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anthropology

over 7 years

we're learning in anthropology right now about how race is social construct and it's super fascinating. (gender too but I haven't covered that yet)

Race was made by Europeans primarily during the Age of Imperialism and Age of Exploration and is an ever changing concept based on culture. This fact has been widely accepted by most anthropologists and historians to my knowledge. Its origin lies with justification for slavery, but now that that's gone (at least in a broad, western sense), it is used for forensics and biological determinism which is super interesting because even then, it's not totally correct. For example, there are blood pressure medications which don't work on some people, due to a gene that disables it. This is most commonly seen in people of African descent so it's automatically labeled as a "black" trait, when there are definitely "black" people without it and "white" "asian" "indian" "mixed" people with it. This specific example was on an episode of House, where a man with a blood pressure medication wanted to get the "white people medication", due to the fact that doctors would usually go to the secondary "black" medication for dark skinned people due to the increased likelyhood, even if it's less effective.

Idk I just really enjoy this topic since I'm learning about it in biological anthropology and it's so cool, I'll delete this if it causes controversy although healthy debate is ok hmu if you have questions or anything idk

please answer questions and be nice and no ad hominem

ye or na
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deletedover 7 years
yeah i forgot other people forced different races to commit crime my bad!
over 7 years

CoryInConstantinople says





this is my favorite social construct


This actually has direct correlation with the foundation of race and I'd go into it more but I'm going out!! Will explain more later
over 7 years

BiIlyHerrington says

You hinted on the fact that certain populations of people have some traits be more or less prevalent than other humans. This can be seen in obvious ways like melanin, hair and eye color, height and other obvious visible traits. It can also be seen in other more subtle ways such as a tribe in Kenya called Kalenjin that produces a staggeringly high percentage of the best marathon runners. It can also be seen in the sickle cell trait, which is almost nonexistent outside of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

Race in humans doesn't exist the way it does in dogs or monkeys, but there are populations of humans that have shared traits due to gene flow and other factors. To say that race is solely a social construct is a simplification, but it is true that "black" and "white" are social constructs as the amount of genetic diversity in Africa alone is staggering.

I agree that the blood pressure medication shouldn't be labelled a "black" trait, but it would be negligent of doctors to not be aware of the relative likelihoods of a successful treatment based on what they can observe.


I definitely agree with you here!
deletedover 7 years




this is my favorite social construct
over 7 years

Jimbei says

how can we deconstruct race?


short answer? in this very moment? we can't. There will always be bigots, supremacists and just closed minded people who disagree with this.

long answer? the race we know today will eventually go away and replaced by new races. could be in our life time, could not. The average American-born person in 2050 will probably grow up to look a little something like this, as suggested by National Geographic. http://gaceta.es/sites/default/files/styles/668x300/public/mezcla_de_razas.jpg?itok=xwa-UlnM

As you can see, they're very racially ambiguous in our minds. However, when we look at ancient France (idk timeline oops), they were once built up of immigrants, invaders, etc all of different "races" that then conglomerated into your modern day white french person. If you were to show a modern day French person to a French person in... 1400AD, for example, they'll be confused at the combination of stereotypical features of the different "races" back then, and also the ambiguity. There are macro and micro changes, too that all have to do with gene flow and such. I don't really have time to describe it all now lol.
over 7 years
You hinted on the fact that certain populations of people have some traits be more or less prevalent than other humans. This can be seen in obvious ways like melanin, hair and eye color, height and other obvious visible traits. It can also be seen in other more subtle ways such as a tribe in Kenya called Kalenjin that produces a staggeringly high percentage of the best marathon runners. It can also be seen in the sickle cell trait, which is almost nonexistent outside of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

Race in humans doesn't exist the way it does in dogs or monkeys, but there are populations of humans that have shared traits due to gene flow and other factors. To say that race is solely a social construct is a simplification, but it is true that "black" and "white" are social constructs as the amount of genetic diversity in Africa alone is staggering.

I agree that the blood pressure medication shouldn't be labelled a "black" trait, but it would be negligent of doctors to not be aware of the relative likelihoods of a successful treatment based on what they can observe.
deletedover 7 years
how can we deconstruct race?
over 7 years

dooze says


tigermom says

wot is arthroprodigy


the study of uR MOM


wow i demand an anthrapology
over 7 years

tigermom says

wot is arthroprodigy


the study of uR MOM
over 7 years
wot is arthroprodigy