Anthropology Redeemed

http://www.understandingrace.org/history/science/measuring_race.html

Immigration laws (can skip if short on time)

Eugenics movement in 1914 – don't let in the "socially inadequate"

meaning the feebleminded, insane, criminalistic, epileptic, inebriated, diseased, blind, deaf, deformed,

orphans, ne'er-do-wells, tramps, homeless and paupers

Yerkes' tests showed that eastern european recruits were averaging as morons

so, keep american gene pool undiluted to protect our intelligence

Immigration Restriction Act of 1924 –

"America must remain American" – Coolidge upon signing –

explicitly eugenicist in its wording

not repealed until 1965

2) Sterilization laws

Indiana – first forced sterilization of the socially inadequate in 1907

popular in the 20's – most US states had them

1927 – Carrie Buck – fighting the VA sterilization law

"3 generations of imbeciles are enough" – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

After the Buck case – 60,000 u.s. citizens sterilized

For being black, lower class, immoral, or mentally deficient

continued in mental institutions up until the 1970's – BBC story

Nazi's based their sterilization laws upon the VA law that Buck was under

350,000 people sterilized, millions murdered

We cannot ignore the social implications of science

Cultural context affects science

Science affects the cultural context

Anthropology Redeemed

Franz Boas (1858-1952)

founder of American Anthropology – four-field approach, founder of AAA

physical anthropologist, originally – looked at cranial measurements

in 1911, showed that "racial" differences in immigrant populations disappeared with the next

generation – environment and not genetics

removed ideas of progress and biological evolution from cultural change

like in biology, divorced progress from change

showed that culture change was unrelated to biological change

culture is relative – cannot be judged as superior or inferior, any more than species.

was ostracized – German, Jewish, pacifist in WWI

censured by AAA in 1919

became president in 1932

led AAA to make statements against Nazi racial policies in 1939

After WWII, a lot of new blood in anthropology, and a growing recognition of the horror that had been wrought by racial studies

Ashley Montagu (1905-1999) – 1951 statement for UNESCO

"race" is not so much a biological phenomenon as a social myth

Replace the term race with ethnic group

The real death knell for the old racial studies occurred in 1963

Carleton Coon (1904-81)

Harvard – had strongly opposed Boas in the late 30's

President of the AAPA in 1961, when he resigned because of censure of a segregationist pseudo-science support

1963 – The Origin of Races – very consistent with previous views

Not explicitly political, but clearly supportive of racial policies as they were

Huge controversy resulted within the field

Empirical basis was in doubt

Whole approach was considered anachronistic – don't see people that way

Explicit recognition of political implications

these were the men who had fought in WWII

Sherwood Washburn (1911-2000) was president of AAA at the time

in his presidential address declared a new physical anthropology

one looking at human diversity rather than categorization

explicitly laid to rest the horrific abuses of the past.

Anthropology no longer thinks about race in the terms we’ve discussed, but lots of people do

Bell Curve controversy

It says “low-IQ”, and “low-income”, but they mean Black (driving through Tennessee)

many of our conversations about race take place in euphamisms

Lest you think it was just back before you were born this was a problem:

Just last year

And lest you think it is only racists who think that way:

These arguments show up a lot

Question: What kind of data would we need to prove that, in fact, two groups of people do differ in intelligence (say, red-haired vs. dark-haired people)? What constitutes sufficient evidence?

Discussion (if time):

If science takes place in a cultural context and is affected by that context, how do we deal with this problem? (data, skepticism, awareness, multiple voices)?

Move into “Race Matters” to prep for next day’s discussion