The Myth of Race

The Myth of Race
Author: Robert Wald Sussman
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2014-10-06
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0674745302

Biological races do not exist—and never have. This view is shared by all scientists who study variation in human populations. Yet racial prejudice and intolerance based on the myth of race remain deeply ingrained in Western society. In his powerful examination of a persistent, false, and poisonous idea, Robert Sussman explores how race emerged as a social construct from early biblical justifications to the pseudoscientific studies of today. The Myth of Race traces the origins of modern racist ideology to the Spanish Inquisition, revealing how sixteenth-century theories of racial degeneration became a crucial justification for Western imperialism and slavery. In the nineteenth century, these theories fused with Darwinism to produce the highly influential and pernicious eugenics movement. Believing that traits from cranial shape to raw intelligence were immutable, eugenicists developed hierarchies that classified certain races, especially fair-skinned “Aryans,” as superior to others. These ideologues proposed programs of intelligence testing, selective breeding, and human sterilization—policies that fed straight into Nazi genocide. Sussman examines how opponents of eugenics, guided by the German-American anthropologist Franz Boas’s new, scientifically supported concept of culture, exposed fallacies in racist thinking. Although eugenics is now widely discredited, some groups and individuals today claim a new scientific basis for old racist assumptions. Pondering the continuing influence of racist research and thought, despite all evidence to the contrary, Sussman explains why—when it comes to race—too many people still mistake bigotry for science.

Lone Survivors

Lone Survivors
Author: Chris Stringer
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2012-03-13
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1429973447

A top researcher proposes a controversial new theory of human evolution in a book “combining the thrill of a novel with a remarkable depth of perspective” (Nature). In this groundbreaking and engaging work of science, world-renowned paleoanthropologist Chris Stringer sets out a new theory of humanity’s origin, challenging both the multiregionalists (who hold that modern humans developed from ancient ancestors in different parts of the world) and his own “out of Africa” theory, which maintains that humans emerged rapidly in one small part of Africa and then spread to replace all other humans within and outside the continent. Stringer’s new theory, based on archeological and genetic evidence, holds that distinct humans coexisted and competed across the African continent—exchanging genes, tools, and behavioral strategies. Stringer draws on analyses of old and new fossils from around the world, DNA studies of Neanderthals (using the full genome map) and other species, and recent archeological digs to unveil his new theory. He shows how the most sensational recent fossil findings fit with his model, and he questions previous concepts (including his own) of modernity and how it evolved. With photographs included, Lone Survivors will be the definitive account of who and what we were—and will change perceptions about our origins and about what it means to be human. “An essential book for anyone interested in psychology, sociology, anthropology, human evolution, or the scientific process.” —Library Journal “Highlights just how many tantalizing discoveries and analytical advances have enriched the field in recent years.” —Literary Review

Racism

Racism
Author: Ali Rattansi
Publisher:
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2020
Genre: History
ISBN: 0198834799

Racism is ever present today, and it has become common now to refer to a variety of racisms, from biological to cultural, colour-blind, and structural racisms. Ali Rattansi explores the history of racism and illuminates contemporary issues in this controversial subject, from intersectionality to cultural racism, to the debate over whiteness.

The Rise and Fall of the Caucasian Race

The Rise and Fall of the Caucasian Race
Author: Bruce Baum
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2008-07-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0814739431

The term “Caucasian” is a curious invention of the modern age. Originating in 1795, the word identifies both the peoples of the Caucasus Mountains region as well as those thought to be “Caucasian”. Bruce Baum explores the history of the term and the category of the “Caucasian race” more broadly in the light of the changing politics of racial theory and notions of racial identity. With a comprehensive sweep that encompasses the understanding of "race" even before the use of the term “Caucasian,” Baum traces the major trends in scientific and intellectual understandings of “race” from the Middle Ages to the present day. Baum’s conclusions make an unprecedented attempt to separate modern science and politics from a long history of racial classification. He offers significant insights into our understanding of race and how the “Caucasian race” has been authoritatively invented, embraced, displaced, and recovered throughout our history.

The Lost World of Thomas Jefferson

The Lost World of Thomas Jefferson
Author: Daniel J. Boorstin
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 324
Release: 1993-08-15
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780226064970

In this classic work by one of America's most widely read historians, Daniel J. Boorstin demonstrates why and how, on the 250th anniversary of his birth, Thomas Jefferson continues to speak to us.

Revisiting Race in a Genomic Age

Revisiting Race in a Genomic Age
Author: Barbara A. Koenig
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 396
Release: 2008
Genre: Science
ISBN: 081354324X

Essays explore a range of topics that include drug development and the production of race-based therapeutics, the ways in which genetics could contribute to future health disparities, the social implications of ancestry mapping, and the impact of emerging race and genetics research on public policy and the media.

That the Blood Stay Pure

That the Blood Stay Pure
Author: Arica L. Coleman
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 327
Release: 2013-10-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 0253010500

That the Blood Stay Pure traces the history and legacy of the commonwealth of Virginia's effort to maintain racial purity and its impact on the relations between African Americans and Native Americans. Arica L. Coleman tells the story of Virginia's racial purity campaign from the perspective of those who were disavowed or expelled from tribal communities due to their affiliation with people of African descent or because their physical attributes linked them to those of African ancestry. Coleman also explores the social consequences of the racial purity ethos for tribal communities that have refused to define Indian identity based on a denial of blackness. This rich interdisciplinary history, which includes contemporary case studies, addresses a neglected aspect of America's long struggle with race and identity.

Invitation to Anthropology

Invitation to Anthropology
Author: Luke E. Lassiter
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2006
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780759109759

Lassiter's concise introductory text to cultural anthropology offers a fresh and accessible approach for students. His message about the relevance of anthropology is timely and engaging, and he illustrates the varied and valuable applications of the anthropological perspective for real world problems on the local, regional, and global scale. This book is an ideal text for undergraduate students, and can be easily supplemented with case studies in anthropology.

Human-Animal Interactions in the Eighteenth Century

Human-Animal Interactions in the Eighteenth Century
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2021-12-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004495398

How did humans respond to the eighteenth-century discovery of countless new species of animals? This book explores the gamut of human-animal interactions: from love to cultural identifications, moral reflections, philosophical debates, classification systems, mechanical copies, insults and literary creativity.

An archaeology of innovation

An archaeology of innovation
Author: Catherine J. Frieman
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 333
Release: 2021-02-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1526132672

An archaeology of innovation is the first monograph-length investigation of innovation and the innovation process from an archaeological perspective. It interrogates the idea of innovation that permeates our popular media and our political and scientific discourse, setting this against the long-term perspective that only archaeology can offer. Case studies span the entire breadth of human history, from our earliest hominin ancestors to the contemporary world. The book argues that the present narrow focus on pushing the adoption of technical innovations ignores the complex interplay of social, technological and environmental systems that underlies truly innovative societies; the inherent connections between new technologies, technologists and social structure that give them meaning and make them valuable; and the significance and value of conservative social practices that lead to the frequent rejection of innovations.