Fred Rios

Teresa Potter

Biological Anthropology

July 6, 2018

Research Paper: The Concept of Race

When I think of the word “Race” a lot of things come to my mind. Things like

culture, religion, different kinds of people, and even food. Race is a very dynamic

category and can be different depending on many unique circumstances and situations

the word is being used in. Race in the field of anthropology is defined as “ the cultural

characteristics that connect a particular group or groups of people to each other”

(Kamrani, Kambiz. “The Concept of Race.” Anthropology.net, 16. Jul. 2018. Web.). This

is a big topic in the field of anthropology because there is a lot of areas that can be

examined and looked at more in depth.

Anthropologists consider the meaning of the word race to have two meanings.

Firstly, physical anthropologists analyze the biological characteristics of different human

populations and compare them to one another. They do this in order to find patterns in

the biological variation in human populations. This was different compared to the

nineteenth century when anthropologists would look at more physical characteristics in

humans like skin color, hair color, length of limbs, and other body features. In the

twentieth century a lot was more focused on blood groups and genetic material which

added more complexity to their research. Physical anthropologists explain about

physical variation from smaller local communities to groups found across the world and

imply the fundamental biological populations that all humans can be sorted into.

Other ways anthropologists in their study of human culture look at race from a

very alternate perspective. In this case biological characteristics are not the main focus

but instead on the ways that people divide their social worlds into diverse human

groups. Race to cultural anthropologists is perceived as more of a cultural construct or

ideology. It is described as a way of thinking, speaking, and organizing of relationships

between groups of humans. These are two very different ways of looking at this concept

and what it means. Each way has its areas of focus and the certain characteristics that

are studied to give meaning to the word race.

In the historical context, the definition of the word “race” is thought to have a latin

root meaning “species” or “kind” (Smedley, Audrey. “Origins of ‘Race.’” Anthropology

News, vol. 38, no. 8, 1997, pp. 37-41.). This concept has had a long and complicated

history and was used in reference to a nation or ethnic group during the sixteenth

through nineteenth centuries. The term obtained its modern meaning in the field of

physical anthropology around the mid nineteenth century and later around the twentieth

century where it became a politicized issue and began the deconstruction of race as a

social construct. It was recognized when the first Europeans came to the americas and

noticed the native americans were different in many ways compared to them. A big

concern had to do with religion and how people of different color fit into that dilemma. In

many ancient civilizations people with arbitrary physical appearances could become full

members of a society by growing up within or adopting that society’s cultural norms.

Civilizations like China and Rome focused a lot of attention on things like family and
tribal affiliation rather than physical characteristics (Keeler, Ward. The Traffic in

Hierarchy: Masculinity and Its Others in Buddhist Burma. Hawai'i, 2017. pg.89.).

Times have drastically changed since humans first began incorporating race and

applying it to everyday life. There are many ways to view race with its different

applications and meanings in the modern world but one thing is certain that it is not

viewed in the same way that it once was. I really like how society has changed the

meaning of this term from a very specific meaning to a more broad and open

interpretation. To me it is a very important concept because it applies to all humans and

we choose how powerful and meaningful it is to us. I also agree more with the more

modern meaning of the way we use the word race. I feel that it is a good way to define it

based on the current times of our day and age and our multicultural societies.