SOCIAL DIFFERENCE Race and Ethnicity

1. SOCIAL DIFFERENCERace and Ethnicity

2. 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)

3. 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”

4. 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

5. 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)

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

12. 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

13. 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”

14. Race: A Brief History

15. Distribution of Human Skin Color before 1400 A.D.

16. 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

17. 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)

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

19. 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

20. Formal Human ClassificationLinneaus 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

21. 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".

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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

26. 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

29. 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.

30. 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

31. 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

32. 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”

33. 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

34. 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

35. 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

36. 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

37. 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

38. 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

39. 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

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

41. 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

42. “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”