ANTH 201 Full Course Notes

11/28/2022




FinalExam chapters 15,714and16

Notchapters 6or15
CHAPTER 13
Finalis 213chapters11 14and16
CONTEMPLATING MODERN
HUMAN DIVERSITY




RACE, PLACE, AND FACE Highvariationin morphologysuperfinetraitseyehair

1. Obvious differences among us skincolour
and
2. Obvious differences tend to
cluster with geography
3. Human tendency/desire to
classify/order variation in the
natural world

= Folk taxonomies/categorizations
that emphasize visible biological
(and cultural) differences that
correspond to geographic regions




HUMAN TYPOLOGY
Scientists have a long history of subdividing the
superficial phenotypic human biological diversity into a
variety of discrete “races” or even subspecies




Copyright © 2015 by Nelson Education Ltd. 1

, 11/28/2022




AN IGNOBLE HISTORY OF BIOLOGICAL
ANTHROPOLOGY: RANKING RACES AND
EUGENICS
An
throhas ahistoryof rankingracesagainst
 Typology: an “ideal”
representing the most
otherusingtypology
each
perfect or normal form
of something PeopleusedDarwin'sTens to applyracial
 Eugenics: selective

categoriesandracialmirearchy Eugenics
breeding for purpose of
biological
“improvement”

 Inherently tied to a
progressive view of
WWI wasbasedaroundEugenicsbreeding
nature – a
misapplication of
Darwin’s TENS somepeople tocreate abettersociety Forced
sterilization alsoappliedthe
samepolicies
Alsoinfluencedlawssurroundingeconomicsituations
only therichtoprogresssociety
helping




Peoplealwaysappliedthatevolution is always

 Prominent eugenicists include: betterspecies eventhough
progressive creating
 Charles Davenport: American geneticist (a very new
field back then – 1920s)
 Julian Huxley: evolutionist; grandson of Thomas Huxley
(“Darwin’s Bulldog”) and brother of Aldous Huxley
italwaysdepends ontheadaptationstobetter
(author of Brave New World).
suittheenvironment atthetime
 Social progressivism was conflated with biological
“fitness” Thoughtwarsbrokeoutbecauseof overpopulation
 Population control (after horrors of WWII)
 Birth control and abortion
sotheypushedbirthcontrolandabortions
tosterilization
controlpopulationsaroundtheworldAlsolinked
13‐5




to of unfitpeople



MONOGENESIS VS POLYGENESIS

 Monogenesis
 Original creation of one human form
 Variants today represent degeneration of different groups

 Polygenesis
 Different races created by God as separate species
 Both served to help rationalize colonial attitudes and
actions
 Easily observed traits: body size, shape; skin colour; facial,
hair features – were assumed to be correlated with
differences regarding temperament, moral character,
intelligence ‐ fabricated constructions.




Copyright © 2015 by Nelson Education Ltd. 2