Biological Conceptualization of Race (original) (raw)

Changing Students' Understanding of Race

Anthropology News, 2006

This paper was selected for publication in the AAA's Anthropology News as part of the "Rethinking Race and Human Variation" special editions of February and March 2006. The special editions were sponsored by the Understanding Race and Human Variation project and funded by the Ford Foundation. The Understanding Race and Human Variation project is a multi-year public education effort funded by the National Science Foundation and the Ford Foundation. This paper represents the views of the author and not that of the AAA or the Understanding Race and Human Variation project.

Why Do We Think Racially? Culture, Evolution and Cognition Machery & Faucher)

Contemporary research on racial categorization is mostly encompassed by two research traditions-social constructionism and the cognitive-cum-evolutionary approach. Although both literatures have some plausible empirical evidence and some theoretical insights to contribute to a full understanding of racial categorization, there has been little contact between their proponents. In order to foster such contacts, we critically review both traditions, focusing particularly on the recent evolutionary/cognitive explanations of racial categorization. On the basis of this critical survey, we put forward a list of eleven requirements that a satisfactory theory of racial categorization should satisfy. We conclude that despite some decisive progress, we are still far from having a complete theory of why humans classify people on the basis of skin color, body appearance or hair style.

Why do we Think Racially? Culture, Evolution, and Cognition

Race and Racial Cognition

A core question of contemporary social morality concerns how we ought to handle racial categorization. By this we mean, for instance, classifying or thinking of a person as Black, Korean, Latino, White, etc.² While it is widely FN:2 agreed that racial categorization played a crucial role in past racial oppression, there remains disagreement among philosophers and social theorists about the ideal role for racial categorization in future endeavors. At one extreme of this disagreement are short-term eliminativists who want to do away with racial categorization relatively quickly (e.g. because they view it as mistaken and oppressive. At the opposite end of the spectrum, long-term conservationists hold that racial identities and communities are beneficial, and that racial categorization-suitably reformed-is essential to fostering them (e.g. Outlaw, , 1996. While extreme forms of conservationism have fewer proponents in academia than the most radical eliminativist positions, many theorists advocate more moderate positions. In between the two poles, there are many who believe that racial categorization is valuable (and perhaps necessary) given the continued existence of racial inequality and the lingering effects of past racism (e.g.

Teaching human variation: Can education change students' attitudes towards "race"?

Glasnik Etnografskog instituta, 2007

This paper examines the influence of education on students' attitudes towards the race concept. A questionnaire was distributed before and after a short teaching module on human variation. A significant shift in student position from undecided and racial towards non-racial was observed, thus confirming the importance of scientific education in shaping students' opinions.

The Idea Of Race And Racial Differences

This study has explained the scientific validity of race with biological approach (IQ and gene profile) with its criticism in sociology and anthropology. In exploring the scientific validity of race the researchers will give emphasis to the works on intelligence quotient (IQ) and genetic aspects (Alland, 2004; Graves, 2006; Herrnstein & Murray, 1996; Lynn, 2008). Race is mostly used to classify human beings in large and distinct populations by cultural, ethnic, genetic, geographical, historical, religious, or social affiliation (Abercrombie, Hill, & Turner, 1984). Many debates on race have increased and have major effects on the development of race as a scientific area such as biological race, cultural race, anthropological race (Banton, 1998). First of all, this study will examine some historical background of race and distinction between race and ethnicity. Next, the researchers will explore mental abilities as highlighted by IQ showing a discrepancy among racial groups. In the third section of the study, the researchers will focus on genetically distinguished populations. As a result of this study, scientific validity of race implies that different branches of science on the subject of human distinction lack concurrence. Some branches of anthropology and sociology have a strong consensus on race, but some branches of biology recognize the word race by IQ score and some of them link race and gene. Key Words: Race, IQ, Ethnicity, Gene

Theory and Research on `Race' as a Natural Kind Variable in Psychology

Theory & Psychology, 2001

This article examines a portion of the theory about and research on 'race' in the field of psychology. Specifically, we examine whether the construct of 'race' can be used efficaciously as a natural kind variable that explains data in psychological inquiry. The foregoing consideration involves an exploration of the so-called 'biological/genetic' bases of 'race' from the conceptual paradigms of (a) mutual exclusivity and inalterablity and (b) gradations on a continuum of genetic data. Our critique of these positions suggests an abdication of 'race' as a natural kind variable because both of the above arguments for the concept are ultimately incoherent given the genetic data that they seek to explain. Consequently, 'race' as a natural kind variable cannot explain psychological data. However, because the idea of 'race' has become diffused into societies, 'race' should be studied as a purely cognitive concept that influences social perception.

Demonstrating the social construction of race

Teaching sociology, 1999

THE IDEA THAT race is socially constructed is widely accepted within social science disciplines (Haney Lopez 1996; Omi and Winant 1986; Waters 1990). Relating this concept to students, however, can present a serious challenge. Students, like most people, tend to view their world as an objective reality divorced, in many ways, from interpretation or constructed meaning. This is also true of the racial categories that are presented and reified throughout society, but which are nonetheless, socially defined. Through the use of an abstract exercise, removed from ingrained notions of race, the absence of natural groupings and the social construction of such categories can be more clearly presented. In this paper, I describe such an exercise and demonstrate how the insights achieved can then be easily applied to concepts of race, offering students a better understanding of race as a social construct. Most social scientists recognize that existing racial categories developed due toparticular historical circumstances (Haney Lopez 1996; Omi and Winant 1986; Waters 1990). Yet, students often think of race as a given biological fact based on established scientific distinctions, ideas that are strongly reified throughout society by the media, through government policy and by individuals who often embrace a racial identity. According to Omi and Winant (1986), "Everyone learns some combination, some version, of the rules of racial classification...often without "*I developed this technique while teaching at Santa Monica College. I would like to thank Kathy Shamey for making that possible.

Biological Conceptualization of Race (original) (raw)

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