The book The Emperor's New Clothes; Biological Theories of Race at the Millennium, by Joseph L. Graves Jr. discusses the concept of race throughout human history. He discusses how humans perceive race before Darwin’s discoveries, in colonial America, and looks at eugenics. He presents common theories and “truths” about race for the era in each time period. He starts the book by comparing the story the Emperor's New Clothes to how humans perceive race. He makes the connection through the mass majority going along with who is in charge, this being the king, and the children who speak the truth.…
Race does not have customs or globally learned behavior. Race can be used to describe other elements of biological and regional differences. For instance, you can be born Jewish (which is usually referred to as a religion), but it does not mean that you have embraced the Jewish customs or religious beliefs. In such cases, the same term can be used to describe either ethnicity or…
In “From The Myth of Race” by Agustin Fuentes, a professor of anthropology states that there is no support for biological races. Agustin Fuentes shuts down the idea that humans can be divided into biological groups by saying, “Despite attempts by researchers over the centuries to divide humans into races based on skull shape, geographic location, and presumed cultural differences, there is absolutely no support for any of these classifications as actually reflecting the ways in which the human skull, genetic characteristics, or other phenotypes cluster in our species” (520). He’s saying that race has nothing to with genetics or one’s culture. Many people believe race connects to a person’s geographic location or physical appearance. Fuentes states, “many Americans assume that because we seem able to determine a person’s race by looking at them or because we can test our DNA and get a percentage of Yoruba or Irish ancestry using AIMs, then the concept of race must have some biological validity; this is wrong” (524).…
Our class has learned through the videos shown in class that there is no gene for someone’s race. Humans, however, have created categories to try to find differences among us, when there is little to no variation (Ferris, Stein, 2014: 217). A sociologist would still categorize this as a factor for diversity because humans have incorporated them into our society. It would be near impossible for people to ignore race. It is engraved into humans.…
Essay Question: What is the difference between the way race is defined in the United States and in Brazil? List the Brazilian folk taxonomy of "tipos" and how to translate "tipos" into U.S. racial categories. Race is a myth. In another word, what looks like a difference in biological variability, is in fact, merely a difference in cultural classification. Similarly, anthropologist have stressed that U.S. racial groups are American cultural structures that depict the way Americans categorize people, rather than it be “a genetically determined reality (Spradley and McCurdy 200).”…
It seems to me that the definition of race is widely agreed among sociologists to be physical characteristics that are shared among a group of people, such as skin color. Race is not grounded in biological fact, rather in humans’ perceptions of others, leading many to call race a social construct. In the same way gender has been constructed in our society, race has been primarily used to elevate one group to the superior position, and to place another in the subordinate. This definition is one I greatly agree with. Ethnicity, compared with race, is far more cultural in its definition.…
The biological construction of race consist of one’s DNA (Lewontin, 2006). Scientists have determined that every human is a part of the Homo sapiens species. They have also determined that because everyone is part of the same species, everybody shares a mutual descent. Throughout history, external traits that are visible, such as facial features, skin color, and hair form, have been used to determine one’s race (“American Association,” 1996; Lewontin, 2006). This aspect of biological construction of race is still seen in today’s society (Machery & Faucher,…
Some sociologists believe that race is more of a social construction than a biological construction because are race is the result of our social location. Many classify race by the physical appearance. In all actuality, the way people classify another person is based on their location and social placement. Race and ethnicity are often confused, race is used for biological characteristics and ethnicity is used for cultural characteristics. Based on this there isn’t really race because as the mini-lecture stated, race has no genetic basis.…
There are two concepts to race that biological anthropologists debate about. According to Matt Cartmill’s article “The Status of the Race Concept in Physical Anthropology” there are two cases to the concept of race; the case for the race concept and the case against the race concept. The race concept is what we as anthropologists use to define race. Do we use genetics, physical features, or geography to classify race is the debate in this article.…
There are multiple variations for defining race. There is one definition, however, that most people confine to which is race being a group of people who have different and similar biological traits. Commonly, race is defined as if it is a term that is solid or concrete, but really it is socially fabricated. In society, race is based on the difference in physical appearance which is determined by the most apparent trait; skin color. Although race is socially constructed, the biological sense that accounts for the physical differences within a person leads society to treat people differently.…
Race from a social construction has been apart of how we class people today. We look at skin color, and ask of peoples family backgrounds to determine what race they are. What we have made is each race seem to be in a different breeding population than the other races, when in reality, and what has been learned in this class is that genetically it does not show what race someone is. I also learned in classes from a long time ago that by looking at a persons facial structure can determine what race they are, I now know after this class that this is not true. What we have learned as a population is who fits into what race based on are very arbitrary.…
Race is a social thing not biological basis. Here is why. Race is socially constructed and it was created based on people’s physical attributes. For example people are categorized on skin color, hair texture, facial feature and body shape. While race is based on peoples physically appearance.…
All throughout time, people have been divided due to their differences. People who see others that are different from them will often immediately decide that they are “weird” and put those people lower than themselves. According to Linda Holtzman and Leon Sharpe in their passage, “Theories and Constructs of Race,” Race is just a social construct made by humans to exclude people based on what they look like, where they are from, their culture, etc. If scientists were to look at someone’s deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) compared to another person with, say, different colored skin, they would notice that there is not much of a difference between the two people. Therefore, as Holtzman and Sharpe say, “race is constructed socially, culturally, politically,…
Culture is in the mind of the beholder however culture is what gives individuals the ability to identify him or…
Race is associated with biology of human beings, whereas ethnicity is associated with the origin and culture. An individual coming into a society where his ethnicity and race is unfamiliar, an opportunity is open for both the individual and the population of that society to learn and get to know each other. It is imminent that the people of different racial backgrounds, especially multi-ethnic groups, will face all kinds of stereotypes when coming to a new society that is completely unfamiliar with the physical features, culture, traditions and world view of that ethnic group. However, that can be rectified with positive involvement and communication in different areas of that society. Individuals coming from various ethnic and racial backgrounds…