Introduction to Anthropology & Sociology: Race and Ethnicity

SSF 1044 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY & SOCIOLOGY Race and Ethnicity QUESTIONS:  What is your race?  What are some of the different ‘races’ of people in Malaysia?  How many races are there in Malaysia?  What are characteristics of ‘race’ in Malaysia?  How do we determine if someone is of o...

SSF 1044 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY & SOCIOLOGY Race and Ethnicity QUESTIONS:  What is your race?  What are some of the different ‘races’ of people in Malaysia?  How many races are there in Malaysia?  What are characteristics of ‘race’ in Malaysia?  How do we determine if someone is of one race or another? CONSIDER THE SAME QUESTIONS, BUT REPLACE ‘RACE’ WITH ‘ETHNICITY’…  What is your ethnicity?  What are some of the different ‘ethnicities’ of people in Malaysia?  How many ethnicities are there in Malaysia?  What are characteristics of ‘ethnicity’ in Malaysia?  How do we determine if someone is of one ethnicity or another? SO WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE? ‘RACE’ VS ‘ETHNICITY’ DOES ‘RACE’ OR ‘ETHNICITY’ MATTER?  Let’s watch a short video on a woman who was born ‘Chinese’, but raised as an ‘Indian’.  How do ethnic groups define themselves?  Is ethnicity the same as race?  Race – “when an ethnic group is assumed to have a biological basis (shared “blood” or genetic material)” (Kottak, 1997).  But, race is actually socially constructed.  Social races = groups assumed to have a biological basis but actually defined in a culturally arbitrary, rather than a scientific manner (Kottak, 1997).  Consider these examples of mixed marriages. What race will the child of a mixed marriage be?  Malay father, Chinese mother. Child?  Chinese father, Indian mother. Child?  Iban father, Malay mother. Child?  Iban father, Bidayuh mother? Child?  And in America,  White father, Black mother. Child?  Black father, White mother. Child? https://pages.vassar.edu/passingbeyondpassing/hypodescent- the-one-drop-rule/ RACE: A DISCREDITED CONCEPT IN BIOLOGY  Early scholars used phenotypical (physical) traits (usually skin colour) for racial classification.  Johan Friedrich Blumenbach’s (1776) racial classification of human races: white, yellow, brown, black and red  Problem?  Changes in the environment affect individuals during growth and development, and phenotypical characteristics of a population may change without any genetic change. RACE: A DISCREDITED CONCEPT IN BIOLOGY  Racial classification has fallen out of favour in biology for several reasons:  Scientists have trouble grouping people into distinct racial units  In biological terms, there are no clear cut “races”, only a range of physical human variations. EXPLAINING SKIN COLOUR  Melanin  Is a chemical substance manufactured in the epidermis (outer skin layer).  The primary determinant of human skin color.  The melanin cells of darker-skinned people produce more and larger granules of melanin than lighter- skinned people.  Melanin screens out ultraviolet radiation from the sun and offers protection against sunburn and skin cancer.  Most of the world’s dark-skinned population live in the tropics.  Outside the tropics, skin colour tends to be lighter. EXPLAINING SKIN COLOUR  Scientists now know that race is no longer a valid biological concept.  But historically, groups with power have used racial ideologies to justify, explain and preserve their priveleged social positions.  The Nazis and the superiority of the “Aryan race”  European colonialists and the “white man’s burden”  South Africa and the apartheid Anthropologists and sociologists know that most of the behavioural human variations rests on culture and not biology. Performance between ethnic groups reflect different experiences and opportunities than genetic makeup (i.e. ‘race’). ETHNICITY  While the idea of race mistakenly implies something fixed/biological, ethnicity is an idea that is purely social in meaning.  Ethnicity = the cultural practices and outlooks of a given community of people that set them apart from others (Giddens 2006).  Characteristics used to differentiate different ethnicities: language, history & ancestry (real or imagined), religion, style of dress  Ethnic differences are wholly learned.  Through socialisation, young people assimilate the lifestyle, norms and beliefs of their communities.  For many, ethnicity is central to individual and group identity, but its significance may vary among individuals.  Ethnicity provides a continuity with the past and is kept alive through practice of cultural traditions.  Like anthropologists, sociologists also prefer the term “ethnicity” because it is a concept that is completely social in meaning. ETHNICITY: SOME CONCEPTS  Involuntary ethnicity: When a government or other dominant group creates an umbrella ethnic category and assigns people from many different cultures and countries to it.  Dominant ethnic group: The most advantaged ethnic group in a society; it is the ethnic group that possesses the greatest access to valued resources, including the power to create and maintain the system that gives it these advantages.  Hidden ethnicity: A sense of self that is based on little to no awareness of an ethnic identity because its culture is considered normative, or mainstream (usually felt by members of dominant ethnic group) ASSIMILATION  Assimilation: A process by which ethnic and racial distinctions between groups disappear because one group is absorbed into another group’s culture or because two cultures blend to form a new culture.  Absorption assimilation: A process by which racial and ethnic minorities adapt to the point where they are completely “absorbed” into the dominant culture.  Melting pot assimilation: Cultural blending in which groups accept many new behaviors and values from one another. This exchange produces a new cultural system, which is a blend of the previously separate systems. PREJUDICE & DISCRIMINATION  Prejudice = opinions/attitudes held by members of one group towards another  Prejudices are often grounded on stereotypes  Stereotypes = fixed and inflexible characterisations of a group of people  Scapegoating is common when two deprived ethnic groups come into competition with one another for economic rewards  If prejudices are opinions, discrimination refers to actual behaviour towards another group RACISM  Racism = prejudice based on socially significant physical distinction  A racist believes that some individuals are superior/inferior to others on the basis of racialised differences  Racism is more than just ideas held by individuals  Institutional racism: racism pervades all of society’s structure in a systematic manner. E.g.:  The police  Health service  Education system  Television broadcasting etc. RACISM: SOCIOLOGICAL INTERPRETATIONS  Ethnocentrism  Group closure = whereby groups maintain boundaries separating themselves from others  Prohibiting intermarriage  Restrictions on social contact or economic relationship  Physical separation of groups  Ethnocentrism and group closure often go together → ethnic group closure  Sometimes, group closure coincides with unequal resource allocation  Some of the fiercest ethnic conflicts centre along the lines of closure between groups because these lines signal inequalities in wealth/power/social standing.