Pretenses on the Paleohistory of Race
When looking at the chronological advancement of technology, it is easy and quite common to derive that certain civilizations were simply not as smart as others. Although a country as technologically advanced as the United States exists (among others), there are still areas in our world where people are more technologically ignorant than most people could possibly imagine. One might presume differing genetic or physical traits could contribute to the "delayed" advancement of these civilizations. Perhaps a more general explanation could be applied; that some particular "races" are simply less intelligent than others. How can this be, is it that simple, are some people inferior to such advanced civilizations that exist in our present day?
Jared Diamond would certainly disagree with some of my prior suggestions (which are nothing more than examples of uneducated presumptions). In our textbook Guns, Germs, and Steel, he makes several contrary points. Diamond suggests that the necessities caused by ones surrounding environment provides a "push" for certain technological advancements. If this is true, then perhaps some civilizations simply did not need more than what they already had (technologically speaking), and therefore did not continue to search for other advantages. But by the same token, civilizations might be limited by their environment. The environment can boost a civilization just as it might limit a civilization. So I think it is fair to say, that if this is the natural progression of a growing society, then the intelligence of its members is also dictated by the environment. For example, if a civilization has the knowledge to grow corn and another does not, it is more likely than not due to an environmental inability to do so.
There are several factors that come into play when viewing the progression of a civilization. Environment is the main factor that influences societies, it involves aspects of society such as domestication of plants and animals, agriculture, and whether or not the people are farmers or hunter-gatherers. The domestication of plants and animals gave societies an adequate advantage over others. For instance, a farming society would outlast a hunter-gathering society because it is much easier for them to obtain food. "In early stages of food production, people simultaneously collected wild foods and raised cultivated ones...." (Diamond, 107) Some people were naturally presented with food production through agriculture and others stumbled across it by chance. However, in many other areas of the world where agriculture was not as obvious or easy to achieve, people were forced to survive only off of what the were able to hunt.
Many of the readings we had this semester has given me a better outlook on the society I know today. Mainly, the most obvious characteristics of people, race. Race: The power of an Illusion, allowed me to understand the construction of a complex distinction of people. These distinctions and classifications created a divide in humanity, and re-enforced a system that not only favored the white race, but embedded a virus of hatred for colored people to succumb for future generations. The man made term and meaning of race is a important tool that the white elite used to oppress non-whites. It 's in this film, which provides us with there ridiculous claims of black bodies inferiority and theorized inevitability of extinction. False scientific theories
“The development of agriculture was a radical change in humans’ way of life.” (Stearns, 2) It set the basis for faster change in human societies. Metalworking allowed farmers to work more efficiently. The development of languages increased the chances of civilizations because people were able to communicate with each other. Record keeping and innovated technology also brought people together because they began discovering new things about the society.
Social Construction Race Race has been one of the most outstanding events in the United States all the way from the 1500s up until now. The concept of race has been socially constructed in a way that is broad and difficult to understand. Social construction can be defined as the set of rules determined by society’s urges and trends. The rules created by society play a huge role in racialization, as the U.S. creates laws to separate the English or whites from the nonwhites. Europeans, Indigenous People, and Africans were all racialized and victimized for various reasons.
Race, in the common understanding, draws upon differences not only of skin color and physical attributes but also of language, nationality, and religion. Race categories are often used as ethnic intensifiers, with the aim of justifying the exploitation of one group by another. Race is an idea that has become so fixed in American society that there is no room for open-mindedness when challenging the idea of racial categories. Over the years there has been a drastic change with the way the term "race" is used by scientists. Essentially, there is a major difference between the biological and sociological views of race.
The concept of race and what it means to people today varies from place to place. Despite the increase in global contacts, scientists are skeptical about the concept of race as a social construction. There is an ongoing debate about what “race” actually means and how is it used in terms of categorizing people. As the biological variations increase, differences among people of the same groups are visible. Over time people began to show more and more similarities in different ways. Race is only used in terms of the appearance of people and what they have in common biologically.
The evolution of race relations has changed throughout history thus far. The idea that it is getting better is not true. Racial prejudice is an immense problem in the everyday-world. Although it is said to not be true, individuals are judged by their ethnicity each and everyday. As unfair as that is, it is still a driving problem in race relations today. The idea that the world can be perfect and the world can be peaceful is not practical. No matter what, there will always be racial disputes in the world. Emmett Till Murder Trial and The Scottsboro Boys Trials are two obvious reasons for this. In the United States of America the most common forms of racism is ordinarily between the whites and blacks not getting along. Most recently it is with whites killing blacks, although that is not always the case. Throughout the world, there is a vast amount of racism depending on the country and where it is at in the world. It would be nearly impossible to find a peaceful country without disputes. The evolution of race relations has not gotten any better, but also has not gotten any worse. They have stayed a consistent bad. It is possible for them to constantly get better but it takes everybody not just a few people. Some like the way the world is and do not want it to change, those are the people that are holding the rest down on making the world a better place. No matter what happens in the world, racial disputes are an everlasting problem that will never go away.
The law plays a substantial role in constructing race. By serving, as a system of coercion and control as well as an ideological system, the law is able to create laws that maintain racism and change the way people understand racism. The legal and non-legal actors that carry out or abide with the law can also be characterized as individuals who maintain the growth of our race today. All of these processes create, declare and enforce the legal construction of race, according to Haney Lopez.
Race: The Power of an Illusion was an interesting 3 part film. After watching this, it made me questioned if race was really an illusion or not. It is absolutely taboo to think that the one thing that separates people the most may be a myth in itself. “We can 't find any genetic markers that are in everybody of a particular race and in nobody of some other race. We can 't find any genetic markers that define race.” (Adelman and Herbes Sommers 2003). Racism is something created in the U.S made to create supremacy for the creator. Racism is not just the way someone thinks, it is something that has is manifested in our society to separate us and can be traced to our everyday activities.
Racism is often considered a thing of the past, with its manifestation rarely being acknowledged in the United States today. Race: The Power of an Illusion, is a documentary that addresses the legacy of racism through its significance in the past, and its presence in society today. To understand racism, it is vital to understand the concept of race. Race is a social invention, not a biological truth. This can be observed through the varying classifications of race in different cultures and time periods. For instance, in the United States, race has long been distinguished by skin color. In nineteenth century China, however, race was determined by the amount of body hair an individual had. Someone with a large amount of facial hair, for example,
...ctors, not environment. Nomothetic approach suggests that this is because everyone is generally the same. Yet intelligence is poor when environment is poor - idiographic explain this as it stress social influence, but nomothetic would ignore this factor.
RACE: SMOKE AND MIRRORS The study of race and its social formation in the article "Racial Formations" by Michael Omi and Howard Winant challenge our socially accepted concepts of "race", race being defined as the social categorization of black, white, yellow and red people. Race plays a pivotal role in society because it has a overwhelming influence on an individuals life choices and outcome. Society has historically placed positive and negative stereotypes on different races. Whites are presented and in many cases perceived as the standard of civility and beauty. People of color are conveniently grouped together as disingenuous to American patriotism in addition to being subjected to perpetuating stereotypes such as being lazy, criminal, and deviant to general society.
While this assumption is accepted by a majority of geneticists and behavioral scientists, there is great disagreement on the degree of influence each contributes. Arguments for environmental influences are compelling; at the same time there is growing evidence that genetic influence on intelligence is significant and substantial (Eyesenck, 1998; Mackintosh, 1998; Plomin, 1994; Steen, 1996). The purpose of this paper is to explore the question: "How is intelligence influenced by heredity and environment?"
On the ‘nature’ side of the debate is the psychometric approach, considered to be the most dominant in the study of intelligence, which “inspired the most research and attracted the most attention” (Neisser et al. 1996, p. 77). It argues that there is one general (‘g’) factor which accounts for intelligence. In the 1880s, Francis Galton conducted many tests (measuring reaction times to cognitive tasks), (Boundless 2013), in order to scientifically measure intelligence. These tests were linked to the eugenic breeding programme, which aimed to eliminate biologically inferior people from society. Galton believed that as intelligence was inherited, social class or position were significant indicators of intelligence. If an individual was of high social standing, they would be more intelligent than those of a lower position. However he failed to show any consistency across the tests for this hypothesis, weakening his theory that social class correlated with intelligence. Nevertheless, his creation of the intelligence test led many to continue to develop...
The ongoing debate on whether nature or nurture is responsible for intelligence seems to be a never-ending argument. There will probably be no definite answer to this argument any time soon, but answers such as Dr. Bigot's prove how intolerant of other opinions people can be. To say intelligence is entirely based on genetics, or one's environment, for that matter, is utterly extremist. An interaction of both nature and nurture is responsible for intelligence.
Throughout history, the way civilizations have changed over time have varied greatly, in the specific environment civilizations where located. Civilizations can be located near rivers, trough arid land, and with predictable or unpredictable climate. With the environment being anything form the surrounding vegetation, to neighboring villages that may pose a potential threat. Civilizations need to establish themselves within the environment has led many to warfare and others to collapse. The specific environment civilizations lived in can be either an advantage or disadvantage. Changing the way the political and economic structure of the people’s specific civilization varied greatly on the resources that was