physical anthropology

Description

This extra credit paper is to give you the opportunity to think about race and anthropology. Read the article that is posted on the assignment (Caspari, 2003 From Types to Populations). Discuss the author’s arguments. Find two other academic or scientific sources that discuss the concept of race and physical anthropology. What role does race play in physical anthropology throughout the years? How has the concept of race changed over time? How will physical anthropology be affected by the blur of races? In other words, as more people from all over the world that belong to different “races” interbreed, how will the methods employed by physical anthropologists change? Formatting and Notes: • 2 pages, double spaced. Below is a screenshot of the settings I expect you to use. Right click on your word document and select paragraph. Make sure that the settings match this screenshot. • 12pt Times New Roman font • References cited within the text are in parentheses at the end of the statement with author and year. • References cited at the end in the bibliography include the full reference for everything cited within the text. Do not include references in your bibliography that are not referenced within the text. • If you include something directly from one of the lectures, be sure to reference it as noted below. • You will need to have 3 academic/peer reviewed sources. One of these sources was provided for you (the Caspari, 2003 From Types to Populations article). No Wikipedia or unreliable sources. • No direct quotations • No copying and pasting from other Internet references (I Google passages in papers randomly to check). • Include page numbers on the bottom of each page. • Below is a small summary I made for the Caspari article. You still need to read it but this may help you breeze through the concepts more efficiently.   From Types to Populations: A Century of Race, Physical Anthropology, and the American Anthropological Association               Race is a biological myth, but unfortunately it is a social necessity. Rachel Caspari indicates this throughout her article in which she outlines the shift from the study of types to populations. Typology was common practice among biologists, anatomists, and physical anthropologists. Caspari indicates that this scientific racism was founded on social and scientific events during the periods that most of the typological work was published. This came to be known as the race concept which was attributed to essentialism, cladistics thinking, and biological determinism (pg. 65).            Fortunately, Sherry Washburn became the president of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) and encouraged more diverse studies and populational approaches rather than the race process. Washburn saw the pitfalls of the race concept and denounced the book The Origin of Races as she saw its racist agenda. This effort was made among members of the AAA and AAPA to rid the scientific community of the ranking and racism innate in the race concepts. Major contributions were made by intellects such as Margaret Mead and Theodosius Dobzhansky. Boas’ work was guided to rid the field of biological determinism and racial categorization and ranking.             According to Caspari (and many authors really), Hooton was incredibly influential in modern physical anthropology. He was a biological determinist and contributed many students that went on to be among the top in the field. There were several students that did not agree with the work and belief system that Hooton held and found motivation to show he was incorrect. People like Washburn insisted that the new anthropology be grounded in evolutionary biology at the population level rather than race and incorporate the modern synthesis (pg. 70-71). This shift from the concept of race in science was influenced by factors such as social and political events (the Holocaust and school desegregation), modern synthesis, and the four fields of anthropology. It is likely that in several years we will read about sex/gender and sexuality in anthropology. It has been mentioned by several anthropologists through the years, but sexism, harassment, and lack of diversity continues in the field of anthropology. Hopefully current research isn’t impacted negatively by the current political environment and scientists can rise above the supremacy perspectives of specific groups over all others.   References Caspari R. 2003. From Types to Populations: A Century of Race, Physical Anthropology, and the American Anthropological Association. American Anthropological Association.