What is Race? Lecture Flashcards

Standard and Folk Definitions of Race

  • Dictionary Definitions:

    • Major divisions of humankind distinguished by physical characteristics.

    • Ethnic group sharing a culture, history, or language.

    • Biological sub-population or subspecies within a species.

  • Folk Definitions:

    • Categorization based on physical traits, region, and long-term residence.

    • Phenotype: Set of observable physical characteristics resulting from the interaction of an individual's genotype with the environment.

  • Race Assignment and Challenges:

    • Defined through external ascription and inheritance.

    • Frequently linked to social attitudes, behaviors, and stereotypes.

    • Conceptual problems include determining the exact number of categories and the lack of universal distinguishing traits.

Historical and Modern Science of Race

  • Appiah's Analytical Conclusions:

    • The only race in the United States is the human race.

    • Race≠Culture\text{Race} \neq \text{Culture}

    • Racial Identity≠Race\text{Racial Identity} \neq \text{Race}

    • Rejects biological race concept ("nobody has race").

  • Core Premises of Biological Race Theories:

    • Classification into discrete biological groups measured by physical variation.

    • Mapping of outer physical characteristics to inner mental or moral qualities.

    • Assumption that racial categories are inheritable, fixed, unalterable, and hierarchical.

  • Historical Pseudosciences:

    • Phrenology: Study of cranium size and shape as an indicator of character and mental capacity.

    • Historical Texts: Types of Mankind (1856) by Nott and Gliddon, and Camper's comparative facial angle diagrams.

Types of Mankind (1856) by Nott and Gliddon

  • Historical Functions:

    • Used by scientific racialists to enumerate, describe, rank, and justify existing power structures.

  • Re-emergence in the Late 1990s and Early 2000s:

    • DNA ancestry tracing utilizing 23 pairs of chromosomes to map ancestral geography prior to 500 years ago.

    • The Bell Curve by Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray (critiqued in Inequality by Design: Cracking the Bell Curve Myth).

    • Application of skeletal identification techniques in forensic anthropology.

Race as a Social and Political Construct

  • Political Function:

    • Biological race is not scientifically supported, but functions as a constructed category created for political and social purposes.

  • Societal Impact:

    • Widely accepted as real in everyday life.

    • Functions as a primary framework for personal identity and social organization.