Anthropology Personal Statement

First and foremost, I'm deeply disturbed by what transpired at the National Policy Institute conference over the weekend. It's rather apropos that we are covering the topic of race at this moment. I'm furious but inspired (now, more than ever) to continue on this journey of justice studies as part of my personal commitment to be an ally for minorities. I wish that every person had the privilege of taking this class, the knowledge we're gaining is one of the most powerful tools we can use to combat the ignorance of white nationalism.

What is anthropology? This is a question that can be answered in numerous ways, but we are going to define it as simple as possible. If we break the word down into its two components it means the study of human beings. “Anthropo” means human beings or human kind and “logy” or “logia” is Greek for the study or knowledge of something. When we put it all together, it is the study of human beings which can be very broad. Anthropology can be broken down into four subfields: physical anthropology, archaeology, linguistic anthropology, and cultural anthropology.

In 2014, George Gmelch studied and observed the practices, taboos, and fetishes that have been placed by other players perviously in the history of baseball. Gmelch amassed tremendous pieces of information upon us with all these players having different rituals,taboos, snd fetishes . From eating Popeyes every morning to avoiding eating certain foods, whatever flats your boat is what works. By slowly but surely observing all these actions Gmelch put together a piece that really can break down the "baseball magic".

What if we lived in a world where there were no races? What if people were not discriminated against because of the color of their skin or because they are different from what we see as acceptable? This is what Kwame Anthony Appiah tries to examine in his essay “Race, Culture, Identity: Misunderstood Connections.” Appiah tries to point out that “American social distinctions cannot be understood in terms of the concept of race.” (102) That America is made up of so many different races that no race is the more superior or in other cases inferior to one another. America is defined by its cultural diversity; it is what makes America the nation that it is. It is the reason that we as Americans have freedoms other people

Race is a hot topic in our world. We all think we know what race is. After all, we are constantly being bombarded with it whether it be from media, politics, or sports. The truth is that race does not revolve around the idea of biological traits or characteristics. It is a modern concept that we as a society have created to divide people into categories. I will argue that race is socially constructed from a biological, political history, and sociological standpoint, and how it may impact other areas of our society.

In The Social Construction of Race, Ian F. Haney Lopez defines race as a social construct that is constantly changing its meaning due to the fickle nature of society. Lopez believes that this fickleness stems from a social climate formed by a variety of factors such as human economic interest, current events, and ideology. There are certain racial definitions however, that have remained mostly the same despite efforts to bring attention to the offensiveness and immorality of such discriminatory thinking. These stereotypes are oftentimes negative and apply to members of minority races, which end up perpetuating themselves into various cultural outlets of society including the media and film. Through the use of such popular forms of entertainment, the definitions of a race remain largely unchanged as future generations remain exposed to these racial classifications.

The PBS series “Race: The Power of an Illusion” effectively works to expose race as a social construct and deconstructs the false notions that race is a biological marker. The series first discusses that all human beings originated from Africa but dispersed about 70,000 years ago to various places in the world. As a result of this migration, people were spread to different locations throughout the world with different environmental conditions that affected their physical traits. It was many years after the migration in which people began to display these new physical traits such as slanted eyes, fair skin, and differing hair textures. While the series notes the physical changes that occurred during the migration it also emphasizes that race while it may seem apparent in skin color and other physical features has no real biological basis.

Race and ethnicity cannot always be defined. As children, we grow up and we learn to associate different contexts with different meanings and even different cultures. My paper is based on the origin of race and how ultimately it can be used

However, with the world becoming more diverse, countless people are from various countries which reveals a lapse in the idea of race. For example, if someone is equally both African American and Caucasian, then the person has to choose his or her race. If people have the ability to choose what race they want to associate themselves with, then this is no different from adopting a foreign culture or a different gender. Therefore, race proves to be a social

According to “How Real is Race,” the three fundamental racial premises that are rejected by contemporary scientists are that there is no distinction between subspecies of archaic humans, it is not possible to separate humans into biological races, and race is a concept that is not important in understand the biology of a human body. The authors of “How Real is Race,” suggest that educators handle the concept of race in classroom by teaching students that there is potential to change the perspective in society about the definition of race. They believe that race is not a determining factor of a human. Race is a concept that was made in countries to create social and cultural standards. The goal is to teach students that race should categorize individuals and associate them to social stereotypes. Therefore, having educators being social transformers and develop a system that stops racism. The authors suggest that educators avoid racial classifications, teach the success of movements

PBS. (2000). Documentary. "Race: Social Concept, Biological Idea. " Race: Social Concept, Biological Idea.

The English term ‘race’ is believed to originate from the Spanish word raza, which means ‘breed’ or ‘stock’ (Race). People use race to define other groups, this separation of groups is based largely on physical features. Features like skin color and hair don’t affect the fundamental biology of human variation (Hotz). Race is truly only skin deep, there are no true biological separations between two ‘racial’ groups. Scientifically speaking, there is more variation between single local groups than there is between two large, global groups; the human variation is constantly altering (Lewontin). The majority of today’s anthropologists agree that race is a form of social categorization, not the separation of groups based on biological

The concept of race and the meanings associated with the term have continuously changed and evolved throughout history. Many negative connotations have been associated with the word race and these are evident as one reflects on the historical origins of the term. Commonly the term race is closely connected to the notion of ‘racism.’ Racism is a specific form of prejudice which focuses on physical variations between people. It describes the ideological belief that a person, or groups of people can be classified into ‘races’ which can be ranked in terms of superiority and inferiority (Spoonley, 1988:4). Giddens defines racism as “the attribution of characteristics of superiority or inferiority to a population sharing certain physically inherited characteristics” (1997:584). This supports the idea that racism is a manner of prejudice or animosity against people who have different physical characteristics. It is in virtue of circumstances such as these that Anthropologists find it necessary to make a distinction between the concepts of race and ethnicity.

As an aspiring physician and researcher, I am drawn to Northwester's Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. I chose the biological sciences major in order to expand my knowledge about biology. While chemistry, biology, physics are my favorite subjects in school, I also find the development of human cultures to be a fascinating subject and would take anthropology electives at Northwestern to satiate my curiosity. At Weinberg, I am interested in conducting research in order to both expand my knowledge of scientific research and skills and to enhance my undergraduate experience.

There has been a lot of scientific research done into genetics, genetic crosses and inheritance enabling us to understand why we have the certain characteristics and traits that we do, how we inherited them and how we can pass them on. It’s because of this research that we can understand and learn about our genetic makeup and why it effects the way we are.