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Anthropology

<OpenstaxParagraph>
	<OpenstaxTerm>Racism</OpenstaxTerm> is best understood as power intertwined with racial prejudice. Racism can be perpetuated through interpersonal, institutional, and systemic practices. Anthropologists Alan <OpenstaxTerm>Goodman</OpenstaxTerm>, Yolanda <OpenstaxTerm>Moses</OpenstaxTerm>, and Joseph <OpenstaxTerm>Jones</OpenstaxTerm> define racism in <OpenstaxEm>Race: Are We So Different?</OpenstaxEm> (2020) as the use of race to establish and justify a social hierarchy and system of power that privileges and advances certain individuals or groups of people, usually at the expense of others. Many individuals understand interpersonal examples of racism, but what are institutional or systemic forms of racism? To explore this question, this section will discuss the history of race and its social construction.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	<a href="./cf0085c6-528c-4101-ad26-19c612c5a2fa@153910e:4ba65bfd-51e5-4434-aff8-fa400c224bf4.xhtml">What Is Anthropology?</a> discussed the fact that race is a social construct. Where did the social construct of race originate? Johann <OpenstaxTerm>Blumenbach</OpenstaxTerm>, a German physician and anthropologist, was influential in establishing existing racial categories. Working in the field of <OpenstaxTerm>craniometry</OpenstaxTerm>, a now debunked pseudoscience that studied human head shape and brain size, Blumenbach proposed five racial categories to divide humans in the late 1700s: “Caucasian” for White people, “Mongolian” for Asians, “Malayan” for Brown people, “Ethiopian” for Black people, and “American” for Indigenous people of the Americas (Goodman, Moses, and Jones 2020, 30).
</OpenstaxParagraph>
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	Blumenbach intentionally made these categories hierarchical and put White people at the top of this hierarchy. In many ways, the remnants of this hierarchy still exist today. For instance, have you ever seen the term <OpenstaxEm><OpenstaxTerm>Caucasian</OpenstaxTerm></OpenstaxEm> on a form asking about race? Why does this term still exist? Many other labels from the classifications Blumenbach created have been challenged, but Caucasian is still used in both scientific and popular usage. Anthropologist Carol <OpenstaxTerm>Mukhopadhyay</OpenstaxTerm> (2008) argues that this term’s continued usage conveys a false scientific authority of <OpenstaxTerm>Whiteness</OpenstaxTerm>.
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	Black anthropologists, including Williams S. <OpenstaxTerm>Willis</OpenstaxTerm> Jr. (1972) and others, have pointed out many racist undertones throughout anthropology’s history of studying the “other.” Anthropology began as the practice of White anthropologists studying the non-White other, which was rooted in an inherently unequal perspective. The White anthropologists’ beliefs were considered the “norm,” and people they studied were considered outside of the norm. In contrast, many of the first Black anthropologists trained in the United States were involved in activism, advocacy, public service, and social justice. These Black pioneers in anthropology were committed to fighting racism and instigating social change, focuses that were reflected in their scholarship and how they approached anthropology (Harrison and Harrison 1999). In “Reflections on Anthropology and the Black Experience,” St. Clair <OpenstaxTerm>Drake</OpenstaxTerm>, discussing why some Black scholars became anthropologists, said, “A few of us chose careers in anthropology forty to forty-five years ago because we believed the discipline had relevance to the liberation of black people from the devastating consequences of over four centuries of white racism” (1978, 86).
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	In 1941, anthropologists Allison <OpenstaxTerm>Davis</OpenstaxTerm>, Burleigh <OpenstaxTerm>Gardner</OpenstaxTerm>, and Mary <OpenstaxTerm>Gardner</OpenstaxTerm> argued that the United States had a racial caste system. <OpenstaxTerm>Caste</OpenstaxTerm> is a system of social inequality based on an individual’s circumstances of birth, wherein people are not allowed to move out of the social group into which they are born. Davis, Gardner, and Gardner observe that racism is a powerful force in American society that produces inequitable social relations that seem permanent but vary regionally and are subject to change over time. They argue that political, social, and economic structures all maintain that caste system, often in violent and coercive ways (Davis, Gardner, and Gardner 1941).
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	A number of scholars have also examined White racial identity; these “<OpenstaxTerm>Whiteness studies</OpenstaxTerm>” show that the racial category of White has been defined in different ways throughout US history. For instance, certain ethnicities in American history were not originally considered White but became included in the White identity over time. <OpenstaxTerm>Whiteness</OpenstaxTerm> is usually based on the maintenance or pursuit of power and proximity to power. Historian Nell Irvin <OpenstaxTerm>Painter</OpenstaxTerm>’s book <OpenstaxEm>The History of White People</OpenstaxEm> (2010) provides a detailed history of European civilization, race, and the frequent worshipping of Whiteness and explains that the concept of one White race is a recent invention.
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	<OpenstaxTerm>White privilege</OpenstaxTerm> is conceptualized as the ways in which White people have been given advantages at the expense of other populations. In Peggy <OpenstaxTerm>McIntosh</OpenstaxTerm>’s classic article “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” (1989), she compares White privilege to an invisible weightless knapsack that comes with special provisions or advantages. According to McIntosh (who identifies as White), these advantages—or even just lack of obstacles—include not having to think about one’s race all the time, knowing that one will probably be represented wherever they go, and not worrying about having to speak for all the people of one’s racial group, among many other examples. Thus, White privilege is the experience of one’s Whiteness as the standard.
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	White privilege is often linked to the cultural concept of <OpenstaxTerm>White supremacy</OpenstaxTerm>, which is the idea that White people are a superior race and should dominate society at the expense of other, historically oppressed groups. People often think of White supremacy as extremist behavior, but White supremacy can actually be seen in many examples of systemic social inequalities. Ideologies of the <OpenstaxTerm>Ku Klux Klan</OpenstaxTerm> and <OpenstaxTerm>neo-Nazis</OpenstaxTerm> are examples of overt White supremacy that many people acknowledge as being racist. However, there are many covert examples of White supremacy that are problematic and racist but are overlooked.
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<OpenstaxFigure id="fig-00001" src="https://openstax.org/apps/archive/20240226.174525/resources/1474f291b9ecec72bf790d8369e877b2e8b76c2c" alt="Sketch of a large floating iceberg, with a tip above the water and the rest beneath the surface. The area sticking out of the water is labelled “Overt Racism”. In this portion are the phrases “Lynchings”, “Hate crimes”, “KKK”, “Swastikas”, “Racial slurs”, and “Racist jokes”. The area beneath the surface is labelled “Covert Racism”. In this portion are approximately 30 phrases, among them “Racial profiling”, “Mass incarceration”, “Voting discrimination”, “Eurocentric beauty standards”, “Meritocracy myth”, and “Denial of racism”." mediaType="image/jpg" width="1301" height="1451" />
<OpenstaxFigureText width="1301">
	<strong>Figure 9.7</strong> The “White supremacy iceberg” lists examples of overt, and covert racism. (attribution: Copyright Rice University, OpenStax, under CC BY 4.0 license)
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	The concept of White supremacy is a contentious one in modern media and politics. You may have come across an image like the one in <a href="#fig-00001">Figure 9.7</a> explaining different types of White supremacy. Although the examples in the diagram labeled “Overt” can be agreed on as socially unacceptable by most people in American society, the examples in the “Covert” section are often explained on an individual level instead of as a symptom of racism. For instance, the <OpenstaxTerm>school-to-prison pipeline</OpenstaxTerm> can often be explained as the consequence of individuals who do not obey the rules instead of a consequence of underfunded schools and racist policies.
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	The avoidance of talking about race, or <OpenstaxTerm>racial refusal</OpenstaxTerm>, can be understood as a silent form of racism. Anthropologist Dána-Ain <OpenstaxTerm>Davis</OpenstaxTerm>, in her ethnography <OpenstaxEm>Reproductive Injustice: Racism, Pregnancy, and Premature Birth </OpenstaxEm>(2019), writes that not acknowledging race in certain contexts can perpetuate inequalities. For her study of Black women who give birth to premature infants, Davis interviewed Black mothers and their partners; NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) staff, including nurses and doctors; birth workers; and March of Dimes administrators. In her research, Davis found that many doctors refused to discuss race and consequently ignored how racism is connected to disparities in health, premature birth, and medical treatment. Instead, discussions of premature birth disparities centered on class, despite the fact that Davis interviewed professional Black women who were college educated. Davis argues that <OpenstaxTerm>racial disparities</OpenstaxTerm> and <OpenstaxTerm>medical racism</OpenstaxTerm> perpetuated by systemic and structural racism cannot be addressed in healthcare settings if healthcare workers do not discuss race. This racial refusal has a historical precedence in the United States, where history and how that history has affected people’s lives is routinely omitted (Davis 2019, 88).
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	Finally, <OpenstaxTerm>microaggressions</OpenstaxTerm> are everyday instances of racism, homophobia, sexism, ableism, and other isms that are observed in the world as thinly veiled insults directed toward individuals from historically excluded groups. People who commit microaggressions might not even be aware they are committing them. Microaggressions include verbal and nonverbal snubs and insults that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to individuals based solely on their identification with a marginalized group. For example, one of the coauthors of this chapter, Saira Mehmood, identifies as a Muslim woman of South Asian descent, born in New Orleans. Saira is often asked, “Where are you from?” When she answers, “New Orleans,” the next question is often “Where are you <OpenstaxEm>really</OpenstaxEm> from?” This type of microaggression denies Saira’s agency as an American.
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9.2.1 Race and Racism

1 What Is Anthropology?

1.1 The Study of Humanity, or "Anthropology Is Vast"

1.1.1 The Heart of Anthropology: Central Narrative and Commitments

1.1.2 Central Commitment #1: Exploring Sociocultural Diversity

1.1.3 Central Commitment #2: Understanding How Societies Hold Together

1.1.4 Central Commitment #3: Examining the Interdependence of Humans and Nature

1.2 The Four-Field Approach: Four Approaches within the Guiding Narrative

1.2.1 Biological Anthropology

1.2.2 Archaeology

1.2.3 Cultural Anthropology

1.2.4 Linguistic Anthropology

1.2.5 How the Four Fields Work Together: The Example of Race

1.3 Overcoming Ethnocentrism

1.3.1 Enculturation and Ethnocentrism

1.3.2 Primitivism and Orientalism

1.4 Western Bias in Our Assumptions about Humanity

1.4.1 Primitivism and Orientalism in Popular Culture

1.4.2 The Bias of Backwardness

1.5 Holism, Anthropology’s Distinctive Approach

1.5.1 Society as an Integrated Whole

1.5.2 Sources of Contradiction, Conflict, and Change

1.6 Cross-Cultural Comparison and Cultural Relativism

1.6.1 Relativism Is Not “Anything Goes”

1.6.2 Morality, Activism, and Cultural Relativism

1.7 Reaching for an Insider’s Point of View

1.7.1 The Challenge of Representing Others

1.7.2 Collaborative Methods of Representation

1.7.3 Working across Cultures toward Common Goals

1.7.4 Suggested Readings

2 Methods: Cultural and Archaeological

2.1 Archaeological Research Methods

2.1.1 Archaeological Techniques

2.1.2 Archaeological Dating Methods

2.2 Conservation and Naturalism

2.2.1 Early Efforts

2.2.2 Salvage Anthropology

2.2.3 Museum Collections

2.2.4 Interpretation and Voice

2.3 Ethnography and Ethnology

2.3.1 The Development of Ethnography and Ethnology

2.3.2 Perspective and Interpretation in Ethnography

2.4 Participant Observation and Interviewing

2.4.1 Participant Observation

2.4.2 Interviewing Informants

2.4.3 Ethical Considerations

2.5 Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis

2.5.1 Differences between Quantitative and Qualitative Information

2.5.2 Modeling

2.5.3 The Science of Anthropology

2.6 Collections

2.6.1 Archives

2.6.2 Three-Dimensional Collections

2.6.3 Ownership

2.6.4 Suggested Readings

3 Culture Concept Theory: Theories of Cultural Change

3.1 The Homeyness of Culture

3.2 The Winkiness of Culture

3.3 The Elements of Culture

3.3.1 Culture Is What We Make

3.3.2 Culture Is What We Do

3.3.3 Culture Is What We Think

3.4 The Aggregates of Culture

3.4.1 Symbols

3.4.2 Ritual

3.4.3 Social Structure

3.5 Modes of Cultural Analysis

3.5.1 Evolution, Adaptation, and Historical Particularism

3.5.2 Functionalism

3.5.3 Structuralism

3.5.4 Ontology

3.6 The Paradoxes of Culture

3.6.1 Paradox 1: Culture Is Continuous, but It Changes

3.6.2 Paradox 2: Culture Is Bounded but Mobile

3.6.3 Paradox 3: Culture Is Consensual but Contested

3.6.4 Paradox 4: Culture Is Shared, but It Varies

3.6.5 Suggested Readings

4 Biological Evolution and Early Human Evidence

4.1 What Is Biological Anthropology?

4.1.1 Looking to the Deep Past

4.1.2 Exploring What It Means to Be Human

4.2 What’s in a Name? The Science of Taxonomy

4.2.1 Defining the Science of Taxonomy

4.2.2 Defining a Species

4.3 It’s All in the Genes! The Foundation of Evolution

4.3.1 The Units of Life

4.3.2 Gregor Mendel and the Laws of Heredity

4.3.3 Mendelian Inheritance in Humans

4.4 Evolution in Action: Past and Present

4.4.1 Early Evolutionists and the Fixity of Species

4.4.2 Charles Darwin’s Role in Changing Views of the Natural World

4.4.3 Understanding Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection

4.5 What Is a Primate?

4.5.1 What Is a Primate?

4.5.2 Primate Behavioral Variation

4.5.3 Explaining Primate Success

4.5.4 Primate Classification and Taxonomy

4.6 Origin of and Classification of Primates

4.6.1 Understanding Concepts of Time

4.6.2 Fossils and Dating Methods

Question	Answer
a system of social inequality based on an individual’s circumstances of birth, wherein people are not allowed to move out of their social group.	caste
everyday instances of racism, homophobia, sexism, etc. that are observed in the world as thinly veiled insults directed toward historically excluded groups.	microaggressions
the refusal to mention or talk about race. Racial refusal is a silent form of racism.	racial refusal
the ways in which White people receive advantages at the expense of other populations.	White privilege
the idea that White people are a superior race and should dominate society at the expense of other, historically excluded groups.	White supremacy
an identity based on the maintenance or pursuit of power and proximity to power.	Whiteness