preview

The Color Black Analysis

Decent Essays

According to Jonathan M. Marks and his dissertation, Scientific and Folk Ideas about Hereditary, Race can be classified as a. “property of [an individual’s] constitution, innate and assigned at birth” (178). On a biological basis, race is perceived as a naturally occurring characteristic which commonly groups certain individuals together and other individuals apart. Now, Marks argues this assumption by critically analyzing the cultural aspect and societal influence that impacts the way Race is perceived and systemized. From an anthropologist view-point, Race is not pre-determined or natural it is culturally constructed and is an unsolidified concept. Essentially, anthropologist see race as a cultural construct because it has the ability to change over time and has no definite meaning. Mark supports this when he …show more content…

Conversely, this “natural” classification is problematic because of the history behind the practice. Before breastfeeding was normalized or seen as beneficial, the common standard for mothers was to wet-nurse their infants which goes against what could categorize humans as mammals or what is genetically innate. In this example, Mark proves how a supposed naturally occurring property of humans, such as race, can be culturally impacted or societally influenced. In addition, race does not have a fixed definition. Mark demonstrates this when he presents the question from Newsweek, “What is The Color Black?” which showcases a multitude of completely different looking black people who would fail a genetic test for being black. This showcases how subjective the construct of a race could be and proves that there is no definite meaning to race unless it is culturally applied. Overall, the concept of race in in anthropology and Mark’s critique strive to change how race is perceived and studied, emphasizing to both the science field and the common people that the classification of race should not be defined as“ a fact of nature [but rather] a fact of history”

Get Access