How the Four Fields Work Together The Example of Race

What Is Anthropology? ANTH 2301 How the Four Fields Work Together: The Example of Race The four subdisciplines of anthropology may appear to be whole distinct fields of study due to their distinctive approaches and foci. True, there is disagreement among anthropologists from the four disciplines on the most effective method for sociocultural inquiry. Biological anthropologists frequently regard themselves as "hard" scientists who are dedicated to using the scientific method to investigate humans. The "softer" techniques of involvement, interviewing, and observation are employed by cultural anthropologists. It could be challenging to identify common ground between the study of hereditary blood type distribution and addiction treatment programmes. However, pressing issues like inequality and climate change have brought attention to how crucial an integrated approach is to the study of mankind. Racial inequality is a prime illustration of this. Many anthropologists start by examining what we believe to be true about our understanding of race, starting from the cultural side of our field. In your opinion, how many different types of races exist in the world? How is it possible to determine someone's race? Regarding your own racial categorization, what do you know? Together, cultural anthropologist Gabriel Torres Colón and biological anthropologist Jada Benn Torres investigated how individuals utilise genetic ancestry testing to create ideas of racial identity and communal history (2020). For example, you may develop a sense of affinity with Nigeria and the African continent if DNA testing reveals that your ancestors are most likely from that nation. It's possible that you'll start to feel more connected to the people of your ancestral nation than to the people of your place of citizenship. This racial bond may seem more significant than the sociocultural one that ties you to your own culture. Concerned about the possibility of disseminating false ideas on racial classifications, Torres and Colon also point out that transnational movements for social justice may be nourished by racialized solidarity across national borders. Such research demonstrates how, while constantly thinking that our conceptions of race are ingrained in nature, we consciously create them about race using biological facts about ourselves.Crucially, biological anthropology shows how incorrect our preconceived assumptions about race are. In order to ascertain whether humans are, in fact, divided into distinct racial categories, biological anthropologists like Agustín Fuentes (2012) and Nina Jablonski (2006) have closely examined the global distribution of human traits like skin colour, facial features, hair texture, and blood type, among other markers. In a nutshell, there are no true racial distinctions in biology. Every human characteristic is distributed throughout a spectrum, and people's combinations of these features render racial differences utterly false. Consider skin colour, which is the most prevalent factor used to determine race. According to Jablonski, skin tones range from pinkish beige to dark brown, and individuals all over the world have skin that is any combination of those two colours. Dark skin helped early people evolve on the African continent by shielding them from the sun's intense UV rays. Some early humans lightened their skin to enable the absorption of vitamin D from the much weaker sunshine when they travelled northward into areas with less direct sunlight. People with strong historical ties to specific regions of the world exhibit skin tones that progressively change with location. Imagine driving all the way up to the city of Tromsø in Norway, which is located north of the Arctic Circle, from Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is located only a few degrees south of the equator in central Africa. You would pass via Nigeria, Niger, Algeria, Spain, France, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden on your 157-hour journey. The indigenous populations' skin tones gradually change from deep brown in Kinshasa to lighter brown in Algeria to dark beige in southern Spain to lighter beige in Sweden, if you were to observe such a transition. As you travel through northern Europe, you may also notice other differences, such more blue and green eyes and more red and blond hair. Throughout your journey, you were unable to locate any group boundaries. Instead, a progressive spectrum of change would be observed. Biological anthropologists have repeatedly shown that it is not possible to categorise the human population into racial groups using scientific methods, regardless of whether they are examining traits that are apparent to the naked eye, like blood type, or those that are undetectable to the unaided eye, such skin colour. There will be more variance inside categories than across them, no matter how the boundaries are drawn. Does this imply that there are no races? That's precisely what it implies in terms of biology. But regrettably not in terms of social reality. Although race does not exist in nature, it does exist in our institutions, beliefs, and ways of doing things. Archaeological excavations examining the material lives of different groups in the United States, such as African slaves and people from China and Ireland, demonstrate how ideas of race influenced every aspect of their lives, including the homes they lived in, the clothes they wore, the possessions they possessed, and the makeup of their families (Orser 2007; Singleton [1985] 2016). Cultural anthropologists studying forms of racial inequality in modern societies have discovered the various ways that each of these societies constructs racial categories and uses various criteria to assign (and often reassign) race to a particular person. These societies include the United States, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Japan, Kenya, and Zimbabwe. Comprehensive ethnographies also highlight how pervasive racism is in the daily lives of people of colour in the US and other countries. Anthropologist Laurence Ralph spent three years studying the West Side of Chicago, where he saw the hardships Black residents faced due to gang violence, economic hardship, and political marginalisation (2014). Despite these challenges, Ralph notes that the individuals he saw still aspired to a better life for themselves and their children. He also highlights the number of people who were involved in social and political engagement in an effort to improve their neighbourhood for all of the residents. The way that language is used to build and convey race is of interest to linguistic anthropologists. Marcyliena Morgan investigated how Black musicians and emcees create linguistic codes that allude to their experiences with gang activity, gentrification, urban unrest, and police violence while researching the underground hip-hop culture in Los Angeles (2009). Similar to Ralph, Morgan draws attention to the ingenuity and tenacity of African American communities in the face of pervasive racism in American culture. When combined, these many anthropological perspectives on race offer a greater depth of knowledge and comprehension than any one perspective could possibly offer. Although it is necessary, dispelling the biological fiction of race is necessary to comprehend the intricate reality of human variation. Assuming that racial classifications are irrelevant simply because there is no biological foundation for the idea of race would be incorrect. The collaborative efforts of archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, and linguistic anthropologists offer evidence of how the mythical concept of race has been employed historically and in contemporary times to oppress and marginalise specific groups of people. Additionally, we witness the inventiveness and resiliency with which individuals respond to racial oppression, creating cultural forms of resistance and organising their communities via social activity.