Racial Science & AnthropologyBiological Essentialism vs Cultural RelativityInventing WhitenessCategories: Caucasian & HispanicEstimation of Biological AncestryBetween the eye socketsANTY 101D 1st Edition Lecture 1Racial Science & Anthropology-Carolus Linnaeus (1735):• First formal human classification -Homo sapiens americanus• Reddish, choleric, and erect; hair black, straight, thick; wide nostrils, canty beard; obstinate, merry, free; paints himself with fine red lines; regulated by custom -H.s. asiaticus• Sallow, melancholy, stiff, hair black; dark eyes; server haughty, avaricious; covered with loose garments ruled by opinions-H.s. africanus• Black, phlegmatic, relaxed; hair black, frizzled; skin silky; nose flat; lips tumid; women without shame, they lactate profusely; crafty, indolent, negligent, anoints himself with grease governed by caprice-H.s. europeaus• White, sanguine, muscular; long hair Biological Essentialism vs Cultural Relativity -Linneaus: beginnings of biological essentialism -Jefferson: Ardor, hairiness and civilization 1• Native Americans cant have ardor because they aren’t hairy• not hairy because they pluck all their hair out • biology determining whether or not they are capable of civilization • comparing europeans to native americans and africans-Philadelphia physician Samuel Morton (1839)• Intelligence & Craniometry • race and skull size were linked; skewed the results -Didn't include samples that didn't fit his model -20th century American racial thinking • Race predicts biology, athletic ability, mental capacity, productivity, morality • Some races are superior; destine being equal?..• Race can be categorized and measured by scientists • Eugenics movement; miscegenation laws -Can’t marry different races -weeding out the bad traits: eugenics movement -“Race was imported into science from social practice” • justification & legal basis for ongoing inequality • What is race? What is being measured?-Franz Boas: Father of American Anthropology 2• Inuit research • Historical Particularism & Cultural Relativity -every group is a result of their historical trajectory; how well they adapted -look at them relatively-Dissociated biology from culture • Creates new definition of culture! Impact of race science..• 1912 study of Jewish and Sicilian immigrants -measures skulls; children of immigrants that have grown up in america has the same size skulls as other americansInventing Whiteness-1691 Virginia, first legal use of term “white” • Homogenizing of Europeans (trumps religion or ethnicity)• Political or legal ‘whiteness’ • Whiteness undermined interracial working-class solidarity• Race trumps class in the United States -‘Inferior stock’ of new immigrants in early 1900s• Italian, Jewish, Russian, Polish (1929)• Irish no ‘white’ until early 1900s • Male whiteness became criteria for citizenship and voting rights -In the U.S., “white” is an “unmarked” racial category 3• Linguistic term• what is means to be a ‘standard American’ Categories: Caucasian & Hispanic-German scientist Johann Blumenbach• 5 racial categories: Mongolian, Caucasian, Malayan, Negro, American • # categories has ranged 3-20+; scientific problem -Caucasus Mountains 1795• Bumenbach: “world’s most beautiful people” • Armenians, Persians and North Indians, Northern Iran, South-central Russian, Georgia and Azerbaijan-Caucasian • Culture? Ethnicity? Ancestral home? Language? • Conveys false scentific precision & authority -Hispanic..? Estimation of Biological Ancestry -Negroid, Mongoloid, Caucasoid, -Important traits• The mid-facial region of the cranium is the most useful part of the skeleton-the area between the eye sockets4-nasal bones-base of the nasal opening-nasal opening-eye sockets -cheek bones Between the eye sockets-Negroid are Broad and Flat • Nasals are broad and flat• Nasal root does no project• Maxilla adjacent to nasals is flat -Caucasoid- Narrow and angled back• Nasals are narrow • Nasals angle back• Nasal root projects• Maxilla adjacent to nasals angles back-Mongoloid- Broad & Flat