Lecture 4: Racism Descent communities (ancestry, genealogy, lineage, origin) n the principle of genealogical connection by which attachment to a particular ancestral group is attained n key words: lineage, kinship, ancestors, blood, `own kind', brothers and sisters, father and mother (land) -- `fatherland', `Mother Russia', `the children of Africa'... n 3 English words with connotations of shared descent and culture: ethny, race, nation Ethnic group or ethny (ethnie) n from Greek ethnos: people, unity of people with common blood or descent (it referred to a basic human category, not a subgroup) n ethnikos: referring to heathens, the `others', foreign n 15th century in English ethnic meant somebody not Hebrew, not Christian, so again a pagan --> not `us' but `others' n the term `ethnicity' first appeared in English in the 1950s; it has various meanings: ethnic identity, the essence of ethny, belonging to ethny... 6 main features of ethnies: (Hutchinson & Smith, 1996) n common name n myth of common ancestry (shared origin) n shared historical memories n elements of common culture n homeland n sense of solidarity What is the difference between race and ethny? n the need to distinguish between the two: race refers to the classification of people, it is concerned with the categorisation of `them'; ethnicity refers to group identification and is more concerned with the identification of `us' (Banton) n the distinction is not necessary (Eriksen; van den Berghe) -- in both cases the social concern is with common biological descent, even when the markers are primarily cultural `Race' n the origin of the word is obscure, unknown; same word found in English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Slovenian, Czech? ... n the word race entered the English language in the 16^th century, from the French race "race, breed, lineage," possibly from Italian razza, (cf. Sp. razza, Port. raza) n Oxford: a group of persons, animals or plants connected by common descent, origin n persons descended from a common ancestor n a tribe, nation or people regarded as of common stock (used from about 1600 onward) n one of great divisions of mankind, based on physical peculiarities (from 1774) `Race' n group of common descent; biological type; type determining social and cultural characters n race: a group defined as distinct because of its supposed common physical characteristics (late 18^th, early 19^th century) n social construct; race exists as a social category - it is people who make the classification and definition (historical and contextual role) n ideas about race emerged in specific social and political contexts, circumstances, environments n the idea of race as a meaningful biological category is predominantly dismissed n no fixed or unchanging meaning History of racism n seeing contemporary forms of racism in isolation from the past means ignoring the history of racism n the idea of different `races' emerged when European and non-European peoples came into contact (late 15^th, early 16^th century) n European era of exploration and expansion n the rise of the African slave trade n European imperial domination and colonisation n all this resulted in articulation of ideas about the attributes of other races, `what is the Other like?' n from the 18^th century onward proliferation of writing about race and the emergence of racism (racial ideas about black `inferiority' and `superiority' of some racial groups etc.) Race and science n early use of word was parallel to nation or people n in late 18th and early 19th century the word acquired new meanings n initially scholars focused on cataloguing and describing; a strong tendency to rank all the things in the world (18^th century) n 18^th century Europe = the cradle of modern racism (Mosse) Race and science: the Enlightenment n the authority of science promotes and encourages observation, comparison, measuring, ordering of physical characteristics of human bodies n these `scientific activities' are regulated by classical aesthetic and cultural norms (the Enlightenment brought a revived interest and appreciation of classical antiquity; for example the Greek `beauty ideal') n phrenology (reading the skull), physiognomy (reading the face) -- combined with value judgements following aesthetic criteria n socio-political uses of science; hierarchical ordering of races n e.g. USA, later Germany, eugenics (= the study of methods of improving genetic qualities by selective breeding, especially as applied to human mating) Modernity and race n racism is inseparable from modernity (Wieviorka) n the dialectic of Enlightenment (racism present in major writings of the era: Montesquieu, Voltaire, Hume, Jefferson, Kant etc.) n exploration, domination, science and Christianity n the idea of race has been most influential in a period of European hegemony n by end of 19^th, start of 20^th the idea of racial superiority widespread -- colonial racism postulated the inferiority of colonised people; modern anti-semitism Bringing in the ethnicity n after the atrocities of the Second World War and the Holocaust and anti-semitism, the word `race' became problematic n the word `ethnicity' becomes the preferred choice for expressing inter-group differences n especially from the 1960s onward; anti-colonial, anti-racist arguments => ethnicity expresses positive feelings of belonging to a cultural group n after the collapse of communism more negative aspects of ethnicity come to the fore (esp. because of `ethnic cleansing') n but - the persistence of race: Race in the US law enforcement n FBI identifies fugitives by sex, physical features, occupation, nationality and race: n White, n Black, n White Hispanic, n Asian Contemporary racism n no single monolithic racism but various distinct racisms? n no longer an ideology about biological arguments (`classical' racism as natural) n a new era in the history of racism began with decolonisation, decline of scientific racism, economic crisis of the industrial societies (1960s, 1970s) n a range of characteristics employed to construct the difference -- `cultural racism' n the need to study the role of the state and the political institutions in shaping ethnic and race relations (cf. nationalism) n post-1989, post-socialist racism, neo-racism Next week's readings: n What is the nation? What is nationalism? What is the relationship between the two? n Read texts from these authors either from readers "Nationalism" or "The Ethnicity Reader" or go straight to the original: n Miroslav Hroch: Social Preconditions of National Revival in Europe (pp. xi-xv, 3) n Anthony D. Smith: The Ethnic Origins of Nations (pp. 6-13) n Ernest Gellner: Nations and Nationalism (1-7) n Benedict Anderson: Imagined Communities (5-7)