SOCIAL DIFFERENCE Race and Ethnicity

Anthropology of Social Difference What is the basis for the recognition of difference within and between social groups? – what is the role of culture? What is the relationship of recognized social differences to political power and inequality? – what are the processes of society? (social stratification)

CULTURE & SOCIETY Geertz (1973) on culture -- "a historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life“ Geertz on society – “the pattern of social interaction” Culture & society – “capable of wide range of modes of integration”

Geertz on Society and Culture Again… Culture – logico-meaningful integration A unity of style, of logical implication, of meaning and value Fabric of meaning Society – causal-functional integration Kind of integration one finds in an organism All parts united in a single causal web Keep the system going Actually existing network of social relations

Social Differences & Society shift from homogeneous kin based societies (mechanic) to heterogeneous societies of associations (organic) involves increased social differentiation Increased differentiation & integration = INCREASED SOCIAL STRATIFICATION (social differences)

Society & Social Stratification inequality in society the unequal distribution of goods and services, rights and obligations, power and prestige all attributes of positions in society, not attributes of individuals Stratified society is: when a society exhibits stratification it means that there are significant breaks in the distribution of goods services, rights obligations power prestige as a result of which are formed collectivities or groups we call strata

Stratification & Society Integration and equilibrium Society is a system of action stratification is a generalized aspect of the structure of all social systems Social Strata emerge from the process of differentiation and evaluation in the form of social statuses, differences, and classes

Stratification & Social Power Power – domination and the process of legitimization by which a dominant status group becomes accepted as dominant pre-industrial society – power based on traditional respect or allegiance to charismatic leaders industrial society – power based on legality, consensus on the rules and procedures concerning the selection and limits of power

3 TYPES OF SOCIETIES egalitarian societies - no social groups having greater access to economic resources, power, or prestige - usually foragers rank societies - do not have unequal access to economic resources or to power, but they do contain social groups having unequal access to prestige class societies - unequal access to all 3 advantages, economic resources, power, prestige open & closed class systems - the extent to which mobility occurs allowing people to pass through inequalities

Understanding Social Differences: Status status - ascribed & achieved ascribed status - social positions that people hold by virtue of birth sex, age, family relationships, birth into class or caste achieved status - social positions attained as a result of individual action shift from homogenous kin based societies to heterogeneous society of associations involves growth in importance of achieved status

Race & Society There are no biological human races Racial social stratification is built upon idea that social differences are linked with hereditary characteristics which differ between races As indicated by perceived physical differences and cloaked in the language of biology social races – groups assumed to have a biological basis but social constructed Racism – systematic social and political bias based on idea of race Operates as a form of class

American Anthropological Assoc. statement on race “Evidence from the analysis of genetics (e.g., DNA) indicates that most physical variation, about 94%, lies within so-called racial groups. Conventional geographic ‘racial’ groupings differ from one another only in about 6% of their genes…. ‘Race’ thus evolved as a world view, a body of prejudgments that distorts our ideas about human differences and group behavior…. The ‘racial’ world view was invented to assign some groups to perpetual low status, while others were permitted access to privilege, power, and wealth”

Race: A Brief History

Distribution of Human Skin Color before 1400 A.D.

Race & Age of Discovery Race did not exist until the European expansion and exploration beginning 1500 ancient Greeks -- first among civilized nations around the Mediterranean did not link physical appearance and cultural attainment. Ancient Greeks granted civilized status to the Nile Valley Nubians who were among the darkest skinned people they knew did not grant it to European barbarians to the north who were lighter skinned than they were People were divided on the basis of religion, class or language or status

Europe & Race before Age of Discovery up until 14th cent. in Europe cultural & social evolution based on the idea of progress from kinbased societies to civil society through governance & law after 16th cent. in Europe dispositions of blood distinguished the character of difference (racist notions of social & cultural evolution)

After 1500 European exploration – increased contact with other human societies exploration turned to conquest and Ethnocentric feeling of European superiority

The Enlightenment: 17th & 18th Century Europe race used interchangeably with type, variety, people, nation, generation & species race equated with “breeding stock” 1700s – Enlightenment science social phenomena and the world’s peoples into natural schemes

Formal Human Classification Linneaus Systemae Naturae, 1758 Europeaeus White; muscular; hair – long, flowing; eyes blue Americanus Reddish; erect; hair – black, straight, thick; wide nostrils Asiaticus Sallow (yellow); hair black; eyes dark Africanus Black; hair – black, frizzled; skin silky; nose flat; lips tumid

1795 Johann Friedrich Blumenbach: ”race” classifications Malayan Ethiopian American Mongolian Caucasian coined the term "Caucasian" because he believed that the Caucasus region of Asia Minor produced "the most beautiful race of men".

1830s: Philadelphia doctor and polygenist Samuel Morton collected hundreds of human skulls of known races measured them by filling the skulls with lead pellets and then pouring the pellets into a glass measuring cup tables assign the highest brain capacity to Europeans (with the English highest of all) Second rank goes to Chinese, third to Southeast Asians and Polynesians, fourth to American Indians, and last place to Africans and Australian aborigines. work establish the “scientific basis” for physical anthropology but also the idea that race is inherently biological

Stephen Jay Gould: “The Mis-measure of Man” (1981) Re-analyzed Morton’s data Morton’s racist bias -- prevented identification of fully overlapping measurements among the racial skull samples he used

Race & Social Status Operates as an ASCRIBED status Race and racial differences as a state of nature Sociobiological notion that racism derives from genes that cause groups to compete against those who are genetically different Nature outside of culture Phenotype & blood quantum

Social Status and Affects of “Race” Life chances Where you live How you are treated Access to wealth, power and prestige Access to education, housing, and other valued resources Life expectancy

Society & First Nation Health Compared with the Canadian population in 1996, the First Nations population (on and off reserves) rated lower on all educational attainment. Among First Nations, the 1996 labour participation rate was 59% and the employment rate was 43%. Rates for Canada as a whole were 68% and 62%, respectively. First Nations unemployment rate was twice the Canadian rate in 1996.

Society & First Nation health 56.9% of homes were considered adequate in 1999--00. 33.6% of First Nations communities had at least 90% of their homes connected to a community sewage disposal system. In 1999, 65 First Nations and Inuit communities were under a boil water advisory for varying lengths of time Many communicable diseases can be traced to poor water quality

Variation in recognized “racial” types US Bi-racial society Japan a nation whose population is greater than 99% born in Japan racism in Japan is often not directed so much against people of a particular race or ethnic group but rather against those who are non-Japanese purity Brazil long history with slavery and as a recipient of emigrants from all over the world racial paradise image process of whitening -- racial and cultural means through which outsiders became "Brazilian" While racial divisions in Brazil are not clearly defined, class lines are Canada Vertical mosaic

Social “Races” Geertz (1973) on culture -- "a historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life“ Geertz on society – “the pattern of social interaction” Culture & society – “capable of wide range of modes of integration”

Ethnicity: A Cultural Logic of Race? ethnicity forged in the process of historical time subject to shifts in meaning shifts in referents or markers of ethnic identity subject to political manipulations ethnic identity is not a function of primordial ties, although it may be described as such always the genesis of specific historical forces that are simultaneously structural & cultural

Building Blocks of Ethnicity/Ethnic Identity associated with distinctions between language, religion, historical experience, geographic isolation, kinship, notions of race (phenotype) may include collective name, belief in common descent, sense of solidarity, association with a specific territory, clothing, house types, personal adornment, food, technology, economic activities, general lifestyle

cultural markers of difference must be visible to members and non-members valued markers of difference by insiders may become comic or derided by outsiders caricature and exaggeration frequently mark outsider depictions of boundary mechanisms stereotype is one form

ethnicity and boundaries where there is a group there is some sort of boundary where there are boundaries there are mechanisms for maintaining boundaries cultural markers of difference that must be visible to members and non-members Code switching Marked and unmarked categories

Boundary maintenance The ethnic boundary canalizes social life Boundaries may also be territorial Distinctions between us and them criteria for judgment of value and performance and restrictions on interactions Allows for the persistence of cultural differences Identities are signaled as well as embraced All ethnic groups in a poly-ethnic society act to maintain dichotomies and differences

ethnogenesis fluidity of ethnic identity ethnic groups vanish, people move between ethnic groups, new ethnic groups come into existence ethnogenesis emergence of new ethnic group, part of existing group splits & forms new ethnic group, members of two or more groups fuse

Ethnicity, Culture, and Society ethnicity is founded upon structural inequities among dissimilar groups into a single political entity -- society based on cultural differences & similarities perceived as shared -- culture

Ethnicity and class Many poly-ethnic societies are ranked according to ethnic membership May be a high correlation between ethnicity and class

Ethnicity as identity formation and political organization Ethnic groups – those human groups that entertain a SUBJECTIVE belief in their common descent because of similarities of physical type or of customs or of both feelings of ethnicity & associated behavior vary in intensity within groups (& persons) over time & space Belief in group affinity can have important consequences for the formation of a political community

“Ethnic” Groups Geertz (1973) on culture -- "a historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life“ Geertz on society – “the pattern of social interaction” Culture & society – “capable of wide range of modes of integration”