Ancestry Studies in Forensic Anthropology: Back on the Frontier of Racism

One of the parameters forensic anthropologists have traditionally estimated is ancestry, which is used in the United States as a proxy for social race. Its use is controversial because the biological race concept was debunked by scientists decades ago. However, many forensic anthropologists contend, in part, that because social race categories used by law enforcement can be predicted by cranial variation, ancestry remains a necessary parameter for estimation. Here, we use content analysis of the Journal of Forensic Sciences for the period 2009–2019 to demonstrate the use of various nomenclature and resultant confusion in ancestry estimation studies, and as a mechanism to discuss how forensic anthropologists have eschewed a human variation approach to studying human morphological differences in favor of a simplistic and debunked typological one. Further, we employ modern geometric morphometric and spatial analysis methods on craniofacial coordinate anatomical landmarks from several Latin American samples to test the validity of applying the antiquated tri-continental approach to ancestry (i.e., African, Asian, European). Our results indicate groups are not patterned by the ancestry trifecta. These findings illustrate the benefit and necessity of embracing studies that employ population structure models to better understand human variation and the historical factors that have influenced it.

Changing the Mentorship Paradigm

Mentorship can be defined as the person-to-person transmission of knowledge in a domain where one person has more experience than the other. Formal mentorship programs and awards have recently been implemented in the field of forensic anthropology, but the attitudes of forensic anthropologists toward mentors, protégés, and mentorship experiences have not been systematically explored. This study surveyed a sample of 123 forensic anthropology practitioners and students via 23 multiple-choice and 12 open-answer questions regarding their demographic information, opinions about mentorship, and experiences as both mentors and protégés. Results indicated that forensic anthropologists value both traditional, “top-down” mentorship interactions and “horizontal” peer-to-peer relationships with multiple mentors. Respondents emphasized the career and professionalism advice they received from their mentors, though some wished for additional guidance in social interactions and social issues. Demographic data were consistent with recent research highlighting the problematic homogeneity of the field, particularly in terms of social race. Based on the survey responses, a proposed consensus definition of forensic anthropology mentorship involves professional and personal guidance by a mentor who imparts discipline-specific, experiential knowledge, advice, and support in a way that allows a protégé to develop both professionally and personally. To enable that development in both ourselves and our colleagues—and to increase diversity and retention within our field—we recommend participation in a formal mentorship program specific to the discipline of forensic anthropology.

Conceptual Fragmentation and the Use of ‘Race’ in Scientific Theorizing

This chapter defends two closely related theses. The first is that race is a fragmented concept with at least two divergent, yet theoretically important, meanings. One is a social race concept; the second is a population naturalist race concept. The second turns on the question of what to do in the face of conceptual fragmentation. Should a single theoretical term (‘race’) be used to refer to each concept? Or should ‘race’ be eliminated in one or more context(s)? Currently fashionable among race scholars is the idea that ‘race’ ought to be selectively eliminated and replaced with closely related terminology when the population naturalist concept is at work, but retained when a social race concept is at work. This chapter argues that this is not the right way to go and consider the pros and cons of ‘race’ pluralism and ‘race’ eliminativism.

Race, discrimination, cognitive ability and income: analysis of the Add Health dataset

Self-reported discriminatory experiences differ slightly by US social racial groups, but why? Using the public-use Add Health dataset, the matter was investigated. It was found that when accounting for cognitive ability (IQ) that differs by social race group, there no longer seemed to be any detectable differences in self-reported discrimination, nor any differences related to skin tone. This seemed to be due to a slight correlation between self-reported discrimination and cognitive ability (r = -.14).Furthermore, the validity of social racial groups were examined for the prediction of self-reported income. It was found that other-perceived social race and skin tone did not predict income when IQ was included in the model, but self-perceived social race did. Results were overall congruent with meritocracy and incongruent with racial discrimination models.

Between Reconstruction and Elimination

Alain Locke assessed the anthropological theories of race in his day and rejected the idea that race was causally related to culture. Locke argued further that scientific theories of race were not always the best theories for understanding the phenomena of race. His solution was to develop a concept of ethnic/social race, and his account is still relevant to contemporary philosophy of race. Locke distinguishes between three primary conceptions of race: theoretical or anthropological, political, and social. Locke separates conceptually his analysis of the underlying social, political, and economic causes of social differentiation, which produce various social groupings including races, from the socially imbedded and encoded practices, and epistemological standpoints that inform the phenomena of race contacts and interracial relations.

Race, culture, and history: Charles Wagley and the anthropology of the African Diaspora in the Americas

When I came to the University of Florida in 1981, I was informed that Charles Wagley was not accepting new graduate students. After my first class with Wagley, he agreed to be my advisor and mentor and I became the last student he accepted. Though better known for his sensitive and pioneering ethnography of indigenous and peasant populations and his influential anthropological/historical overviews of Brazil and Latin America, Wagley and his students' contributions to the study of Afro-American cultures and race relations in the Americas are considerable. Among the important concepts that Wagley articulated were 'social race', 'Plantation America', and the 'amorphous and weakly organized local community without clear boundaries in space or membership'. Wagley guided my dissertation research in Haiti. In it I developed his concept by proposing 'cultural amorphousness' as a 'total cultural style' (following Kroeber) of African Diaspora cultures in the Plantation American cultural sphere: a primary organizing principle that has proved to be an effective adaptation to plantation and its successor societies.

What's post racial discourse got to do with it? Obama and implications for multiculturalism in college classrooms

With the election and re-election of Barack Obama as the first Black President of the United States came the vexing yet perhaps expected conclusion that issues of race and ethnicity were no longer grave concerns. Somehow Obama’s presence suggests the transcendence of race. While a nod to the political progress made in terms of social race relations may be in order, Obama’s election does not translate into a “color-blind,” “post race” American nation. This essay explores how current and ongoing conversations about a post race nation shape student perceptions of race and how they directly affect the teaching instruction of professors, like myself, who are invested in multicultural and inclusive pedagogy. As an instructor invested in inclusive learning, my former struggle of getting students to understand the importance of acknowledging the validity of cultural differences has resurfaced as students who buy into the rhetoric of a “post race” nation no longer think it necessary to examine closely racially charged inequities. Rather than adhere to the problematic ideology of Obama as the embodiment of a “post race” nation, I propose an exploration of his identity and politics as those that encourage fluidity and cultural plurality without denying rightful acknowledgement of race as a viable political reality.

Representações semânticas de raça e classe da cultura popular para literatura e para televisão / Semantic Representations of Race and Class in Popular Culture to Literature and TV

ABSTRACTThere has been a dialogue between anthropological and literary studies because literature falls within the scope of cultural anthropology. The literature of a people substantially reflects aspects of its culture and its worldview. This research project investigates the representations of race, class and race relations in “O Romance d’A Pedra e o Príncipe do Sangue do Vai-e-Volta”, a novel by the contemporary Brazilian author, Ariano Suassuna (1927). First, demonstrating how Suassun’s representation of popular culture reflects race, class and social race relations in a particular area of Brazil, the traditional, rural Northeast. Subsequently, investigating how mass communication, particularly the cultural vehicles of television and cinema, uses literature to attempt to change or to spread and perpetuate racist attitudes and forms of thinking. Even though studies in modern anthropology have shown the concept of “race” to be a cultural construction and a fallacy, literature and mass television culture exploit deliberate identites of ‘race’ based on received stereotypes. The linguistic and cultural debates of a culturally and racially hybrid country, such as Brazil, cannot help but consider the concepts of “race” and “ethnic groups”, since Brazil is a country that inherited the typologies of color, class and prejudice from patriarchal and agrarianbased Portuguese colonialism (Ribeiro, 1995). Those debates are reflected in popular culture in particular ways; are captured in learned forms of culture, such as literature; and are then appropriated by media and television, or so-called mass forms of culture. The works of Suassuna can be seen as a valuable resource of this debate, pointing to issues of assimilation or segregation of race and/or class, power and influence, good or bad, tolerance and prejudice. There was observation of the impact of his work not only through literature but also medias.RESUMOHá um diálogo entre os estudos antropológicos e literários não só porque a literatura está dentro do âmbito da antropologia cultural, mas também porque a literatura de um povo reflete substancialmente os aspectos da sua cultura e sua visão de mundo. Este trabalho investiga as representações de classe, raça e relações raciais em “O Romance d'A Pedra e o Príncipe do Sangue do Vai-e-Volta”, um romance do autor brasileiro contemporâneo, Ariano Suassuna (1927). Em primeiro lugar, pretende-se demonstrar como a representação de Suassuna da cultura popular reflete classe, raça e relações raciais sociais em uma área particular do Brasil, o Nordeste, tradicionalmente rural. Posteriormente, investigar como a comunicação de massa, especialmente os veículos culturais de televisão e cinema, utiliza a literatura para tentar mudar ou espalhar e perpetuar atitudes racistas e formas de pensamento. Mesmo que estudos modernos tenham mostrado que o conceito de "raça" é uma construção cultural e uma falácia, a literatura e a cultura de massa exploram identidades deliberadas com base em estereótipos recebidos. Os debates linguísticos e culturais de uma cultura e país racialmente híbrido, como o Brasil, não podem deixar de considerar os conceitos de "raça" e "grupos étnicos", pois o Brasil é um país que herdou as tipologias de classe, cor e preconceito patriarcal e agrário baseadas em colonialismo português (Ribeiro, 1995). Esses debates se refletem na cultura popular de maneiras particulares; são capturados em formas eruditas de cultura, como literatura, e são então apropriados pela mídia e televisão. As obras de Suassuna podem ser vistas como um recurso valioso deste debate, apontando para questões de assimilação ou segregação de raça e / ou poder de classe, e influência, boa ou ruim, tolerância e preconceito. Observa-se o impacto de seu trabalho não só através da literatura, mas também através dos meios de comunicação.

The Ordinary Conception of Race in the United States and Its Relation to Racial Attitudes: A New Approach

Many hold that ordinary race-thinking in the USA is committed to the 'one-drop rule', that race is ordinarily represented in terms of essences, and that race is ordinarily represented as a biological (phenotype- and/or ancestry-based, non-social) kind. This study investigated the extent to which ordinary race-thinking subscribes to these commitments. It also investigated the relationship between different conceptions of race and racial attitudes. Participants included 449 USA adults who completed an Internet survey. Unlike previous research, conceptions of race were assessed using concrete vignettes. Results indicate widespread rejection of the one-drop rule, as well as the use of a complex combination of ancestral, phenotypic, and social (and, therefore, non-essentialist) criteria for racial classification. No relationship was found between racial attitudes and essentialism, the one-drop rule, or social race-thinking; however, ancestry-based and phenotype-based classification criteria were associated with racial attitudes. These results suggest a complicated relationship between conceptions of race and racial attitudes.