Race and Ethnicity: Comparing Classifications in South Africa, Sweden, and the United States One of the most controversial topics of culture over the years has been that of Race and Ethnicity. Due to the diversity of humans and the ability for different cultures to categorize themselves in different ways, the topic race and ethnicity continues to expand and grow. Anthropologists have studied the question of race and ethnicity throughout time in order to better understand how cultures and societies have come to classify themselves. According to the anthropological understanding of race, “race is not a scientific biological categorical system and does not explain human biological differences” (Gonzalez Lecture 29). What is interesting to observe …show more content…
is Australia because it is a developed country with a strong economy and a large population for its size. Australia has thought very thoroughly about the idea of race and ethnicity, and has created three tiers of depth due to the wide variety of people living there. In its most basic sense the Australian census includes, Australian/Australian Peoples (natives), European, Asian, Black/African, and Other. These are the most basic categories of race and ethnicity but in the highest and most detailed tier, “The classification consists of 275 cultural and ethnic groups. Some groups are residual categories, or 'not elsewhere classified' (nec) categories, which contain entities not listed separately in the classification” (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2011). This shows that Australia’s perception of race, ethnicity, and culture is very important and very detailed because they have taken the time to incorporate every possibility they can think of. This is similar to the U.S. because race and ethnicity is such an important topic because diversity is all around us. Developed countries like the U.S. and Australia see the importance in defining race, ethnicity, and culture because it gives their citizens the ability to identify with the culture they choose, and shows the diversity of such
The report was written in the time period of the 1920s, in which the policy set by the states and the federal government worked under the framework of assimilation. Rather than having the indigenous population separate from the mainstream of Australia as in the previous policies of segregation. It became widely believed, that through intervention on the behalf of the state that the indigenous population could begin to share western ideals and become productive members of a capitalist society. In this time period the indigenous population was assigned a state official known as state chief protector of Aboriginals. The words used by the legislators had a paternal overtone, that though being born from one or more indigenous parents that the child
The aim of this paper is to define race, how people of diverse races relate – e.g. their interactions – how things have changed over time, and the impact this has on the different races today. It seeks to establish the real meaning of race, how we view and deal with it, and how this is a continuous process that is changing with time. Race is not an ancient idea, but rather a modern concept. For many centuries, race has been the cause of holocausts like the Jewish Holocaust and slavery. The race issue can be viewed from different perspectives. In recent years, people have used traits like skin color to define a person’s race, even forming perceptions of their intelligence, sexuality, and temperament, even though scientists have, for long, agreed
To many people across a variety of different nationalities and cultures, race has been proven to be a key factor for how society views you in the eyes of those who are prominently in charge. The term race has been brought up in recent years, to be considered a form of identification, as the word race is used to describe physical characteristics such as a person’s color of skin, hair, and eyes. When in reality, the correct term they should be using is Ethnicity. As a result, the term race is used to separate people into sub-categories based on the color of their skin. This type of classification, is a man-made creation used by society to classify certain groups of people into lower classes, while keeping the predominate group in charge at the top.
Possessing different physical attributes and cultural customs to the majority can make it difficult to feel like one belongs to a certain group. Groups are formed on opinion and common interests, not feeling like a person shares any of these things with another can make a person feel like an outsider especially a migrant.
THESIS: Scientists and other intellectuals recognize the modern concept of "race" as an artificial category that developed over the past five centuries due to encounters with non-European people. Even though people still attempt to organize humans into categories according to their race, these categories have been shown to have no scientific basis.
Multiculturalism in relation to Society and Culture is how persons work corporately in regards to their culture in a society. However, over time the growth of Australia's population has increase their culture in the country, yet the spectrum of persons in the media remains the same. Despite Australia having a multicultural policy that describe the "cultural and ethnic diversity of contemporary Australia". It is inefficient in the media, on a macro level. With the rise of media, there is a common trend with the persons in the industry being all Caucasian according to PWC recent report. This trend has interest me due to 6.7 million of Australians were born oversea. My interest is influenced by persons in the macro world, Osman Faruqi statement
One of the most prevalent themes throughout the world’s history is the dispute over race and racial differences. But, there is a problem: the majority of the population doesn’t have a clear understanding of what race is. Race is a socially constructed grouping of people that was created in order for people to differentiate themselves from one another and has many sources of influence. While most people believe race is determined by biological characteristics (hair type, skin color, eye shape, etc.), this is not true. To make things more complicated, there is no cut and dry definition to race. Authors of Race and Ethnicity in Society, Elizabeth Higginbotham and Margret Anderson, claim that there are seven different distinct ways to define race. They begin with the popular belief of biological characteristics, and, as mentioned before, through social construction. They go on to note that race can be formed from an ethnic group, from social class rank, from racial formation by institutions, and also can form from one’s self-definition (Higginbotham & Anderson, 2012, p. 13). All of these ways to define race have been seen throughout our history, and many of them have caused problems for minorities, especially in the United States.
Race is a social-constructed terminology where it categorizes people into groups that share certain distinctive physical characteristics such as skin color. However, race and racial identity is unstable, unfixed and constantly shifting, as race, typically, is a signifier of prevalent social conflict and interest. Although, many, particularly anthropologists and sociologists, argue in the aforementioned point of view, some – mainly white population -- believe that racial characteristics are biologically inherited.
In Michael Omi and Howard Winant’s essay “Racial Formation”, we see how the tendency to assign each individual a specific race as misleading. This essay suggests that race is not merely biological, but rather lays more in sociology and historical perspective. Once we look at someone and say, “They’re white”, it brings forth all the stereotype’s that go along with that “race”, and once the race is assigned, it is assumed that we can know something about the person.
In the United States both scholars and the general public have been conditioned to viewing human races as natural and separate divisions within the human species based on visible physical differences. With the vast expansion of
Culture is always changing. Beliefs, behaviours and presentation, religion and language all form part of what is an individual’s or community’s culture. (Bowes, Grace, & Hodge, 2012, p.75 & 77). Due to its intrinsic nature, when people migrate to Australia, they bring their culture with them. As migrants come from all over the world, and not the one place, their
Throughout my research, the one thing that I am certain of is that the term “race” is the most complex word in the world. To this day, many people are divided on whether “Race” is a real concept. “Race” has many definitions, but the way I believe most people define it in today’s society is “A group or set of people or things with a common feature or features.” Most people including myself confuse the word “Race” with Ethnicity. However, the two words are very different. The definition of Ethnicity is “the fact or state of belonging to a social group that has a common national or cultural tradition.” The two words are distinguished from one another by their meanings. One of them represents outer appearances of populations and the other represents the cultural views of populations.
In the United States it is not uncommon to hear the question, “What are you?” This seemingly simple question stems from the American belief that individuals can be divided into different biologically defined racial groups. However, anthropologists have long argued that U.S. racial groups are a product of American cultural constructions, meaning that racial groups are not genetically determined but only represent the way cultures (in this case Americans) classify people. For example, in the U.S individuals are classified into different races based on their heritage. However in Brazil, people are classified into a series of “tipos" based on their physical appearance. In the article “Mixed Blood”, Jeffrey Fish supports the claim that race is nothing more, but a social construct by demonstrating the cultural basis of race by comparing how races are defined in the United States and Brazil.
Examining the ideas and beliefs within ones own cultural context is central to the study of Anthropology. Issues of Race and Ethnicity dominate the academic discourses of various disciplines including the field of Anthropology. Race and Ethnicity are controversial terms that are defined and used by people in many different ways. This essay shall explore the ways in which Anthropologists make a distinction between race and ethnicity and how these distinctions serve as frames for cross-cultural comparison and analysis. It is important to accurately define these coined terms before one is able to make accurate comparisons and distinctions between them, and their relation to the concept of
The subject of race, within the field of sociology, can often be viewed as both a fluid concept and a cultural experience. Contrary to popular belief, race is not biological, but is a socially constructed category of people that share the same biological traits. Race can often change over time and is formed primarily by our personal views and the views of others. These can range from ethnicity to self-presentation and feelings of place within society. One example of the fluidity of race can be seen based upon the classification of the White or Caucasian race. In today’s culture, this race has been drastically increased to include a vast array of “white” individuals.