The Social Construction of Race

• Race is constructed as a concept at a specific point in time and circumstances.
• Race was constructed as a biological category and defined as human categorization based on biology and geographic patterning of physical traits.
• Races do not exist in a biological sense.

Pre-European Colonialism

• If race was constructed in the 16th-18th centuries, there is a question of what happened before that time.
• People always made categories to differentiate between "Us" and "Others," sometimes based on physical appearance or cultural traits, like the Greeks versus Barbarians example.
• Those categories were not "race" because they were based on different criteria and lacked the same connotations or privileges/inequalities.
• Category changes were possible, unlike modern concepts of race.
• Pre-European colonization, there was contact between diverse-appearing people from different parts of the world.

The Term "Race"

• The word "race" entered English and other European languages in the 16th century.
• Initially, the word meant "family," "lineage," or "breed."
• Colonization and the slave trade led to evolving meanings.
• By the 18th century, "race" became more systematic, related to humankind as a whole, and inspired by colonization, exploration, and slavery.
• The concept of race started appearing with European exploration, when Europeans encountered new people.
• The encounter of "new people" shook previous ideas about humans.

18th Century

• The 18th century was the Age of Reason, or the Enlightenment.
• There were dual attitudes, toward nature (either to be tamed or idealized).
• Dual attitudes existed about people in that non-Europeans are thought of as wild or child-like.
• Figures from this time include Jean Jacques Rousseau, who wrote about the Myth of a Noble Savage, and Daniel Defoe, who wrote Robinson Crusoe.
• "The Great Chain of Being" implied a hierarchy of God's creation.
• The idea that some groups of people are superior, and others inferior was obviously supported.

Polygenesis and Monogenesis

• The 18th century included debates over the "new" people; do they have the same origin as Europeans, specifically Adam and Eve?
• Do all humans belong to the same species?
• Monogenesis claims all humans come from the same Adam and Eve, but some later degenerated.
• Polygenesis claims different groups of humans had their own Adam and Eve.
• It was important for colonialism to address the question of whether they had the same origins, because:
  • If they aren't human like us, then it is not a sin to kill them.
  • If they are human, then it is your duty to save them and bring them to Christianity.
• All options were bad options
• Charles Darwin’s "On the Origin of Species" in 1859 ended the debate.

Classification of Humans

• Car Linnaeus (18th century) developed classifications of plants and animals
  • Including binomial nomenclature
  • 7 level system: species, genus, family, order, class, phylum and kingdom.
• Variety is an optional level -- geographical variety in species (= races, subspecies)
• Extends the classification to humans – Homo Sapiens
• Humans are the only members of the genus Homo
• He includes several varieties (races, subspecies).
• Americanus (red), Europeaus (white), Asiaticus (yellow) and Afer (black).
• These classifications are not neutral and include behavioral and cultural traits.
• Homo Europeaus is superior in character and culture.
• 5th race: Homo sapiens monstrosus.
• Comte de Buffon (18th-century France) popularized the use of term race for Linnaeus’ varieties within a species
• Environmental difference were thought to responsible for the physical differences between human populations
  • Strong sun in Affrica burnt people’s skin to a dark shade
• Believed in a single origin of humankind
• Johann Friedrich Blumenbach adds a fifth race (Malayan)
• Proposes a racial marker based on the size and shape of the skull
• Proposes the term “Caucasian” for race of people from Europe, Middle East, and North Africa
• The Caucasian race is the original race, and the rest are degenerations from it.

Darwin

• 19th Century: Where does biological diversity come from?
• Darwin was an abolitionist and Monogenist
• Darwin's voyage of the Beagle and observation of the Galapagos Islands led him to think about origins of biological variety.
• Evolution by natural selection (On the Origin of Species)
• Alfred Russell Wallace
• Darwin:
  • Existence of inherited variation in natural populations and different species
  • Population tend to increase much faster than available resources
  • A struggle for existence occurs between individuals in all populations
  • Natural selection leads to genetic changes in populations, adaptation to different environments, and ultimately to the origin of new species
• Erroneously thought of inheritance as a "Blended inheritance"

Race and Phenotypes

• Race, physical traits, and phenotypes, and how they might be similar or different in their phenotypes should be recognized
• There is an exercise suggested on race and phenotypes involving celebrity photos.
• The exercise is focused on discussing phenotypes and how they might relate to race.

Next Class

• Next Thursday there will be further discussion about the history of the race concept.
• Read Anemone Chapter 2 (pages 29-39).
• Read Rattansi Chapter 4 (from subheading “Social Darwinism and imperial racism” to subheading “Interpreting the Holocaust").