Race and Ethnicity

The concepts of race and ethnicity are complex, laden with historical, social, and political undertones
that have been subject to extensive debates within anthropology and other fields. In the academic
realm, these terms are often used to understand and analyse group identities, social hierarchies, and
the complex phenomena of inclusion and exclusion.
The distinctions between race and ethnicity are nuanced, often overlapping, and shaped by context.
Both terms serve as lenses for interpreting human diversity and social hierarchies, but they do so in
different ways.
While a race has been understood as a category that classifies people based on shared biological traits
such as skin colour, facial features, and ancestry, ethnicity refers to a group of people who share a
common cultural background, including language, religion, and customs.
Both race and ethnicity shape, and are shaped by, social, political, and economic structures.
Biological vs Cultural:
The foundations of a race are primarily based on the notion of biological or phenotypic differences
such as skin colour, hair type, and facial features, ethnicity is rooted in shared cultural practices,
language, historical experiences, and even sometimes, ancestry.
Externality vs Internality:
Racial categories are often externally imposed by societal perceptions, rather than self-identification
while ethnic identification tends to be more subjective, driven by individual or community beliefs
about shared culture and history. Ethnicity is a more a matter of self-ascription.
Homogeneity vs Heterogeneity:
Racial categorizations can overlook the rich diversity within groups. For instance, the racial term
"Asian" in the United States can include individuals from diverse countries like Japan, China, and India,
who have distinct cultures and histories. On the other hand, ethnicity allows for a broader and more
nuanced understanding of identity. For example, within the "Black" racial category in the United
States, there are various ethnic groups such as African Americans, Haitians, and Nigerians, each with
their own cultural practices and historical experiences.
Rigidity vs Fluidity
Race is often seen as a rigid category as compared to ethnicity, as individuals can adopt or shed ethnic
identities more easily.
By understanding these concepts, anthropologists are better equipped to explore how race and
ethnicity serve as lenses through which people experience the world, make sense of their identities,
and navigate social relationships. These terms help us to dissect systems of privilege and
marginalization, offering insights into how social policies might better address inequality. The study of
race and ethnicity, therefore, is not just an academic endeavour but a crucial aspect of social justice
work.

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 Race and Racism
The concepts of race and racism are deeply interwoven, serving as a lens through which societies
construct and understand human differences, social hierarchies, and systemic inequities. A study of
these concepts is necessary to understanding how they manifest in various contexts, impact
individuals and communities, and are reproduced through institutions and cultural practices.
While race is a category of individuals based on biological traits, racism is a social construct which is a
prejudice and discrimination based on race, which is often institutionalised and systematised.
Race is a product of microevolutionary processes and adaptation to localised environment by specific
populations, racism is a psychosocial phenomenon that manifests in social norms, laws and
institutional behaviours, not just individual prejudice.
Racism manifests at multiple levels:
• Individual Racism represents prejudice or discriminatory actions by individual persons.
• Institutional Racism is a systematic discrimination entrenched in laws, policies and
institutional practices.
• Cultural Racism is the normalisation and trivialisation of discriminatory practices and ideas in
culture.
Examples:
• United States: Jim Crow Laws: After the abolition of slavery, these laws perpetuated racial
segregation and systemic discrimination against Black Americans.
• Australia: Stolen Generations: Indigenous children were forcibly separated from their families
and culture, a policy rooted in racist ideologies.
• South Africa: Apartheid: A legally institutionalized system that segregated people based on
racial categories.
• Myanmar: Rohingya Crisis: The Rohingya, a Muslim minority, have been the target of violence
and discrimination, often described as ethnic cleansing rooted in deep-seated racism.

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 Racialization
The term "racialization" refers to the process by which society assigns individuals or groups to
particular racial categories and attaches social significance to these categories. In doing so,
racialization often contributes to the construction of social hierarchies, stereotypes, and systems of
inequality. Although these categories may appear to be based on biological or phenotypic traits,
anthropologists assert that they are, in fact, socially constructed. For example, the Uighurs in China is
a Muslim minority group that has been racialized and faces state-sponsored persecution, including
mass detentions
Mechanisms of Racialization
• Language: The way language is used can subtly or overtly racialize groups. For instance, terms
like "illegal alien" in the U.S. often racialize Latinx individuals, casting them as outsiders.
• Media Representation: Stereotypes portrayed in the media can play a significant role in
racialization. For example, Orientalism, as described by Edward Said, has long racialized
people from the Middle East as exotic, backward, or dangerous.
• Legal Systems: Laws and policies can reinforce racialization. For instance, the "stop and frisk"
policy in New York City was criticized for disproportionately targeting Black and Latino
individuals.
• Institutional Practices: Universities, corporations, and other organizations may inadvertently
racialize through practices like affirmative action or racial quotas, which, while often well-
intentioned, can sometimes reinforce racial categories.
Critical Race Anthropology: This sub-discipline interrogates how racialization affects marginalized
communities, examining phenomena like racial profiling, mass incarceration, and health disparities.
Understanding racialization helps anthropologists make sense of the deeply rooted and often invisible
structures that perpetuate inequality. Through the deconstruction of racialization processes, scholars
and activists can challenge existing narratives and work toward social justice initiatives.
Some Important Works:
• "Race, Nature, and Culture: An Anthropological Perspective" by Peter Wade provides a
detailed discussion on how race is perceived differently across various societies.
• "Ethnic Groups and Boundaries" by Fredrik Barth is seminal in understanding the social
mechanisms that create and sustain ethnic distinctions.
• "The Ethnic Phenomenon" by Pierre L. van den Berghe discusses how ethnic identification
interacts with other forms of social organization such as the state and class systems.

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 Anthropology and Racism
Franz Boas
Franz Boas, often dubbed the "Father of American Anthropology," was instrumental in laying the
groundwork for modern anthropological thought on race and racism. Boas radically challenged the
prevailing 19th and early 20th-century ideas that sought to categorize human populations into
hierarchical racial types based on presumed innate qualities.
Views on Scientific Racism
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, scientific racism was prevalent, using pseudoscience to justify
the idea that certain races were superior to others. Boas was a vocal critic of this. He argued that such
theories were not only scientifically unsound but also served to perpetuate social inequalities.
Cultural Relativism
Boas introduced the concept of cultural relativism, urging scholars and society at large to understand
a culture on its own terms rather than judge it by the standards of another culture. This concept served
as a counter-argument to ethnocentrism and notions of cultural or racial hierarchy.
Importance of Environment
Boas believed that environment and social learning were pivotal in human development. In his famous
study on immigrant children, Boas demonstrated that cranial forms could change in a single
generation due to environmental factors, challenging notions of racial determinism.
Anthropology as a Tool for Social Justice
Boas believed that anthropology had a role to play in addressing social issues. He trained a generation
of anthropologists, such as Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict, to approach the study of culture and
race from an anti-racist, empirically grounded perspective.
Challenging Institutional Racism
Boas’s work influenced the broader social sciences and contributed to the intellectual arguments
against policies of segregation and discrimination in the United States.
Decolonizing Ethnography
Boas insisted that fieldwork should be conducted through the native languages and that researchers
should immerse themselves in the cultures they study. This was a departure from colonialist
anthropology, which often exoticized or demeaned the subjects of study.
Global Impact
Boas’s influence was not just limited to American anthropology. His ideas spread globally, challenging
the basis of colonial policies and contributing to liberation movements in Africa, Asia, and Latin
America.
Notable Publications and Sources
• Boas's book "The Mind of Primitive Man" (1911) systematically dismantles racial theories that
were popular at the time.
• “Anthropology and Modern Life” offers a comprehensive view of his perspectives on race and
the role anthropology should play in combating prejudice.
Franz Boas's contributions significantly shifted the discourse around race and racism, from one of
biological determinism to social constructivism. His work laid the intellectual foundation for later

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movements against racial discrimination, both in the United States and around the world, and his
influence remains visible in contemporary anthropological thought on race.

Melville Jean Herskovits

Herskovits, a Jewish-American anthropologist, was the first prominent white intellectual to declare
that black culture in America was “not pathological,” but rather inherently African, and that it had to
be viewed within that context. In positing this, he established himself among the anthropological
vanguard in applying the principles of cultural relativism to ethnic cultures within the United States.
He traced regional traditions in art, music, dance, and other expressions to a kind of persistent cultural
memory in modern-day black Americans, most of whom are generations removed from Africa.
His 1928 book The American Negro and the seminal 1941 tome The Myth of the Negro
Past fundamentally challenged widely held assumptions about black people in America. In 1948, he
founded the first interdisciplinary program at North Western University in African studies, and later
formed the African Studies Association. Herskovits’s academic work advanced the cause of ethnic
equality in the United States, while also setting off a whirlwind of debate about race and identity. He
opposed the assumption that Africa must follow the Western model and remain under the continuous
direction of Europeans.

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