Archaeology and Politics (original) (raw)
Related papers
Response to 'Philosophical Aspects of the "AAA Statement on 'Race
Anthropological Theory, 2001
In 'Philosophical Aspects of the "AAA Statement on 'Race' " ', philosopher Naomi Zack uses conceptual analysis to explore connections between several key assertions articulated in the American Anthropological Association's 1998 statement on race. She is particularly concerned with some of the inconsistencies or logical flaws in several of the statement's assertions regarding the nonexistence of biological race, statistical facts about populations, and cultural beliefs about race. Using the AAA's statement and articles in the Anthropology Newsletter that discussed it, she points out a number of rhetorical inconsistencies in the attempts by anthropologists to challenge common-sense racial taxonomies while recognizing and embracing the fact that human variation is real and that variation occurs, empirically, in predicable and patterned ways. At the heart of the article is an argument that can be summed up as 'don't throw the baby out with the bath water' or, in other words, anthropologists' arguments about race would be more clear, strong, and persuasive if they explicitly worked against the tendency to conflate population and genealogical variation with commonsense notions of race. Although she explains that the statement is a work of theory, she reminds readers that it is also 'meant to present the facts about race "to the public" in a way that will increase social justice' (p. 447). And it is the dual role of this statement, reporting on research and educating the public, that she argues fuels some of the inconsistencies in the statement and anthropologists' work on race, racism, and social categories more generally. Zack's motivation for her baby and bath water argument stems from the fact that 'there is truth on the side of population statistics and truth on the side of the nonexistence of essentialist racial typologies'. Yet, the motivation for the AAA's statement was not simply to unearth the 'truth' about racial inequality-members of the AAA have been doing that for three-quarters of a century. The motivation was, once again, to demonstrate that race is a product of social history, not natural history, and that race has more to do with folklore, sociology, and ideology than taxonomy, biology, and genetics.
Reflections on "race" in science and society in the United States
Journal of anthropological sciences = Rivista di antropologia : JASS, 2017
This commentary on the discourses, use, and salience of "race" in the United States has two linked purposes. First, I would like to provide readers with a glimpse of the "state of race" in science in America, focusing on both the current relationship among studies of race, racism, and human variation and the relationship of these studies to "race" in society. I will reflect on how race is discussed, the underlying ideology of race, and how the word race is intended and used in science and society. Second, the editors would like to initiate a thoughtful forum on the current state of race, racism, and human biological variation. The hope is to provide an opportunity to compare current discussions and debates that center on race, human biological variation, and racism in science, law, and other intersecting domains, such as in popular culture (race in media and public forums, for example) in different countries within and beyond Europe. This essay is the first in the forum. I begin by summarizing the state of race in the United States, the country in which I live, was trained, and work. Subsequently, others will contribute their own analyses of the state of race in the country or countries they are most familiar with. Among the guiding questions are the following.
The Science: An Anthropological Solution to the "Race" Problem in America
This paper explains the development of the "Race" concept by Europeans from the 17th Century to the present; notably, none of the major 'scientists' were able to agree on what the "Races" were. Some even separated Northern Europeans (Xanthrochroids) from Southern Europeans (Melanochroids) classifying them as different "Races". The "Caucasian Race" was created by Dr. Johann Blumenbach in Germany, in 1781, by pouring seeds into skulls: whichever skull held the most seeds, presumably had the largest brain and was classified as "Caucasian." However, Blumenbach eventually figured out that seeds had irregular sizes, so he replaced the seeds with gunshot in order to create the "Caucasian Race" which is still in use today. https://pages.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/naylor/JILQ0411/offline/naylor\_JILQ0411.pdf
Society for American Archaeology Archaeological Record, 2010
A co-edited (Kurt Dongoske and Larry Zimmerman) special issue of the SAA Archaeological Record [10(3)::3--25)] set in motion when Roger Echo- Hawk submitted his article “Working Together on Race” for consideration to the Working Together column for the Archaeological Record. The premise of this thematic volume is based on an ever-growing consensus in anthropology that the concept of race is best described as an expression of cultural ideology and not a biological reality. Echo-Hawk challenges the Society for American Archaeology to promote a meaningful discussion about race amongst its membership. Finally, Echo-Hawk asks the question of whether the SAA should join other major anthropology organizations in producing a formal statement on race. Seven essays by Echo-Hawk and five archaeologists (Zimmerman, Paul Mullins, Carol McDavid, Eldon Yellowhorn, and Ann Kakaliouras) consider his concerns , to which Echo-Hawk responds.
Philosophical aspects of the ‘AAA Statement on “Race”’
Anthropological Theory, 2001
I apply philosophical analysis to the ‘AAA Statement on “Race”’ (American Anthropological Association, 1998) and the commentary on its earlier draft published in the Anthropology Newsletter(1997). Racial essentialism is the theory that there are distinct and general human biological traits that determine racial membership and cause the presence of specific racial traits. This theory is false, as is the belief that a taxonomy of human races, or race, exists. But the 1998 ‘AAA Statement on “Race”’ fails to repudiate racial essentialism explicitly. Instead, the Statement denies that race determines culture or psychology and thereby misses the broad logical point that race cannot determine anything, because it does not exist. In the ANdiscussion of Kennewick Man, which appeared to be a debate about racial essentialism, contributors spoke past one another in confusing population-based measures of human diversity with race. The same confusion clouds contemporary concerns about the relevan...
The idea of race emerged as a biological concept during the European Enlightenment. The earlier cultural and religious distinctions drawn among human groups were increasingly substituted or elaborated by ‘race’. Western notions of science came to legitimate a natural hierarchy within the context of colonial, slave holding and later industrial capitalist societies whose elites benefited from the idea that the inhumanity of their privilege was natural. An ideology of white supremacy emerged simultaneously from science and society, relative to which racial identities were constructed and historically transformed. Racial ideas have infused many American institutions and their pervasiveness accounts for their paradigmatic power. The history of biological anthropology is packed with reflections of broadly believed racial ideas. These ideas’ transformations can be seen in evolving theories meant to explain the relationship between human behavior and biology. This course examines those ideas in biological anthropology and related fields. Students discover aspects of race and racism in past and present society that often go unrecognized. They equally develop an appreciation of ways in which culture can systematically influence scientific thought, raising a more general critique of the scientific way of knowing than is limited to the example of race. Problems and prospects for theories of the interactions between human biology and behavior are considered.
Race and Anthropology: A Core Concept without Consensus
Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 1989
Race, once a core anthropological concept, is no longer supported by a majority of members of the discipline. The history of the concept is briefly reviewed. Results of a survey are presented indicating acceptance by 50% of biological anthropologists and 31 % of cultural anthropologists, while 42% of the former and 52% of the latter reject the concept. Alternatives for teaching about human biological and cultural variation are discussed. Ethnicity is suggested as an alternative for teaching about folk taxonomies that arose in the colonial era, while cline, or geographic variation, is proposed for human biological variation.
2016
To explore the evolution of political-science research on race, Walton, Miller, and McCormick (1995), and Walton (1997, Chapter 4) do a systematic review of more than a century of publications appearing in the discipline’s oldest and most prestigious journals: Political Science Quarterly (PSQ) and the American Political Science Review (APSR), respectively. Walton and his colleagues uncover “dual traditions” of race scholarship: an African American Politics (AAP) paradigm, emphasizing racial empowerment and Blacks’ cultural distinctiveness, and a Race Relations Politics (RRP) approach that focuses on Blacks’ socio-political status vis-à-vis Whites. Using computer-assisted text analyses, we introduce a measure of racial dialogue that is informed by theory and has suitable empirical properties. We replicate and extend the authors’ research by adding a third journal (the Journal of Politics [JOP]) and demonstrating that aspects of a paper’s text, features of the publication process, and the broader complexities of group relations can influence political science discourse on race. Following our analyses, we offer guidelines for researchers seeking to apply our measure to alternative research contexts.