Re: another topic please

jacalyn (jacalyn@merle.acns.nwu.edu)
20 Feb 1995 06:56:58 GMT

In article <17348DF22.MBAUSER@kentvm.kent.edu>, MBAUSER@kentvm.kent.edu
(Michael Bauser) wrote:

> Um...I'm afraid those *are* trends and issues consuming anthropology
> today. The race/IQ thing has been in the news a lot lately, and a
> lot of anthropological work has been done on race. As annoying as
> the discussions here have been, it is a valid anthropological topic.
>
> And when has evolution NOT been a major subject in anthropology? Sheesh.

Here, here...

It seems strange/ironic that all of the work that was done so long ago in
the AAA to discredit race -by people like Washburn-is lost in all of this.
These are troubling times. For example "Not in our Genes" goes out of
print while the evil Bell Curve becomes a bestseller. Bell Curve then is
conveniently available for all that so desire as a scientific support for
the increasingly frightening number of whacked out ideas about the
"realities" of race.

There are few anthropologists today (across the so-called subdisciplines)
that would advocate using race as anything other than a social
construct-even those who are into the "human genome project." So who are
these numerous posters... and where are they coming from? The bulk of the
American public I am afraid to admit. Ask most people in the states how
many races there are and they say 3. That is the reason why these posts
are so numerous. Race as an assumed biological reality is sadly part of
the American past and present. Annoying dialogue yes, but certainly it
mirrors real life quotidian realities for so many people today.

-- 
Before I was black
Before I was woman
Before I was latina
Because I am black
Because I am woman
Because I am latina
I am human