AFST 371 - The Idea of Race

Credits: (3)
College Curriculum: COLL 350
Domain (Anchored): CSI
The idea of race emerged as a biological concept during the European Enlightenment. The earlier cultural and religious distinctions drawn among human groups were increasingly substituted or elaborated by ‘race’. Western notions of science came to legitimate a natural hierarchy within the context of colonial, slave holding and later industrial capitalist societies whose elites benefited from the idea that the inhumanity of their privilege was natural. An ideology of white supremacy emerged simultaneously from science and society, relative to which racial identities were constructed and historically transformed. Racial ideas have infused many American institutions and their pervasiveness accounts for their paradigmatic power. The history of biological anthropology is packed with reflections of broadly believed racial ideas. These ideas’ transformations can be seen in evolving theories meant to explain the relationship between human behavior and biology. This course examines those ideas in biological anthropology and related fields. Students discover aspects of race and racism in past and present society that often go unrecognized. Thus informed, students become more able to choose an anti-racist stance. They equally develop an appreciation of ways in which culture can systematically influence scientific thought, raising a more general critique of the scientific way of knowing than is limited to the example of race. Problems and prospects for theories of the interactions between human biology and behavior are considered.
Cross-listed with: ANTH 371