Question: The concept of race and its critique

[gas_ton]

Dear friends, what texts/articles online can you recommend which deal with concept of race and its critique? What I really (badly) need are those which are the most important in this field, the most comprehensive and understandable for a non-anthropologist.

Thank you!

Comments

[ragnarok20]

Check wikipedia and see what sources the article on race cites.

However, from what I have read, the critics of race mostly, a) Equivocate race with what it's not (i.e. ethnicity and species) and try to conflate it to one of those two, or b) try to use the non-evidence as evidence to the contrary. They say stuff like, "There is no conclusive evidence that race has biological validity." What they do in addition to this is say, "We cannot find one single gene that determines race," which is a really terrible strawman and they obviously are not practicing the principle of charity whereby they assume the best version of the argument. Most people who accept it as having some biological validity tend to agree that there is no single gene, but a combination of genes and gene markers which determine a variety of characteristics.

[gas_ton]

Yep, thanks.

Of course, I've checked Wikipedia already. Just need to find some more (or something else).

[ragnarok20]

If you're in a university you should have access to lexisnexis, or some other similar databases that you could try accessing. Google search for articles as well.

[gas_ton]

Unfortunately, not anymore in Uni, and nowhere near any such an access point. But thanks anyway - and I'll check specialised Google search for sure.

[drizzle]

Check out "Human Biodiversity" by Johnathan Marks and "Human Variation" by Stephen Molnar. They are both great books on the subject!

[gas_ton]

Thank you, I'll do as soon as I'll get somewhere near to the place I can get them from :)

[real_embrace]

If you want short and sweet, there's always the AAA statement on race. There are a couple links on this page-
http://www.aaanet.org/committees/minority/index.htm

Also there is some race related link on the AAA homepage that you might want to check out. I haven't looked it over, though.

[gas_ton]

Thank you! I'll check them out; from the first glance they look like what I need.

[random4233]

Norm Sauer's 1992 "Forensic Anthropology and the Concept of Race: If Race Doesn't Exist, Why are Forensic Anthropologists so Good at Identifying Them?". This is in Social Science and Medicine 34(2):107-111. It's a really good article for why race doesn't exist.

[gas_ton]

Thanks! Will try to get it somehow...

reposted cause the links didn't work

[metahara]

these are pretty simple and clear.
race is a cultural construct that supports capitalism.
American Anthropological Association Statement on "Race"

http://www.learner.org/channel/workshops/primarysources/census/docs/aaas.html

and
from the A.A. of Physical Anth.
Biological Aspects of Race
http://www.physanth.org/positions/race.html

Re: reposted cause the links didn't work

[gas_ton]

Thanks a lot! This a kind of what I need. Thank you!