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—talks:sydney [2021/07/23 00:54] (current) – Ryan Schram (admin)
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 +~~DECKJS~~
 +# Anthropology, race and culture #
  
 +## Anthropology, race and culture ##
 +
 +Ryan Schram
 +
 +Social Justice Panel Discussion
 +
 +Wingara Mura Bunga Barrabugu Summer Program
 +
 +University of Sydney
 +
 +12 January 2015
 +
 +Available online at http://anthro.rschram.org/talks/sydney/
 +
 +## What makes us human? ##
 +
 +* What does 'human' mean? 
 +* What is the difference between people and other animals?
 +* What do all human beings have in common? 
 +
 +## Some possible answers ##
 +
 +* Need to eat, drink, breathe.
 +* Eyes, nose, mouth, two legs, two arms, and so on.
 +
 +## Why are people different? ##
 +
 +Around the world, people can be quite different. People within one
 +society can be pretty different from each other too.
 +
 +What are some of the ways in which people differ or vary?
 +
 +Why do people differ in these ways?
 +
 +## I made a graph! I make a lot of graphs... ##
 +
 +{{dimensions.table.gif}}
 +
 +Table 1: Dimensions of human characteristics (after Eriksen 2001: 5).
 +
 +## Before anthropology ##
 +
 +In the late 19th century, people were very interested in why humans
 +were different, and they generally believed that most of the
 +differences had something to do with innate, inherited
 +characteristics.
 +
 +Others argued that the climate and environment imposed limits upon the
 +people living there, giving them these innate features.
 +
 +The differences between people were **natural** and could not be changed.
 +
 +## Scientific racism ##
 +
 +Back in this time, people used race as a theory of why people were
 +different. Specifically, they believed:
 +
 +* All people belonged to one of several races.
 +* Each race was different physically.
 +* One's race determined how one thought and acted.
 +* Some races were better or more "civilized" than others.
 +
 +We can call this way of thinking "scientific racism." People believed
 +that racism was a scientific, natural fact.
 +
 +## Franz Boas, founder of anthropology ##
 +
 +{{boas.hamatsa.jpg}}
 +
 +
 +## Race does not exist ##
 +
 +Boas argued that racial differences were actually not all that
 +big. Mostly people were alike.
 +
 +More to the point, he said nature is not destiny. It is the things
 +people acquired from their surroundings and their upbringing that made
 +them into who they are. One's community teaches one how to behave,
 +changing one's body and health.
 +
 +## Immigrants in the United States ##
 +
 +Immigrants from Eastern Europe to the United States often were very
 +short compared to Americans, leading people to think that they were
 +racially different.
 +
 +Children of these immigrants tended to grow to be much taller than
 +their parents, and were pretty close to the average height for people
 +their age.
 +
 +## Washington, DC, December 5, 2014 ##
 +
 +{{diein.aaa.jpg}}
 +
 +Why would a bunch of anthropologists choose to lay down in the middle
 +of their national convention to protest police racism (McGranahan 2014)?
 +
 +
 +
 +## The concept of culture ##
 +
 +People are not more cultured or more cultivated than other
 +people. Everyone acquires the distinct patterns of behavior and
 +thinking from their upbringing.
 +
 +A lot of a person's way of life is acquired or learned. It's not
 +innate.
 +
 +A person's behavior is always **relative** to their culture. That means
 +that when a person learns a particular pattern of behavior, they also
 +learn why it makes sense. It is normal to them and all the people
 +around them, even though it seems strange to people from other places.
 +
 +
 +
 +
 +## What makes us human? Culture. ##
 +
 +Every culture is different. But people need culture.
 +
 +Any person can learn any culture.
 +
 +Do cultures have anything in common? Is there anything that is both **acquired** and **universal**?
 +
 +
 +
 +## References ##
 +
 +Anonymous. ca. 1895. Hamats’a Coming out of a Secret Room. Photograph. United States National Museum Report, Plate 29. https://flic.kr/p/5zfdHK. 
 +
 +Eriksen, Thomas Hylland. 2001. Small Places, Large Issues: An Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology, 2nd ed. London: Pluto Press.
 +
 +McGranahan, Carole. 2014. “#BlackLivesMatter and #AAA2014: Die-In, Section Assembly Motion, and the ABA Statement Against Police Violence and Anti-Black Practices.” Savage Minds, December 9. Accessed January 11, 2015. http://savageminds.org/2014/12/09/blacklivesmatter-and-aaa2014-die-in-section-assembly-motion-and-the-aba-statement-against-police-violence-and-anti-black-practices/.
 +
 +**Further reading**
 +
 +Pierpont, Claudia Roth. 2004. “The Measure of America.” The New Yorker 8: 48–63. http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/Additional%20Course%20Readings/annals_of_culture.pdf
 +
 +-----
 +
 +<WRAP box similar>~~SIMILAR~~</WRAP>