Amanda Garrow ANTH 1020

Professor Potter Final Research Paper

Race
Race is the concept of classifying a group of dierentiating one group
of people from another people !ased on their physical characteristics" or as
#e!ster poses it" $a di%ision of man&ind !ased on s&in color'(
)iologically" race is used as a way to determine what part of the world
a person comes from( As the population of people grew in all parts of the
world" they e*panded into new uninha!ited lands" and crossed the great
oceans for more space to raise families" and resources( This e*ploration of
new continents led them to places where they !egan adapting to new
climates and surroundings" which resulted in the %ariety of s&in colors" hair
colors" and other physical attri!utes that ha%e come to ma&e up the %astly
di%erse people we see today( As people migrated to new lands in search for
!asic necessities such as new homes" foods" or resources" those who thri%ed
were the ones who had the characteristics and traits that nature fa%ored( As
the en%ironmental conditions changed" nature would gi%e an ad%antage to
the physical traits that were the most useful for their sur%i%al( +t would help
their ospring not only sur%i%e" !ut ad%ance !eyond those whose attri!utes
weren,t as %alued" allowing for those traits to continue onto the ne*t
generation( The num!er of races continued to grow !ecause people from
dierent countries or cultures would inter!reed" and therefore create new
races( This !egan an endless !lending of races throughout history"
sometimes despite the attempts at thwarting the growth of a particular race
thought of !y another as inferior( -ne might logically conclude that with the
ongoing mi*ing of peoples" $any two mem!ers of a $race' should ha%e more
genetically in common than any two people !elonging to dierent races'"
./mith 1012 howe%er" it has !een found that $mapping of the human genome
system shows that humans are stri&ingly homogenous' and the racial groups
only show dierences $once in a thousand su!units of the genome'" we are
actually more similar than we are dierent( .Henslin 2232
+n societies" many people ha%e tried to use race as a way to help them
identify where people ha%e tra%eled from" and helping them distinguish how
people in other cultures li%e dierently from themsel%es(
4earning a!out another race,s !eliefs and cultures" helped them decide how
to communicate and interact with dierent people outside their own" and
allowed them to !est !ene5t from opportunities to gain resources through
means such as mercantile trade in the early days of coloni6ing new lands(
+nitially grouping people !y characteristics ena!led them in an outwardly
o!%ious way to identify what clusters of people possessed certain &inds of
%alued resources" and ga%e them a sense of order for each race,s position or
ran& within the society they were a part of( /ometimes e*ploitation would
occur fa%oring the group with most num!ers or the stronger people and in
e*treme cases cause massi%e de%astation fueled !y one group,s
ethnocentrism( -f one such e*ample is the idea of racial supremacy that
Hilter !elie%ed when he pursued genocide of the 7ews(
-nce e*ploration !rought people to the Americas" many !egan to see
how di%erse and %aried the human race actually was( +n the times of the
ancient 8gyptians s&in color was used to classify people" using red for
8gyptians" yellow for people who li%ed in the east" white for people who
came from the north" and !lac& for su!9/aharan Africans( :uring the 1;th
and 1<th centuries" 4innaeus chose a ta*onomic method of classifying
humans using !eha%ior and intellect to group people( 7ohn )lumen!ach
ran&ed races into 5%e categories= white" yellow" red" !rown" and !lac& and
ac&nowledged that his organi6ation of them was limited !ecause of the
o!%ious mi*ing !etween the many groups( )y the middle of the 1<th century"
people were classi5ed !y their s&in color" with the northern" lighter9s&inned
8uropeans thought of as superior to the dar&er races from the south( .Ro!ert"
>ilgore" Tre%athan ?122
#hereas using physical characteristics started out as a way to help
people ma&e sense of their world and others" the idea of race in the times of
sla%ery happened to !e insepara!ly connected with the social practices and
!eha%iors of the white supremacy demonstrated towards the !lac&s and
Nati%e Americans in history( As time passed and ideas of e@uality among the
races spread through literature in the eastern Anited /tates" the ci%il rights
mo%ement !uc&ed the !elief that race was isolated to Bust the times of
sla%ery( +nstead" it also ga%e way to the class di%isions esta!lished !y the
early white settlers to help unify them in their attempt to dominate the
resources" and social structure of the de%eloping world( )ecause of the
constant mi*ing of the dierent races all o%er the world" from times of
sla%ery down to our present day" the a!ility to clearly de5ne race has
!ecome %ery !lurred( As generation after generation continues to pass on
the mi*ed traits" !oth physical and genetically" the e%er changing societal
!eliefs and mi*ing of the races their parents may ha%e !elonged to are no
longer easy to identify( /ociety is morphing into a place where physical
characteristics aren,t so distinguisha!le" and the a!ility to separate people
into neatly drawn categories is at times impossi!le(
+t,s human nature to try to ma&e sense of the world around us and
5gure out why it is the way it is( #e organi6e our world and surroundings in
the hopes of !ene5ting oursel%es and man&ind( This allows races to function
more eCciently with each other and in society as a whole" and gi%es us a
chance to !etter understand and na%igate the rules of it" while !ridging the
gap in dierence !etween the people who are a part of it( +t helps us to learn
how people ha%e e%ol%ed from the !eginning of humans and other species"
and all the determining factors that can inDuence the changes" adaptations"
and ad%antages of a race(
8ach society practices classifying people within their own culture" and
race or outward appearance is a huge factor that people across the glo!e
use to decide how accessi!le and how much of the society,s resources are
distri!uted to each group within a particular society( +t,s important for a
person to ha%e the a!ility to gain the !asic necessities for themsel%es and
their families( The !asic necessities of food" clothing" and shelter" as well as
other resources a%aila!le within a society are oftentimes determined in part
!y their race( For those luc&y enough to possess the @ualities that the society
highly %alues" they are at so much of an ad%antage" whereas those who
don,t are gi%en unspo&en" sometimes !latant limitation to their success
within it( Not Bust race" !ut" $many criteria .such as education" age" gender"
and talent2"' Healey writes" $may aect a person,s social class position and
his or her access to goods and ser%ices' .112( -ne of the set!ac&s that this
causes is it lea%es room for the inBustice and discrimination those considered
of a lessor class
#ith its positi%es also come the set!ac&s as well( The idea of
classifying a group of people !ased on race can pose many pro!lems(
PreBudging people !ased on their race can pre%ent andEor diminish the ways
that society can pigeonhole people into a !elief a!out them !efore
disco%ering their true inward potential( This pre%ents the society from
!ene5tting from their talents" @ualities" and contri!utions while also
thwarting the personal growth of the indi%idual( This mista&e in thin&ing one
could !e understood solely on physical attri!utes can lead the dominant race
in a culture to !elie%e that its own race is somehow superior to the others(
This false notion could and has !een used to Bustify suppressing others to
gain unfair ad%antages within one,s own culture( #hen ta&en to the e*treme
it could result in %iewing race wide e*termination as a solution to socially not
racially constructed pro!lems( As in the case of Holocaust" instead of
recogni6ing the e*treme 5lth" po%erty" and illnesses seen in the 7ewish
culture as a failure of the society to support and sustain those in need" it was
%iewed as a racial pro!lem" used to di%ide the Germans from the 7ews and to
support the use of genocide(
Race has !een used with the initial intent of gaining structure and
organi6ation in a world naturally de5ned" color9coded" and la!eled !y the
people who populate it( The concept has de%eloped into one where %alue
placement" ideologies" and rights to resources ha%e !een placed( #here the
once easy to recogni6e physical traits made the separating and la!eling
fairly easy" the de%elopment and mi*ing has caused a more modern need for
reassessing the way we see our dierences" or may!e the solution in all
reality lies in focusing our perspecti%e more on the similarities of the many
races(
Reference Page:
7urmain" Ro!ert " 4ynn >ilgore" and #enda Tre%athan( Human -rigins( Fason"
-hioG Hengage 4earning" 201?( Print(
.Ro!ert" >ilgore" Tre%athan Pg2

Henslin" 7im( 8ssentials of /ociology( 8dwards%ill" +4G Pearson" 200<( Print(
.Henslin pg2

/mith" :a%id 4i%ingstone ( 4ess Than Human( NIG :a%id 4i%ingstone /mith"
2011( Print(
Healey" 7oseph F(( Race" 8thnicity" Gender" and Hlass( Thousand -a&s" HAG
Pine Forge Press" 2000( Print(
.Healey pg2