SOCI 302 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Scientific Racism, Social Inequality, Primordialism
Soci 302: Study Guide Midterm I
Things to Study:
• What is race? What is ethnicity?
• Scientific Racism
• Theoretical approaches to ethnicity
• How to explain ethnicity:
o Primordial
o Constructivist
o Instrumentalist
• Ethnic experience
o Community
o Identity
o Activity
• Racism Discourse (Fleras)
• Measures of social inequality
Introduction to the Sociology of Ethnic and Social Inequality
"Committing Sociology" - cast/characterise an issue = very significant for policy point of view
(how society is planning to intervene and take on the issue)
Social Science Sorcery & Social Construction?
Race & Ethnicity - cannot be understood without Sociology & History
• Concepts = rooted in particular times & places
• Ethnicity = socially constructed
• Race = socially constructed
Note on Social Construction
• Social construction = does not mean fiction
• Race = nothing could be farther from truth
• Lived experience of socially constructed notions of race = very real
• Effects of notion of race have been & far-reaching
• Physical differences in people - these = not racial differences (Satzewich 2017)
Scientific Racism
• Roots in early scientific attempts to classify differing types of humans
o Emerged in 1850s (Banton 2017)
• Michael Biddis - traced development of racist ideology & describes scientific racism as
distinct from discriminatory ideas:
o "Here… morality itself." (Biddiss 1976, p 245)
• Robert Knox
o Physician & anatomist
o Believed that race was "overweening detainment of character & culture…" -
Biddiss 1976 p.20)
o Procured bodies for dissection from murderer's William Burke & William Hare
who killed 16 individuals in 1828 for medical research
o Knox (1850) - human character traceable solely to nature of that race to which
individual or nation belongs…
• Supports initiative of colonialization, slavery, supremacy…
▪ Racial determinism
• Francis Galton
o Father of eugenics - science of selective breeding aimed to improve human
species (Gillham 2001)
o Coined term eugenics - cultivation of race (Galton 2001 p. 17)
o Correlation vs. Causation
o Eugenics - Nazi regime
• Picking who was superior race - preventing offspring of 'inferior' race
o Anthropometric measurements
• Founded field of biometrics - identifying humans by traits
• Extensive use of anthropometric
o Hereditary genius?
• Analyse those of high occupation status and their sons
• Sociological blind spots
▪ Taking into account other factors
o Correlational analysis
o Pseudo-science
o Race = irrational ways of dividing humans
o Racial categorisation served colonisation
Sociocultural Examination of Ethnic & Racial Inequality
• Challenge things we take for granted as common sense
• Question ourselves
• Remember: Race = a social construction
o No such thing as a race
• Race & ethnicity - relational concepts
o Function of & shape relations
o Speak to real & imagined social groups
• Self-other
o Some groups use social constructive categories to exploit others
o Inclusion & exclusion
o Who get to be recognised, who don’t?
• Weber & Graduation of Social Closure
o Same idea for ethnic inequality
o Process by which some people are included/excluded
o Social closure - definitions - who is what, who is not
o Who determines who gets to be a physician?
• Peers - who gets to be - committee
• People deciding who is accepted
o Idea of protection
o Social closure --> advantage
• Ethnicity = contrast to race
o Definitions change depending on who we talk
Document Summary
What is ethnicity: scientific racism, theoretical approaches to ethnicity, how to explain ethnicity, primordial, constructivist. Identity: activity, racism discourse (fleras, measures of social inequality. Introduction to the sociology of ethnic and social inequality. "committing sociology" - cast/characterise an issue = very significant for policy point of view (how society is planning to intervene and take on the issue) Race & ethnicity - cannot be understood without sociology & history: concepts = rooted in particular times & places, ethnicity = socially constructed, race = socially constructed. Idea of protection: social closure --> advantage, ethnicity = contrast to race, definitions change depending on who we talk, ethnicity - talking about people"s cultural/symbolic relationships, ethnicity = implicit/explicit shared values (cultural characteristics, race = biological characteristics, culture. = sociological fact: berger - ask difficult questions. Theoretical approaches to analysing ethnic and racial inequality: an.
