Ch. 7 attribution of pop. affinity + Sydney Garcia Guest Lecture

anth exam 2

biological essentialism

 belief that behavioral traits like intelligence, criminality, or the propensity to aggression are linked to racial categories, and are both innate and predetermined

Linnaeus

taxonomy, 4 human varieties, 1st to associate physical descriptions with social qualities “intelligence, temperament,”

Blumenbach

continued Linnaeus’ work, correctly believed that environment impacts variation, still associated (-) traits with POC, 5 racial groups in hierarchy

Morton

OG polygenist, measured cranial capacity to associate intelligence with whiteness –provided rationale for slavery and eugenics.

Hrdlicka

physical anthropology collections at Smithsonian, museum of us in SD, propagated racial categories that became foundational to physical anthropology

ancestry?

African

ancestry?

Asian: rounded eye orbit, shovel-shaped incisors

ancestry?

European: angular eye orbit, small jaw

ancestry?

Asian: rounded eye orbit, large jaw, shoveled incisors, low nose bridge

ancestry?

European: angular eye orbit, small jaw, high nose bridge, spatulate incisors

ancestry?

African: wide nasal aperture

ancestry? multiply each cranial measurement with corresponding coefficients.

Add all 8 final values together

over 22.28: native american

under 22.28: white

Native American

what is race?

a social construct, clusters of phenotypes linked to geographic region and other phenotypes

what is ethnicity?

more specific, most used when self-identifying, culture, heritage, group identity. linked to geographic origin

what is nationality?

legal category based upon location of birth/ long term residence

what is ancestry?

focused on genetics and adaptations for environments. connection to a geographic region of phenotypes.

why was the concept of race created?

mid 1600s

tied to the shift from indentured servants that could ‘buy’ their freedom (white and black) to enslavement for life (only black)

Native Americans/ Indigenous peoples were labeled as “Indian” because of

rights to land. seizure of indigenous land.

Polygenist

human races had separate origins, and are separate species

what do forensic anthropologists use to determine ancestry?

anthroposcopy and osteometry

anthroposcopic methods

observing visually discernible differences in skeletal architecture between groups

osteometric methods

measurement of skulls and bones, comparison of measurements from known groups to unknown individuals using stats

anthroposcopic features

nose, face, vault, jaws, teeth

white/european

1. high, narrow nose

2. angular eye orbit/droopy

3. straight postbregma

4. small jaw

5. spatulate incisors

black/african

1. low, wide nose

2. rectangular eye orbit

3. sometimes depressed postbregma

4. large jaw

5. spatulate incisors

asian

1. low, medium nose

2. rounded eye orbit

3. straight postbregma

4. large jaw

5. shoveled incisors

interorbital width

european: narrow

african: wide

suture pattern

straighter: european and african

zigzag: asian or native american

T/F: anthroposcopic traits help determine skin color, eye color, hair texture

false

cline

gradual variation in a particular trait across a geographic region

population affinity

an individual’s skeletal/genetic affinity to specific, geographically defined populations

ancestry vs population affinity

‘african’ vs ‘west african’ example

• ancestry links to socially constructed categories like race

• race often groups population that may not share common genetic history

• pop. affinity can link to precise populations

FORDISC

Forensic anthropologists input various skeletal measurements from human remains. the program then compares these measurements against a database of known population samples to calculate how closely the remains match different groups in terms of their skeletal characteristics.

DFA (discriminant function analysis)

assess ancestry based on cranial measurements

• used through FORDISC or 3D-ID

goal of craniometrics

to identify the most probable biological affinity of an unknown individual, not to subdivide the entire human species into discrete racial categories

Antenor Firmin

Haitian, equality of races, variation due to environment, mixing was good for species survival

franz boas

Jewish American, four field approach, cranial shape experiments to show environment caused a change in just one generation

caroline bond day

biracial, studies on her family to discredit anti miscegenation propaganda

montague cobb

African American, disproved that Black people had lower intellect than white ppl, 1st AA with PhD in anthropology