chinese intellects see themselves on top, form mandate for themselves to lead all other yellow people to civilization
- Chinese of the Huns saw themselves as being superior group of yellow people
- Social evolution was integral to global thinking of human affairs
- Everyone buys into idea of social hierarchy, just font agree on what the superiorities are
