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A PRIMER on RACE, SCIENCE and SOCIETY Jonathan Jansen & Cyrill Walters | Eds Schooling in 81928 480488 97 ISBN 978-1-928480-48-8 (Springer, 2019)

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A PRIMER on RACE, SCIENCE and SOCIETY Jonathan Jansen & Cyrill Walters | Eds Schooling in 81928 480488 97 ISBN 978-1-928480-48-8 (Springer, 2019) FAULT LINES LINES FAULT What is the link, if any, between race and disease? How did the term baster as ‘mixed race’ come to be mistranslated from ‘incest’ in the Hebrew Bible? What are the roots of racial thinking in South African universities? How does music fall on the ear of black and white listeners? Are new developments AND SOCIETY SCIENCE A PRIMER ON RACE, SCIENCE AND SOCIETY in genetics simply a backdoor for the return of eugenics? For the first time, leading scholars in South Africa from different A PRIMER ON RACE, disciplines take on some of these difficult questions about race, science and society in the aftermath of apartheid. This book offers an important foundation for students pursuing a broader education than what a typical degree provides, and a must-read resource for every citizen concerned about the lingering effects of race and racism in South Africa and other parts of the world. Jonathan Jansen is a distinguished professor of education at Stellenbosch University. He is President of the Academy of Science of South Africa and Chairman of the Jakes Gerwel Fellowship, as well as an author and co‑editor of Schooling in J South Africa: The Enigma of Inequality (Springer, 2019). ONATHAN J Cyrill Walters is a postdoctoral fellow in Higher Education ANSEN Studies at Stellenbosch University. She is a scholar of organisations with a special interest in complexity theories & C of leadership and institutional theories of curriculum. YRILL She is co‑author of a forthcoming book on the uptake of decolonisation within South African universities. W ALTERS | E ISBN 978-1-928480-48-8 DS EDITORS JONATHAN JANSEN & CYRILL WALTERS 9781928 480488 FAULT LINES A PRIMER ON RACE, SCIENCE AND SOCIETY EDITORS JONATHAN JANSEN CYRILL WALTERS Fault Lines: A primer on race, science and society Published by African Sun Media under the SUN PReSS imprint All rights reserved Copyright © 2020 African Sun Media and the authors This publication was subjected to an independent double-blind peer evaluation by the publisher. The authors and the publisher have made every effort to obtain permission for and acknowledge the use of copyrighted material. Refer all enquiries to the publisher. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic, photographic or mechanical means, including photocopying and recording on record, tape or laser disk, on microfilm, via the Internet, by e-mail, or by any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission by the publisher. Views reflected in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher. First edition 2020 ISBN 978-1-928480-48-8 ISBN 978-1-928480-49-5 (e-book) https://doi.org/10.18820/9781928480495 Set in Adobe Caslon Pro 11/14 Cover design, typesetting and production by African Sun Media SUN PReSS is an imprint of African Sun Media. Scholarly, professional and reference works are published under this imprint in print and electronic formats. This publication can be ordered from: [email protected] Takealot: bit.ly/2monsfl Google Books: bit.ly/2k1Uilm africansunmedia.store.it.si (e-books) Amazon Kindle: amzn.to/2ktL.pkL Visit africansunmedia.co.za for more information. CONTENTS Foreword ......................................................................................... xi Nico Koopman Preface ............................................................................................ xv Jonathan Jansen Introduction ...................................................................................... 1 Jonathan Jansen Is race real? ............................................................................................. 2 Where does race come from? ..................................................................... 4 How does any group (such as coloureds) come to be a racial problem? ............ 6 Why are women of colour represented negatively in research? ........................ 7 Is research not objective? . 8 What are the ethical foundations of sound research (on race)? ....................... 9 What does a critical (rather than essentialist) study of race look like? .............. 10 What does a systemic (or structural) rather than racial group analysis of problems look like? ............................................................................... 11 Does method matter when the questions are flawed? .................................... 12 Can race be unlearned? ............................................................................. 13 Conclusion ............................................................................................. 14 Endnotes ................................................................................................ 15 Bibliography ........................................................................................... 16 SecTION A RACE AND THE GENES 1 The Role of Genetics in Racial Categorisation of Humans ......................... 21 Soraya Bardien-Kruger & Amica Müller-Nedebock Introduction ............................................................................................ 21 The basics of DNA .................................................................................. 22 Genetic variation in humans: How did this come about? ............................... 23 Link between genetic variation and human disease ....................................... 25 Concept of race: On what is the label based? ............................................... 27 Eugenics ................................................................................................. 31 Concluding remarks ................................................................................. 33 Endnotes ................................................................................................ 33 Bibliography ........................................................................................... 36 2 The Boomerang: How eugenics and racial science in the German colonies rebounded on Europe and the rest of the world ...................................... 41 Steven Robins Introduction ............................................................................................ 41 The boomerang ....................................................................................... 45 Conclusion ............................................................................................. 48 Endnotes ................................................................................................ 51 Bibliography ........................................................................................... 53 SecTION B RACE AND THE PRESENT PAST 3 Reinterrogating Race in Scientific Research: A view from the history of physical anthropology ..................................................................... 57 Handri Walters Introduction ............................................................................................ 57 A short history of physical anthropology ..................................................... 58 Physical anthropology comes to Stellenbosch University ............................... 62 A lesson from history ............................................................................... 65 Conclusion ............................................................................................. 68 Endnotes ................................................................................................ 69 Bibliography ........................................................................................... 71 4 A Century of Misery Research on Coloured People ................................. 73 Jonathan Jansen & Cyrill Walters Introduction ............................................................................................ 73 Digging in the archives ............................................................................. 74 A thematic analysis of race and research at Stellenbosch University ................ 75 Making sense of a century of misery research on coloured people .................. 78 Misery research and the compulsion to compare ......................................... 78 Conclusion ............................................................................................. 80 Endnotes ................................................................................................ 81 Bibliography ........................................................................................... 87 5 Pitfalls of a Profession: Afrikaner historians and the notion of an “objective-scientific” approach in perspective .................................... 93 Albert Grundlingh “Volksgeskiedenis” and academe ................................................................ 93 The mantra of “objective-scientific” history ................................................. 95 Implications ............................................................................................ 97 Endnotes ................................................................................................ 99 Bibliography ........................................................................................... 100 SecTION C MAKING UP RACE AND “THE OTHER” IN THE SOCIAL AND MEDICAL SCIENCES 6 Difficult Knowledge: The state of the discussion around ‘race’ in the social sciences ......................................................................... 103 Crain Soudien Introduction ...........................................................................................
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