Challenging Racial Hierarcies

Anthropology, the Human Challenge: Text

By the early 20th century, some scholars began to challenge false racial hierarchies based on pseudoscientific notions of IQ or head size or skin color.  

Franz Boas (1858-1942) - Father of Modern Anthropology
Ashley Montagu (1905-1999) - student of Boas wrote Man's Most Dangerous Myth:  The Fallacy of Race

Race As Biology - ?

Race - defined as a subspecies or a population of a species differing geographically, morphologically or genetically.

But... There are at least THREE FLAWS to defining race with biology.

1. Arbitrary - How many differences does it take to make a race?  Skin color /= Blood groups
2. No Race has solitary possession of any gene or genes - Frequencies can be different, but the alleles are present everywhere.  The barriers are only cultural.
3. Differences w/in "racial populations" are wider than between populations

There is a COMBINING OF BIOLOGICAL INTO THE CULTURAL CATEGORY OF RACE

While the biological race category is not applicable to human variation, cultures most certainly use the idea of race to categorize people.  They just confuse the two and in doing so, infuse a false sense of scientific correctness into their categories to make them seem more scientific and objective.

Latin Americans classify into the following categories, but the criteria used is apparently what they wear, the language they speak, and where they live and even what kind of shoes they wear!

• Indio (Indian)
• Mestizo (Mixed)
• Ladino (Spanish)

The US. Census Bureau classifies

• White
• Black
• American Indian
• Alaskan
• Asian
• Pacific Islander
• Hawaiian
• Hipanic

But what race are you after you marry?  What race are your children?  Self-categorization.

These racial designations have been and are still being used to classify and then exclude because of "lesser" status.

• Colonial America
• Haiti - still
• Nazi Germany
• Genocide in Rwanda (800,000 Tutsis in 100 days) (show picture in book)

The SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF RACE

Racism is a doctrine of superiority  by which one group justifies the dehumanization of others based on their distinctive physical characteristics.

• Is a problem because it is about discriminatory ideas, values and attitudes - interpersonal and social, not scientific.
• Political problem used to mobilize support, demonize opponents and eliminate rivals.

 BEHAVIOR

Read the biography of Franz Boas and comment on the ways in which he contested the established notions of race in a 2 paragraph essay in your notebooks or on your computers.  Alternatively, you may present your assessment to me in person after class.

Here is another article about Boas head shape studies and the controversy that currently surrounds them.  For extra credit, please write an essay describing the problem Sparks and Jantz have uncovered with Boas' measurements and the theories they have posited. 


Franz Boas.  (2011).  Biography.com.  Retrieved 03:18, Oct 15, 2011 from http://biography.com/people/franz-boas-9216786

Fergus, Charles.  (2003).  Boas, Bones, and Race.  Penn State Online Research.  Retrieved Oct 18, 2011 from http://www.rps.psu.edu/0305/boas.html