Question.671 - Race is a powerful and contentious topic in today's society. How does anthropology, as a discipline, define race? Explain why it is difficult to use biological characteristics to categorize people into races.
Answer Below:
Race has always been an important aspect and concept of anthropology where the anthropologists have studied this concept of race with different perspectives. Some claimed that race is a creative aspect which has nothing to do with the biology or society rather it is just a tool of stigma. While some believes in the concept of color blindness ideology that states that every individual should be treated equally despite their racial differences. Race has been studied from various perspectives and through various lenses by the anthropologists. It is claimed that the social disparities that are associated with race are considered to be natural instead of social construction. Moreover, due to the presence of biological and physical changes, it is difficult to define race to distinguish between gender, ethnicity. It is observed by the anthropologists that within the eighteenth and nineteenth century, the concept of the race came into being in order to give meaning to the phenotypes, the result of attributes inherited from biology and society. Moreover, it is claimed that complexion of the body is not related with DNA and blood. But during colonization and exploration, skin color, hair, size and shape all became the differences in order to categorize human population and the main intention of using these aspects were to rank the population as per the hierarchy since the differences were stereotyped. Therefore, anthropologists are still continuing their research on the concept of race to show that it is more a tool to create disparity in society in order to continue the legacy of social hegemony. Reference Lieberman, L., Stevenson, B. W., & Reynolds, L. T. (1989). Race and anthropology: A core concept without consensus.?Anthropology & education quarterly,?20(2), 67-73.More Articles From Anthropology
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