Exam 1, Race and Racism

Salient features

The most frequently used criteria for order variation

What do humans normal do to salient features?

The assign values to particular categories and rank them

Racism

Having prejudice and stereotypical views about a person due to their skin color

• A result of the tendency to classify and value

Views of human variation

• Literal interpretations of Genesis

• Adam and Eve were both white, so anyone not white must have been punished for their sins through their skin color

The Great Chain of Being (Order)

(God, Purity, Goodness, Order), Angels, Humans, Animals, Plants, Minerals, (Devil, Corruption, Evil Chaos)

What happened to Ham because he saw Noah (his father) naked on accident?

His descendants were “cursed” and had dark skin because of this

• They use it as a reason to establish and maintain racism

When and who started the enslavement of Africans?

Europeans, specifically Portugal, began this practice in 1441

How many Africans were legally transferred to the New World?

12-13 million

What percentage of Africans went where in the New World (and Britain)?

• 39% went to Brazil

• 39% to the Caribbean

• 4% to British Colonies and USA

Where did the first slaves in the British colonies work?

Tobacco plantations in Virginia

What did the cotton gin do?

Made by Eli Whitney, the cotton gin made growing cotton more profitable because it could be rapidly deseeded

• It caused a dramatic increase in need for slaves in the fields

What did Linnaeus do in 1735?

He categorized Homo sapiens into further “genetic divisions” to try prove that some people from some places are better than others.

What were the Homo subspecies that Linnaeus made (order from “the best” to “the worst”)?

Homo europaeus, Homo asiaticus, Homo afer, Homo americanus

Homo europaeus traits

• Fair, sanguine (optimistic), brawny

• Hair yellow or brown, flowing

• Eyes were blue

• They were gentle, acute (understanding), inventive

• Covered with close vestments and governed by laws

Homo asiaticus traits

• Sooty (colored skin), melancholy (sad), rigid

• Hair black

• Eyes dark

• Severe, haughty (arrogant), covetous (greedy)

• Covered with loose garments and governed by opinions

Homo afer traits

• Black, phlegmatic (monotone, unemotional), relaxed (easy-going)

• Hair black, frizzled

• Skin silky, nose flat, lips tumid (swollen)

• Crafty, indolent (lazy), negligent (careless)

• Anoints himself with grease and governed by caprice (mood)

Homo americanus traits

• Copper-colored, choleric (bad-tempered), erect (uptight)

• Hair black, straight and thick

• Nostrils wide, face harsh, beard scanty (small in amount)

• Obstinate (not religious), content free

• Paints himself with fine red lines and regulated by customs

Racial taxonomies

Came to be based on biological and cultural characteristics

Lewis Henry Morgan

• Wrote the book Researches in the Lines of Human Progress, from Savagery through Barbarism into Civilization (1877)

• Made the bottom-up chart

Bottom-up chart categories + sub-categories

• Start as an animal

• Then progress to savagery with language

  • Fire, Fishing, Bow/Arrow use

• Then move to Barbarism with iron smelting

  • Domestication of plants and animals, Gardening

• Then move to Civilized with Pottery

  • Phonetic, Alphabet, Writing

Where did a lot of people learn about racial stereotypes in the late 1800s/early 1900s?

The circuses, who would indulge in what people thought different racial groups were like and made them for display

What happened to Ota Benga?

After slavery was made illegal, he was still sold to an American who brought him to America and made him live in a zoo cage at the Bronx Zoo for 2 years before being released. Tried getting work, could not do it so he committed suicide