Premium
Race and Anthropology: A Core Concept without Consensus
Author(s) -
Lieberman Leonard,
Stevenson Blaine W.,
Reynolds Larry T.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
anthropology and education quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.531
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 1548-1492
pISSN - 0161-7761
DOI - 10.1525/aeq.1989.20.2.05x0840h
Subject(s) - cline (biology) , race (biology) , variation (astronomy) , anthropology , sociology , ethnic group , biological anthropology , colonialism , epistemology , gender studies , geography , demography , philosophy , population , physics , archaeology , astrophysics
Race, once a core anthropological concept, is no longer supported by a majority of members of the discipline. The history of the concept is briefly reviewed. Results of a survey are presented indicating acceptance by 50% of biological anthropologists and 31% of cultural anthropologists, while 42% of the former and 52% of the latter reject the concept. Alternatives for teaching about human biological and cultural variation are discussed. Ethnicity is suggested as an alternative for teaching about folk taxonomies that arose in the colonial era, while cline, or geographic variation, is proposed for human biological variation.