Geography 2410A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Negroid, Sexual Orientation, Social Stratification

• School: Western University
• Department: Geography
• Course: Geography 2410A/B
• Professor: Jeff Hopkins

Document Summary

Race as traditionally defined: a group of individual sharing common genetic attributes which determine that group"s physical appearance and more controversially their cognitive abilities. Three dominant categories: caucasoid white, negroid black, monogoloid yellow. Race defined by contemporary social scientists: the belief that human beings can be readily divided into a series of discrete races is now widely regarded as fallacious. Instead race are now widely regarded as a political and social construction rather than a biological fact, the product of racism rather than of human genetics. E. g. dark skin in equatorial people for uv radiation protection. E. g. pale skin in northern latitude people to better produce vitamin d from pale sunlight: 0. 01% of genes reflected in external appearance, differing surface appearances do not constitute distinct biological groups or races. Racism defined: actions, attitude and policies that attribute social, cultural and cognitive characteristics to people based solely on arbitrary physical criteria. Expression of personal attitudes, views, practices: subconscious, indirect / unintentional.