Race Cultural Construct

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Race is present everyday within society. It is constantly assumed that is a natural and biological way to place human beings into distinctive categories. However, race cannot clearly be defined nor can it be a natural phenomenon of biology. The very discipline of Anthropology teaches one that humanity cannot be divided into biological categories, and in fact, race is a cultural construct determined by where you live, religion, family values and language. The concept of race has a social significance that truly interferes with the scientific understanding of humans and genetic diversity. Race has always held more meaning than physical differences, the physical variations within society has been determined by many different factors including …show more content…
He described race as physical attributes that could help distinguish populations (Rose, 1968 as cited in Fortney, 1977). Human cultural behaviour is learned and drilled in the mind of infant. Children are not born knowing what race they supposedly belong to. A parent, guardian or teacher needs to inform a child of the race to which the identify with. Race is a cultural construct and it is not an essential attribute in everyday life. The role of a mother is assumed to be a natural instinctive role brought on by biology but like race, motherhood is culturally constructed. The understanding of how motherhood is culturally constructed can also enhance the knowledge of how race is culturally constructed. By looking at the mothering techniques used, it can be assumed that these techniques were passed down by her mother and so on. In relation to race, a mother teaches her children their identification within the world and that knowledge is continuously passed down to her children’s children. Therefore, those who have influence on the minds of children should make a conscious effort to relay an accurate message about the cultural construction of race. Race has now become a way to which cultures identify themselves and teach their children the so called human biological racial taxonomy they fall under. Unesco (1950) states "all humans …show more content…
Anthropologist have found this to be untrue and since the definition of race is ever changing there should not be distinctive categories to which individuals identify with. Since race was developed to categorize individuals for slavery and or discrimination against resources (Zack 2001). Different cultures must change the way they teach racial differences, accurate emphasizing that race is not a biological construct but, that of social and cultural. The term ethnicity is now a preferred by anthropologists, this allows human beings to choose their own distinct category based on cultural traditions they have grown up with. Throughout history scientists, governments and academic officials have claimed that there a set number of races. Yet the definition of race from around the world differs, proving that race is not the same in cultures around the world. The different cultures around the world use different classification techniques to understand human difference. Therefore, if each culture differs in the criteria they use to define difference in humankind, can race exist? For example, George Buffon (1701-1788) (as cited in Fortney 1997) determined that the variation in humanities physical traits were due to the climate and cultural identities, instead of genetic and hereditary traits. His work was significant in the understanding and explanation of
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