Anthropology Summary
Diamond – Race Without Colour
The term race does not work very well for understanding human variation, it is
completely useless. Race could be based on many features. It is a cultural
concept, not a biological concept. Even if there were races, one should not stick
to it, because it evokes political and socioeconomic discrimination. Humans are
all of the same species because they do interbreed. Classification presents
problems of concordance (voice differences lead to the same classification as
differences in throat colour), hierarchy (it is hard to say which differ most from
the other, it depends on how many races you recognize). The concept of race
stems from natural selection, from geographical location.
Race by resistance: People could be categorized according to the sickle cell gene;
resistance to malaria.
Race by digestion: Classifying according to the lactase enzyme.
When looking at appearance, classification differs. Some people find large assess
attractive, while others do not.
Race by fingerprints: Fingerprints vary geographically. However, fingerprints do
not play a role in survival or sexual selection.
Race by genes: Even though skin colour (and eye colour) seem to vary
geographically (to be able to survive), this is not always true.
Brettel – Archives and Informants: Reflections on Juxtaposing the
methods of Anthropology and History
Brettel studied the meaning of the tradition of immigration of parish peoples in
Portugal. Before she started her fieldwork, she collected historical data on the
parish. From this, she raised the question why the migration coincided with
lengthy absences from men. This, she could ask people in the field. The history
enriched her experiences in the field, she could establish continuities between
the past and the present. She could more fully interpret certain events. Four
important issues:
1. Participant observation: Generates questions that can be answered by
historical research;
2. Participant observation: Provides information to help historians interpret
their own data;
3. Historical research can guide an anthropologist in the assessment of the
way in which the past is described by informants (often influenced by
normative descriptions);
4. Linking the past to the present can found interpretation of social and
cultural change.
Diamond – Race Without Colour
The term race does not work very well for understanding human variation, it is
completely useless. Race could be based on many features. It is a cultural
concept, not a biological concept. Even if there were races, one should not stick
to it, because it evokes political and socioeconomic discrimination. Humans are
all of the same species because they do interbreed. Classification presents
problems of concordance (voice differences lead to the same classification as
differences in throat colour), hierarchy (it is hard to say which differ most from
the other, it depends on how many races you recognize). The concept of race
stems from natural selection, from geographical location.
Race by resistance: People could be categorized according to the sickle cell gene;
resistance to malaria.
Race by digestion: Classifying according to the lactase enzyme.
When looking at appearance, classification differs. Some people find large assess
attractive, while others do not.
Race by fingerprints: Fingerprints vary geographically. However, fingerprints do
not play a role in survival or sexual selection.
Race by genes: Even though skin colour (and eye colour) seem to vary
geographically (to be able to survive), this is not always true.
Brettel – Archives and Informants: Reflections on Juxtaposing the
methods of Anthropology and History
Brettel studied the meaning of the tradition of immigration of parish peoples in
Portugal. Before she started her fieldwork, she collected historical data on the
parish. From this, she raised the question why the migration coincided with
lengthy absences from men. This, she could ask people in the field. The history
enriched her experiences in the field, she could establish continuities between
the past and the present. She could more fully interpret certain events. Four
important issues:
1. Participant observation: Generates questions that can be answered by
historical research;
2. Participant observation: Provides information to help historians interpret
their own data;
3. Historical research can guide an anthropologist in the assessment of the
way in which the past is described by informants (often influenced by
normative descriptions);
4. Linking the past to the present can found interpretation of social and
cultural change.
