DOCSLIB.ORG

From Types to Populations: a Century of Race, Physical Anthropology

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

From Types to Populations: A Century of Race, Physical Anthropology, and the American Anthropological Association Author(s): Rachel Caspari Source: American Anthropologist, Vol. 105, No. 1, Special Issue: Biological Anthropology: Historical Perspectives on Current Issues, Disciplinary Connections, and Future Directions (Mar., 2003), pp. 65-76 Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Anthropological Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3567314 Accessed: 03-12-2015 05:35 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. American Anthropological Association and Wiley are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to American Anthropologist. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 159.178.22.27 on Thu, 03 Dec 2015 05:35:31 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions RACHEL CASPARI FromTypes to Populations:A Centuryof Race, PhysicalAnthropology, and the American AnthropologicalAssociation ABSTRACT Inthe 1960s,U.S. physical anthropology underwent a period of introspection that marked a changefrom the old physi- cal anthropologythat was largelyrace based to thenew physical anthropology, espoused by Washburn and others for over a decade, whichincorporated the evolutionary biology of the modern synthesis. What actually changed? What elements of the race concept have beenrejected, and what elements have persisted, influencing physical anthropology today? In this article, I examine both the scientific and socialinfluences on physicalanthropology that caused changes in the race concept, in particular the influence of the American AnthropologicalAssociation. The race concept is complicated but entails three attributes: essentialism, cladistic thinking, and biologi- cal determinism.These attributes have not all been discarded; while biological determinism and itssocial implications have been ques- tionedsince the inception of the field, essentialism and theconcomitant rendering of populations as cladespersists as a legacyof the raceconcept. [Keywords: race, essentialism, physical anthropology] HE EVENTSSURROUNDING THE PUBLICATION of pologiststhat these biological subdivisionscorresponded T CarletonCoon's The Originof Races in 1962 reflect- to the social meaningsof race,a notion thatlinked physi- ed a major change in U.S. physicalanthropology. Coon cal and behavioralcharacteristics. This link between the suggestedthat five major racesof humansevolved in par- componentsof an essence providedthe basis forthe bio- allel fromHomo erectus at fivedifferent times and at differ- logicaldeterminism prevalent in the racialthinking of the ent rates. He furthersuggested that each racial lineage time.Throughout the 20th century,race also had an evo- crossedthe sapiens"threshold" at differenttimes in pre- lutionarycomponent. Races were effectively thought of as historyand impliedthat the lengthof timeeach had been clades. Differentessences were explained as a productof in the sapiensstate was correlatedwith the level of "cul- poorlyunderstood evolutionary processes, as exemplified turalachievement" of differentracial groups.Coon con- by Coon's notionof independently evolving racial lineages. tended that Causcasoids and Mongoloids crossed this The discourseCoon's book spawned contributedto thresholdconsiderably earlier than Africans (Negroids and currentswithin the fieldthat ultimatelyforced an end to Capoids) and Australians(Australoids), a claim thatclearly the old physical anthropologycentered mainly on the had social implications. raceconcept and helpedusher in the new physicalanthro- Race had held immenseimportance within the field pology,espoused by SherryWashburn, which had been of physicalanthropology during the time leading up to developingthroughout the 1950s. The new anthropology the publicationof Coon's work.At the emergenceof the was eclectic(incorporating various subjects from primates subdiscipline,race was the major theoreticalfoundation to genetics)and was an evolutionaryscience, whose popu- of anthropology;physical anthropology was virtuallysyn- lationalapproaches were incompatible with the essential- onymouswith the studyof race. In 1902, at the inception ism centralto the raceconcept. The Origin of Races brought of the AmericanAnthropological Association (AAA), most to a head the riftswithin physical anthropology as a disci- anthropologistsconsidered "race" to representthe way pline, the tensionsbetween the subdisciplinesof anthro- the human specieswas internallysubdivided. Essentialism pology,and discussionsabout the role of anthropologyin was implicitin thisidea; a racewas thoughtto representa the publicarena. naturalcategory with unique featuresthat defined the es- The AAA'sreaction to thebook was decisive.Washburn, sence of thatcategory.' It seemedobvious to manyanthro- then presidentof the association, delivereda scathing AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST 105(1):65-76. COPYRIGHT ? 2003, AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICALASSOCIATION This content downloaded from 159.178.22.27 on Thu, 03 Dec 2015 05:35:31 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 66 AmericanAnthropologist * Vol. 105, No. 1 * March 2003 addressdenouncing the book aroundthe timeof itspubli- thropologyas embodiedby the AAA.It is interestingthat cation at the AAAAnnual Meeting in Chicago on Novem- as earlyas 1894, a quartercentury prior to the emergence ber 16, 1962. The publishedversion (Washburn 1963) is of physicalanthropology as a truesubdiscipline, Boas be- much less harsh,focusing on the limiteduse of race as a gan to challengethe race concept. By the time physical valid object of studyand the lack of scientificsupport for anthropologyclearly emerged in the 1920s,Boas's follow- any claims of racial inferiority.Public denunciation of ers held some of the most powerfulpositions within U.S. Coon's ideas seemed necessary;segregationists were al- anthropologyand were a dominant voice in the AAA. readyusing them to bolstertheir arguments. There were a Therefore,the racial physicalanthropology that was re- varietyof responsesfrom the scientificcommunity. State- jected in the 1960s developedwithin a broaderanthropo- mentson racewere issued by both theAAA and theAmeri- logical contextthat had been grapplingwith the racecon- can Associationof PhysicalAnthropologists (AAPA). Sev- cept foryears; parts of thatcommunity already questioned eral edited volumes appeared throughoutthe 1960s race,and the AAAhad been involvedin strugglesover the critiquingthe race concept.In 1966, MargaretMead and issue of race betweenanthropology and governmentpoli- Theodosius Dobzhanskyorganized an AmericanAssocia- cies and funding,as well as strugglesbetween anthropol- tion forthe Advancementof Science (AAAS)symposium ogy and othersciences. The rejectionof race in the 1960s meantto deliverthe scientificvoice againsta popularra- was not so new; it was a partof the heritageof physicalan- cism based on "misinformation"and "evil myths"about thropologywithin U.S. anthropology. race.As embodied its by organizers,the symposiumrepre- This historysuggests that the race concepthas no re- sentedan alliance betweenBoasian cultural anthropology maining legacyin physicalanthropology. What actually and evolutionarybiology, including diverse perspectives changed?Is the race conceptreally dead? What elements fromwithin anthropology,genetics, ethnology, psychol- of the race conceptstill persist and influencephysical an- and With few most anthro- ogy, sociology. exceptions, thropologytoday? In thisarticle, I addressthese questions, had become to pologists opposed hereditarianclaims investigatingthem within the contextof the scientificand about race and and werenow intelligence, many skeptical social influenceson mainstreamphysical anthropology of the race itself.What became clear the mid- concept by thatwere a major forcein the evolutionof the race con- 1960s was that race was no a in longer unifyingconcept cept. I arguethat some elementsof the race conceptwere mainstream as it had ceased to physicalanthropology, just in factrejected, but thatothers remain, subtly influencing be a for as a whole since unifyingconcept anthropology ourviews of what we todayterm "populations." Boas's workon race a halfcentury earlier. In physicalan- thropology,race was now a divisiveconcept. Although THE ATTRIBUTESOF THERACE CONCEPT Washburnhad publishedhis ideas about the new anthro- The race concept that was examined and rejectedby so pology earlier,this periodmarked a turningpoint in the many in the 1960s includesassumptions about the cause discipline,with greater institutional introspection on the and natureof geographic and otherkinds of variation. The race concept. Some have even arguedthat it markedthe historybehind these assumptionshas createthe demiseof therace concept. helped conceptthat we grapplewith today. forthe last Severalfactors influenced changing views about race Although 100 years the race concept has been about in withinphysical anthropology during this time. First,so- thought quasi-evolutionaryterms, its most fundamentalelements cial factorsprompted scientists to challengeassumptions are essentialism,clades, and determinism.These
Recommended publications
  • Evaluating Standard Non-Metric Cranial Traits Used to Determine Ancestry on a South African Sample

    Evaluating Standard Non-Metric Cranial Traits Used to Determine Ancestry on a South African Sample

    Evaluating standard non-metric cranial traits used to determine ancestry on a South African sample By Carla van Rooyen Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree: M.Sc. (Anatomy) In the school of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria, South Africa January- 2010 © University of Pretoria DECLARATION I, Carla van Rooyen, declare that this thesis is my own work. It is being submitted for the degree of Masters for Science in Anatomy at the University of Pretoria. It has not been submitted before any other degree or examination at this or any other University. Sign_____________ This_______Day of ________________, 2010 ABSTRACT Research on the estimation of age at death, sex and stature from skeletal remains has received more attention than methods used to evaluate ancestry. While this may be due to the stigma attached to classifying people into groups, the application, interpretation and precision of non-metric methods used to predict ancestry need to be examined; as these variables are routinely applied to forensic case work in South Africa. The aim of this study was to score fifteen non-metric cranial traits, namely nasal bone structure, nasal breadth, nasal overgrowth, anterior nasal spine, inferior nasal margin, interorbital breadth, zygomaxillary suture shape, malar tubercle, alveolar prognathism, mandibular and palatine tori, shovel- shaped incisors, Carabelli’s cusps and the transverse palatine suture shape on a South African sample, with the intent to assess the influence of sex, ancestry and age at death on these facial features. A total of 520 crania were obtained from the Pretoria Bone, Raymond A.
  • The Global History of Paleopathology

    The Global History of Paleopathology

    OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – FIRST-PROOF, 01/31/12, NEWGEN TH E GLOBA L H ISTORY OF PALEOPATHOLOGY 000_JaneBuikstra_FM.indd0_JaneBuikstra_FM.indd i 11/31/2012/31/2012 44:03:58:03:58 PPMM OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – FIRST-PROOF, 01/31/12, NEWGEN 000_JaneBuikstra_FM.indd0_JaneBuikstra_FM.indd iiii 11/31/2012/31/2012 44:03:59:03:59 PPMM OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – FIRST-PROOF, 01/31/12, NEWGEN TH E GLOBA L H ISTORY OF PALEOPATHOLOGY Pioneers and Prospects EDITED BY JANE E. BUIKSTRA AND CHARLOTTE A. ROBERTS 3 000_JaneBuikstra_FM.indd0_JaneBuikstra_FM.indd iiiiii 11/31/2012/31/2012 44:03:59:03:59 PPMM OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – FIRST-PROOF, 01/31/12, NEWGEN 1 Oxford University Press Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With o! ces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland " ailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © #$%# by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. %&' Madison Avenue, New York, New York %$$%( www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. CIP to come ISBN-%): ISBN $–%&- % ) * + & ' ( , # Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 000_JaneBuikstra_FM.indd0_JaneBuikstra_FM.indd iivv 11/31/2012/31/2012 44:03:59:03:59 PPMM OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – FIRST-PROOF, 01/31/12, NEWGEN To J.
  • Multiregional Origin of Modern Humans

    Multiregional Origin of Modern Humans

    Multiregional origin of modern humans The multiregional hypothesis, multiregional evolution (MRE), or polycentric hypothesis is a scientific model that provides an alternative explanation to the more widely accepted "Out of Africa" model of monogenesis for the pattern of human evolution. Multiregional evolution holds that the human species first arose around two million years ago and subsequent human evolution has been within a single, continuous human species. This species encompasses all archaic human forms such as H. erectus and Neanderthals as well as modern forms, and evolved worldwide to the diverse populations of anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens). The hypothesis contends that the mechanism of clinal variation through a model of "Centre and Edge" allowed for the necessary balance between genetic drift, gene flow and selection throughout the Pleistocene, as well as overall evolution as a global species, but while retaining regional differences in certain morphological A graph detailing the evolution to modern humans features.[1] Proponents of multiregionalism point to fossil and using the multiregional hypothesis ofhuman genomic data and continuity of archaeological cultures as support for evolution. The horizontal lines represent their hypothesis. 'multiregional evolution' gene flow between regional lineages. In Weidenreich's original graphic The multiregional hypothesis was first proposed in 1984, and then (which is more accurate than this one), there were also diagonal lines between the populations, e.g. revised in 2003. In its revised form, it is similar to the Assimilation between African H. erectus and Archaic Asians Model.[2] and between Asian H. erectus and Archaic Africans. This created a "trellis" (as Wolpoff called it) or a "network" that emphasized gene flow between geographic regions and within time.
  • Curren T Anthropology

    Curren T Anthropology

    Forthcoming Current Anthropology Wenner-Gren Symposium Curren Supplementary Issues (in order of appearance) t Human Biology and the Origins of Homo. Susan Antón and Leslie C. Aiello, Anthropolog Current eds. e Anthropology of Potentiality: Exploring the Productivity of the Undened and Its Interplay with Notions of Humanness in New Medical Anthropology Practices. Karen-Sue Taussig and Klaus Hoeyer, eds. y THE WENNER-GREN SYMPOSIUM SERIES Previously Published Supplementary Issues April THE BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY OF LIVING HUMAN Working Memory: Beyond Language and Symbolism. omas Wynn and 2 POPULATIONS: WORLD HISTORIES, NATIONAL STYLES, 01 Frederick L. Coolidge, eds. 2 AND INTERNATIONAL NETWORKS Engaged Anthropology: Diversity and Dilemmas. Setha M. Low and Sally GUEST EDITORS: SUSAN LINDEE AND RICARDO VENTURA SANTOS Engle Merry, eds. V The Biological Anthropology of Living Human Populations olum Corporate Lives: New Perspectives on the Social Life of the Corporate Form. Contexts and Trajectories of Physical Anthropology in Brazil Damani Partridge, Marina Welker, and Rebecca Hardin, eds. e Birth of Physical Anthropology in Late Imperial Portugal 5 Norwegian Physical Anthropology and a Nordic Master Race T. Douglas Price and Ofer 3 e Origins of Agriculture: New Data, New Ideas. The Ainu and the Search for the Origins of the Japanese Bar-Yosef, eds. Isolates and Crosses in Human Population Genetics Supplement Practicing Anthropology in the French Colonial Empire, 1880–1960 Physical Anthropology in the Colonial Laboratories of the United States Humanizing Evolution Human Population Biology in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century Internationalizing Physical Anthropology 5 Biological Anthropology at the Southern Tip of Africa The Origins of Anthropological Genetics Current Anthropology is sponsored by e Beyond the Cephalic Index Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Anthropology and Personal Genomics Research, a foundation endowed for scientific, Biohistorical Narratives of Racial Difference in the American Negro educational, and charitable purposes.
  • Southeast Asian and Australian Paleoanthropology: a Review of the Last Century

    Southeast Asian and Australian Paleoanthropology: a Review of the Last Century

    JASs Invited Reviews Journal of Anthropological Sciences Vol. 87 (2009), pp. 7-31 Southeast Asian and Australian paleoanthropology: a review of the last century Arthur C. Durband Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work, Texas Tech University, MS 41012 Holden Hall 158, Lubbock, TX 79409-1012, USA e-mail: [email protected] Summary - A large and diverse body of scholarship has been developed around the fossil evidence discovered in Southeast Asia and Australia. However, despite its importance to many diff erent aspects of paleoanthropological research, Australasia has often received signifi cantly less attention than it deserves. is review will focus primarily on the evidence for the origins of modern humans from this region. Workers like Franz Weidenreich identifi ed characteristics in the earliest inhabitants of Java that bore some resemblance to features found in modern indigenous Australians. More recent work by numerous scholars have built upon those initial observations, and have contributed to the perception that the fossil record of Australasia provides one of the better examples of regional continuity in the human fossil record. Other scholars disagree, instead fi nding evidence for discontinuity between these earliest Indonesians and modern Australian groups. ese authorities cite support for an alternative hypothesis of extinction of the ancient Javan populations and their subsequent replacement by more recently arrived groups of modern humans. Presently, the bulk of the evidence supports this latter model. A dearth of credible regional characteristics linking the Pleistocene fossils from Java to early Australians, combined with a series of features indicating discontinuity between those same groups, indicate that the populations represented by the fossils from Sangiran and Ngandong went extinct without contributing genes to modern Australians.
  • Earnest Hooton

    Earnest Hooton

    NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES E A R N E S T A L B E R T H O O T O N 1887—1954 A Biographical Memoir by ST A N L E Y M. G A R N AN D E UG E N E G I L E S Any opinions expressed in this memoir are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Academy of Sciences. Biographical Memoir COPYRIGHT 1995 NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS WASHINGTON D.C. EARNEST ALBERT HOOTON November 20, 1887–May 3, 1954 BY STANLEY M. GARN AND EUGENE GILES VER FOUR DECADES Earnest Albert Hooton became known Onationally and internationally for his contributions to the study of human evolution, for his comprehensive com- parisons of nonhuman primates, and for his management of mass-scale anthropometric studies both of skeletal popu- lations and on the living. He also became well known to a generation of newspaper readers for his pithy and often irreverent comments on the human condition and for his advocacy of a woman president. As an early exponent of applied physical anthropology and human engineering, Hooton was responsible for improvements in clothing siz- ing, work space, and air frame and seating design. For years Earnest Hooton was the principal source of graduate stu- dents in physical anthropology and, through his students, was responsible for much of the growth and direction of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists. EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION Earnest Albert Hooton was born in Clemansville, Wis- consin, on November 20, 1887, the third child and only son of an English-born Methodist minister married to a Cana- dian-born woman of Scotch-Irish ancestry.
  • Genes, Race, and History JONATHAN MARKS

    Genes, Race, and History JONATHAN MARKS

    FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR An Aldine de Gruyter Series of Texts and Monographs SERIES EDITORS Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, University of California, Davis Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, University of California, Davis Richard D. Alexander, The Biology of Moral Systems Laura L. Betzig, Despotism and Differential Reproduction: A Darwinian View of History Russell L. Ciochon and John G. Fleagle (Eds.), Primate Evolution and Human Origins Martin Daly and Margo Wilson, Homicide Irensus Eibl-Eibesfeldt, Human Ethology Richard J. Gelles and Jane B. Lancaster (Eds,), Child Abuse and Neglect: Biosocial Dimensions Kathleen R. Gibson and Anne C. Petersen (Eds.), Brain Maturation and Cognitive Development: Comparative and Cross-Cultural Perspectives Barry S, Hewlett (Ed.), Father-Child Relations: Cultural and Biosocial Contexts Warren G. Kinzey (Ed.), New World Primates: Ecology, Evolution and Behavior Kim Hill and A. Magdalena Hurtado: Ache Life History: The Ecology and Demography of a Foraging People Jane B. Lancaster, Jeanne Altmann, Alice S. Rossi, and Lonnie R. Sherrod (Eds.), Parenting Across the Life Span: Biosocial Dimensions Jane B. Lancaster and Beatrix A. Hamburg (Eds.), School Age Pregnancy and Parenthood: Biosocial Dimensions Jonathan Marks, Human Biodiversity: Genes, Race, and History Richard B. Potts, Early Hominid Activities at Olduvai Eric Alden Smith, Inujjuamiut Foraging Strategies Eric Alden Smith and Bruce Winterhalder (Eds.), Evolutionary Ecology and Human Behavior Patricia Stuart-Macadam and Katherine Dettwyler, Breastfeeding: A Bioaftural Perspective Patricia Stuart-Macadam and Susan Kent (Eds.), Diet, Demography, and Disease: Changing Perspectives on Anemia Wenda R. Trevathan, Human Birth: An Evolutionary Perspective James W. Wood, Dynamics of Human Reproduction: Biology, Biometry, Demography HulMAN BIODIVERS~ Genes, Race, and History JONATHAN MARKS ALDINE DE GRUYTER New York About the Author Jonathan Marks is Visiting Associate Professorof Anthropology, at the University of California, Berkeley.
  • The Biological Anthropology of Living Human Populations: World Histories, National Styles, and International Networks

    The Biological Anthropology of Living Human Populations: World Histories, National Styles, and International Networks

    University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Department of History and Sociology of Science Departmental Papers (HSS) (HSS) 4-2012 The Biological Anthropology of Living Human Populations: World Histories, National Styles, and International Networks Susan M. Lindee University of Pennsylvannia, [email protected] Ricardo V. Santos Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/hss_papers Part of the Anthropology Commons, and the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Commons Recommended Citation Lindee, S. M., & Santos, R. V. (2012). The Biological Anthropology of Living Human Populations: World Histories, National Styles, and International Networks. Current Anthropology, 53 (S5), S3-S16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/663335 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/hss_papers/22 For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Biological Anthropology of Living Human Populations: World Histories, National Styles, and International Networks Abstract We introduce a special issue of Current Anthropology developed from a Wenner-Gren symposium held in Teresópolis, Brazil, in 2010 that was about the past, present, and future of biological anthropology. Our goal was to understand from a comparative international perspective the contexts of genesis and development of physical/biological anthropology around the world. While biological anthropology today can encompass paleoanthropology, primatology, and skeletal biology, our symposium focused on the field's engagement with living human populations. Bringing together scholars in the history of science, science studies, and anthropology, the participants examined the discipline's past in different contexts but also reflected on its contemporary and future conditions. Our contributors explore national histories, collections, and scientific field acticepr with the goal of developing a broader understanding of the discipline's history.
  • F24 Out-Of-Africa and Multiregional Hypotheses

    F24 Out-Of-Africa and Multiregional Hypotheses

    348 Chapter f THE AGE OF MAMMALS The Present is the Key to the Past: HUGH RANCE f24 Out-of-Africa and multiregional hypotheses < Y chromosomal DNA, molecular Adam > I against my brother. My brother and I against our cousin. My brother, my cousin and I against the neighbors. All of us against the stranger. —Bedouin proverb.1 Discussion as to the origin of modern humans is divisive, with some participants favoring the out-of- Africa hypothesis, to explain the existence of, and others favoring the multiregional hypothesis, to explain the coming into being of, people anatomically and mentally like us. Today, most individuals of the nearly seven billion people on Earth have four (22) grandparents, eight (23) great-grandparents all not closely related when born. Going back this geometric progression cannot be true and kissing cousins (reproductive success attends couples who are 3rd or 4th cousins)2 in ancestors will have been an increasing feature so that, according to Damifin H. Zanette, all living people probably share at least one ancestor who lived 30 generations ago.3 That is, the chances are that you are 80 percent likely to be the descendant of anyone you care to name who lived in the thirteenth century (which ended by such as Marco Polo and his family to China, Bantu-speaking peoples arriving in what is now Angola, and had begun with the Fourth Crusade sacking of Byzantine Constantinople). The other 20 percent of the people who lived then have no living descendants. For 100,000 years before the Holocene, the entire human population of the world, as is variously evidenced, was never more than a few thousand individuals.
  • Louis Agassiz and Alexander Winchell: Two Case Histories of Creationists Who Illustrate That Rejecting Genesis Influences the Acceptance of Racism

    Louis Agassiz and Alexander Winchell: Two Case Histories of Creationists Who Illustrate That Rejecting Genesis Influences the Acceptance of Racism

    Answers Research Journal 13 (2020): 221–229. www.answersingenesis.org/arj/v13/agassiz_winchell_racism.pdf Louis Agassiz and Alexander Winchell: Two Case Histories of Creationists Who Illustrate That Rejecting Genesis Influences the Acceptance of Racism Jerry Bergman, Genesis Apologetics, PO Box 1326, Folsom, California 95763-1326. Abstract Two prominent cases were selected that illustrate the tendency to interpret Scripture to fit with evolutionary biology. In this case, until around 1950, racist science (the academic term for exploiting science to support racism) was used to demonstrate evolution. Dividing humans into “races” is problematic because only one race exists, the human race. Thus I prefer the non-judgmental term “people groups.” Nonetheless, the race belief was used by evolutionists to produce a hierarchy from the claimed lowest human race to the most evolved human race. In the 1870s Professor Chambers and his co-workers considered the Hottentot people only one step evolved above the gorilla, thus in their mind documented evolution. The lowest human and highest evolved ape were almost identical according to the many inaccurate drawings used to illustrate evolution. This was the main evidence used to document human evolution for over a century until claims of fossil discoveries of extinct humans were proposed by Louis, Mary and Richard Leakey and others. Keywords: Louis Agassiz, Alexander Winchell, Genesis compromises, evolution, harm of evolution, Louis Agassiz, Alexander Winchell, racism, race, Hottentots,Ku Klux Klan, slavery Introduction six thousand years ago. Descendants of the first Many Christians today believe that human couple multiplied rapidly, perhaps because of their evolution can be harmonized with Genesis.
  • PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY VERSION 1 COLLEGE of the CANYONS COLLEGE Physical Anthropology

    PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY VERSION 1 COLLEGE of the CANYONS COLLEGE Physical Anthropology

    ANTH 101 PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY VERSION 1 COLLEGE OF THE CANYONS COLLEGE Physical Anthropology An Open Educational Resources Publication by Taft College Authored and compiled by Sarah Etheredge Editor: Trudi Radtke Version 2 2019 1 | Physical Anthropology – College of the Canyons Acknowledgements We would like to extend appreciation to the following people and organizations for allowing this textbook to be created: California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office Chancellor Dianne G. Van Hook Santa Clarita Community College District College of the Canyons Distance Learning Office Written & Compiled by: Sarah Etheredge Special Thank You to Editor Trudi Radtke for formatting, readability, and aesthetics. Disclaimer: “The contents of this (insert type of publication; e.g., report, flyer, etc.) were developed under the Title V grant from the Department of Education (Award #P031S140092). However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.” *Unless otherwise noted, the content in this textbook is licensed under CC BY 4.0 2 | Physical Anthropology – College of the Canyons Table of Contents Physical Anthropology .................................................................................................................................. 1 Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................... 2 Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................
  • Bioarcheology of China

    Bioarcheology of China

    Chapter 3 Bioarchaeology of China: Bridging Biological and Archaeological Inquiries Elizabeth Berger and Kate Pechenkina In China, anthropology (人类学 renleixue, literally “study of humanity”) is primar- ily used to refer to physical anthropology. Biological or physical anthropology is firmly situated within the biological disciplines, whereas archaeology is tradition- ally hosted by history departments. Consequent differences in research interests and approaches between archaeologists and biological anthropologists have influenced the development of the field. Research on archaeological human skeletons, and anthropology as a whole, in China can be divided into three historical phases: (1) the late 1800s to 1949, the formative period, when anthropology in China was practiced as a holistic discipline and biological anthropology research was dominated by comparative morphomet- rics, population history, and paleoanthropology; (2) 1949 to the early 1980s, when “anthropology” referred almost exclusively to physical anthropology, and morpho- metrics and paleoanthropology were independent of archaeology; and (3) the 1980s until today, when cultural anthropology has experienced a renewal and bioarchaeol- ogy has come to integrate the skeletal and archaeological records (Zhang 2012; Zhu 2004; Hu 2006; Guldin 1994). In its early years (before 1949), Chinese anthropology was in close communica- tion with American, British, and European scholarship. However, it also draws from a long tradition of Chinese historiography, antiquarianism, and medical stud- ies and has undergone more than 100 years of development within China to become a discipline with its own research foci and disciplinary boundaries (Guldin 1994; Hu 2006). E. Berger Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA e-mail: [email protected] Copyright © 2018.