Reestablishing "Race" in Anthropological Discourse

Anthropology, despite its historic role in both creating and dismantling the American racial worldview, seems barely visible in contemporary scholarly and public discussions of "race." The authors argue that race should once again be central to anthropological inquiry, that cultural and physical anthropologists must jointly develop and publicly disseminate a unified, uniquely anthropological perspective. They suggest ways to proceed and identify internal barriers that must be overcome before the anthropological voice can be heard.     

Views from the periphery: discourses of race and place in French military medicine

Numerous authors have interpreted the history of anthropological and medical conceptions of race in nineteenth century France as following a path mapped out by phrenology, anthropometry, and Paul Broca's version of physical anthropology. On balance, this has resulted in an historical narrative centered on Parisian intellectual life and one leaving the impression that by the 1890s anthropological theories had moved away from ethnological and cultural explanations toward more biological views of race. This article, by contrast, examines the world beyond Paris and the literatures of naval and army medicine from about 1830 to 1920. It describes the contours of a medical and anthropological pluralism in matters of race and ethnicity and argues that cultural and ethnological perspectives remained important to theorists of race through World War I.     

Introduction: Expanding the Discourse on "Race"

In response to Mukhopadhyay and Moses's call for biological and cultural anthropologists to reestablish a dialogue on race, anthropologists from the four major subfields join colleagues from two allied disciplines to address the possible ways in which the anthropological discourse on race can become more holistic and amenable to the urgent needs and interests of the public. This essay offers an overview of the current resurgence of race-focused scholarship in anthropology, as well as a framework for an intertextual reading of the articles featured in this theme forum. Anthropologists' current conversation on race and racism is built on a rich legacy, elements of which are still being uncovered in gender- and racecognizant explorations of the discipline's past Despite the considerable hiatus since the last major juncture of race-centered debate and research, that legacy has recently inspired a promising upsurge of critical analysis which, if mobilized effectively, may contribute to the subversion of the often subtle cultural and structural logics of contemporary racism, as well as clear the ground for a new culture for multiracial democracy. Toward this end, anthropologists and others interested in using anthropological tools must cultivate more richly nuanced analyses and intervention strategies informed by insights emerging from the cross-fertilization of ideas from the various subfields along with such fields as human genetics and ethnic studies. Anthropology's unique role in interrogating, theorizing, and potentially disrupting the dynamics of racism may be dependent on understanding the conceptual and methodological significance of strategic intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary interfaces.     

"Race"—Still an Issue for Physical Anthropology? Results of Polish Studies Seen in the Light of the U.S. Findings

The racial paradigm, which became rooted in physical anthropology at its very beginning, was, for decades, treated as a concept needing no verification. It was only in the mid-20th century that the first attempts were made to question the usefulness of the race concept in describing our species variation. Since then, an ever growing number of anthropologists, particularly in the United States, have rejected the concept (nearly seventy percent in 1999). In Poland, the situation is different—in the 2001 study, the race concept was rejected by only 25 percent; the remaining respondents differing widely as to the accepted meaning of race. Unlike the U.S. anthropologists, Polish anthropologists tend to regard race as a term without taxonomic value, often as a substitute for population. The discrepancy may stem from differences in the traditions of anthropological schools, the differing sociopolitical histories, education, semantics, and possible attitudinal factors. [Keywords: race, human variation, subspecies, anthropological schools]     

The Challenge of Race to American Historical Archaeology

Historical archaeologists should be leaders in examining the archaeological dimensions of race and racism in the United States. With few exceptions, though, this has not been the case, as most archaeologists have conflated race and ethnicity. American historical archaeologists have a great opportunity to provide new insights to the anthropological investigation of race and racism if they choose to take this course of action,     

Racial classification in the evolutionary sciences: a comparative analysis

Human racial classification has long been a problem for the discipline of anthropology, but much of the criticism of the race concept has focused on its social and political connotations. The central argument of this paper is that race is not a specifically human problem, but one that exists in evolutionary thought in general. This paper looks at various disciplinary approaches to racial or subspecies classification, extending its focus beyond the anthropological race concept by providing a comparative analysis of the use of racial classification in evolutionary biology, genetics, and anthropology.     

Emergent publics,critical ethnographic scholarship and race and ethnic relations

This article asks what might be the possibilities and the limits of what academic research might strive for when we engage with the politics of race. It argues for a reflexive engagement with the historically sensitive production of critical ethnographic knowledge. Ethnography and the anthropological tradition, challenged in much politically progressive literature on race and ethnicity as a form of exoticism, a medium of orientialism and a field of misrepresentation, need to be considered in interdisciplinary traditions of knowledge production in the humanities and social sciences that examine efficacy and causality as central concepts of analysis.     

Researching ethnicity,identity, subjectivity: anything but the four-lettered word

This article gives a frank account of how anthropological research on Cape Verdean migrant experiences of parenthood in Portugal developed from avoiding the use of the analytical concept of ‘race’ to encountering ‘race’ as a category of practice in fieldwork and discusses the implications of this for analysing the data. Although the aim of the research was to look beyond categorizations, in order to explore the emotional dimensions of lived experience, the effects of ‘racial automatisms’ upon migrant subjectivities cannot be ignored. Racist effects are nonetheless distinguished from racist intentions. The ethnography elucidates the political potential of ‘race’ to foment critical reflection upon the relationship between an individual's personal and collective identities.     

Remembering Exhibitions on Race in the 20th-century United States

ABSTRACT   This museum review places the American Anthropological Association's recent exhibition entitled "Race: Are We So Different?" into historical context by comparing it to other major exhibitions on race in the 20th century. I argue that although exhibitions on race in the 19th-century United States are frequently examined in the historical and anthropological literature, later exhibitions from the 20th century are frequently forgotten. In particular, I compare the AAA's recent exhibition to displays originally crafted for the 1915 and 1933 World's Fairs.     

Current Views of European Anthropologists on Race: Influence of Educational and Ideological Background

ABSTRACT  Significant differences in views on race (once a core anthropological concept) occur between scientists from different countries. In light of the ongoing race debate, we present the concept's current status in Europe. On three occasions in 2002–03, we surveyed European anthropologists' opinions toward the biological race concept. The participants were asked whether they agreed that there are biological races within the species Homo sapiens . A dependence was sought between the type of response and several factors. Three of these factors—country of academic education, discipline, and age—were found to be significant in differentiating the replies. Respondents educated in Western Europe, physical anthropologists, and middle-aged persons reject race more frequently than respondents educated in Eastern Europe, people in other branches of science, and those from both younger and older generations. The survey shows that the views of anthropologists on race are sociopolitically (ideologically) influenced and highly dependent on education. [Keywords: human races, race concept, physical anthropology, Europe]     

Race, Ethnicity, and Racism in Medical Anthropology, 1977–2002

Researchers across the health sciences are engaged in a vigorous debate over the role that the concepts of "race" and "ethnicity" play in health research and clinical practice. Here we contribute to that debate by examining how the concepts of race, ethnicity, and racism are used in medical–anthropological research. We present a content analysis of Medical Anthropology and Medical Anthropology Quarterly , based on a systematic random sample of empirical research articles ( n = 283) published in these journals from 1977 to 2002. We identify both differences and similarities in the use of race, ethnicity, and racism concepts in medical anthropology and neighboring disciplines, and we offer recommendations for ways that medical anthropologists can contribute to the broader debate over racial and ethnic inequalities in health.     

The typological versus the evolutionary approach in skeletal population studies

An examination of ideal and extreme type constructs indicates that ideal types do not serve as testable hypotheses in a theoretical system. Extreme types, on the other hand, can be empirically valid. In physical anthropological studies of human skeletal populations, ideal typology must be replaced with population thinking if we hope to arrive at a meaningful understanding of the biological attributes of prehistoric populations.     

The Ideological Bases of Lévi-Strauss's Structuralism

It is clear that Lévi-Strauss combines in his writings, and often inextricably, the roles of anthropologist (read scientist) and philosopher (read ideologist). This rather unusual combination of anthropological and philosophical dimensions of Lévi-Strauss's thought is the result of two tendencies that often seem to be pulling in different directions: his scientific conception of socio-cultural phenomena (or the delineation of a scientific method for harnessing human behavior under the rubric of sociological laws), on the one hand, and his conception of what society should be (or the ideological statement of what constitutes a "good sociological life"), on the other. In order to understand the nature of structuralism and Lévi-Strauss's contributions to anthropological theory and practice, these two aspects of his thought must be clearly distinguished. This is what I hope to accomplish in this article.     

'Beyond being': emergent narratives of suffering in Vietnam

Intertwining ethnographic and literary accounts, this article explores the mutual relationship between suffering and agency. The article describes how young Vietnamese women use narrative to find meaning in the suffering that a late-term abortion causes. Seeking to further develop anthropological use of the concept of social suffering, the article argues that existing scholarship has tended to neglect the importance of human agency and imagination, hinging as it does on suffering as entrenched within structural forces. The article contends that this neglect must be understood in the context of the particular epistemological and ethical conditions under which anthropological studies of human suffering are produced, and that closer attention to the human engagements out of which ethnographic accounts are fashioned may bring into analysis not only the harm that social forces can inflict on people, but also their capacities for action and imagination.     

Structures, Realities, and Blind Spots

In discussing the exchange between Caws and Hanson (AA, Vol. 78, 1976) the nature of the theory and reality that anthropologists must consider in dealing with social and cultural phenomena is examined. There is no objective structure in the phenomena we study, our constructs always being colored by changing conditions. The assumption of an unchanging human nature has long been an obstacle to progress in the anthropological enterprise . [semantics, language, models, structure, anthropological theory]     

CAPTURING IMAGINATION: A COGNITIVE APPROACH TO CULTURAL COMPLEXITY

With few exceptions, it has been assumed that the production of a generalizing anthropological theory of human cognition must necessarily entail a reduction of ethnographic complexity. No case-centred analysis has been offered to show that a cognitive approach to cultural complexity is possible. In this article, I want to show that a different cognitive perspective can improve our understanding of ethnographic facts and help us critically to revise a number of traditional anthropological concepts. In order to do so, I will discuss the example of a messianistic religious movement born among the Western Apache of San Carlos and White Mountain (Arizona).     

"Race" and the Construction of Human Identity

Race as a mechanism of social stratification and as a form of human identity is a recent concept in human history. Historical records show that neither the idea nor ideologies associated with race existed before the seventeenth century. In the United States, race became the main form of human identity, and it has had a tragic effect on low-status "racial" minorities and on those people who perceive themselves as of "mixed race." We need to research and understand the consequences of race as the premier source of human identity. This paper briefly explores how race became a part of our culture and consciousness and argues that we must disconnect cultural features of identity from biological traits and study how "race" eroded and superseded older forms of human identity. It suggests that "race" ideology is already beginning to disintegrate as a result of twentieth-century changes.     

Whiteness studies and laypeople's engagements with race and genetics

This paper proposes a research strategy for examining laypeople's thoughts and reflections on innovations in the science of race and genetics. While some sociologists have shown a reluctance to engage in such discussions, this paper argues that social scientists need to take such views seriously. To do this, the paper brings together an anthropological approach to the study of scientific literacy and recent scholarship in the field of Whiteness studies. The combining of these literatures raises a set of interesting and sometimes uncomfortable questions about the ways in which social scientists and research participants contribute to the reproduction of White power and dominance in Western societies.     

One operational definition by population: the need for local evaluations of frailty

Frailty is a health problem that increases the probability of developing adverse health outcomes in the elderly. A frequently used way to operationalize frailty is the construction of a frailty index, which is built from the addition of several health deficits that describe biological aging. However, there is no consensus about the number of health deficits for building a frailty index and about which deficits must be chosen. This lack of a standardized frailty index is assumed to be an obstacle for the advancement of research on frailty. The focus of the present article is to propose a theoretically plausible alternative way of operationalizing frailty by means of frailty indexes composed of deficits selected at a local level. These deficits would therefore be different for each given population. This "anthropological approach" is on the opposite side from current trends in frailty research, which is characterized by the search for a standardized operational definition of frailty. The anthropological approach would generate more reliable data by taking into account the specificity of the population to be studied for selecting frailty deficits. In this approach, emotions, motives, and beliefs are as important to determine individuals' health vulnerability as chronic diseases and physical function. Physiological anthropologists are well positioned to contribute to research on frailty by carrying out studies on the selection of the best deficits to operationalize frailty in different populations, with different socio-cultural determinants of health, and living in different environmental life spaces.