Why are there so many seemingly racist "anthropology" questions ?

Question

Why are there so many seemingly racist "anthropology" questions ?

Answer 1

Drag out some old anthropology books from the 20s,30s & 40s.  Many were written from a Eurocentric point of view & many of those old ideas still prevail in the public.  I remember reading some that sounded like KKK litrature. The media of that time period wasn't helpful either.  While anthropology has changed drastically, they have lost the attention of main stream media, that simply loves sensationalism.

Chuckle, how many times have you seen the question, "If humans came from monkeys, why are monkeys still here?"

Answer 2

I think why there might be a lot of "seemingly racist 'anthropology' questions" is because the history of anthropology hasn't necessarily been completely objective towards other people's culture and societal structure. Scientist (from many centuries and countries) have had difficulty with the documentation of these civilizations because a lot of their observations were dictated by demarcations and differences in comparison to their own socially conditioned view of what society or people should be.

So, perhaps ONE of the reasons why these remarks and questions still exist is because there's a long history of this type of explanation and reasoning within many academic anthropology books. Though, I think these type of remarks and questions are quickly dissolving due to the higher usage and understanding of university and more recent college books and classes which explain the negative ramifications of such thinking.

All in all, this type of documentation is understandable (though not justifiable) due to the fact that we all categorize our surroundings through difference and similarity.

Answer 3

Honestly, I'm not sure.  I think it might have something to do with the fact that people don't always have a great idea of what anthropology really is.  That would also explain all of the "so if we evolved from apes why are they still around" questions we keep getting in this topic too.

Some of them really don't mean to sound racist I think.  Some people are genuinely curious and they might phrase their question badly.  Some of them really ARE racist and tend to get reported or laughed at.

I wonder this sometimes too.

Answer 4

While the answer may lie in the individual motivations of the questioners i.e. they may be racist, there is an alternative explanation as well.

Anthropology roots as a discipline are colonial. It began as a colonial science that aimed to study the "other", the non-European societies - to develop better understanding in order to aid the imperial state policy.

Anthropologist were particularly obsessed with intelligence - a lot of scientific research was on how the size of the cranium and other body parts affected the intelligence. While this may sound like pseudo-science to us, it was a very serious enterprise in that era.

Areas of study for anthropologists are another indicator of its roots - Margaret Mead's study of Samoa exemplifies how the other is developed as an object of study.

To me - despite the navel gazing in the discipline and much internal change - some things remain the same. Only that Black gangs of the inner cities have replaced the tribals of Papua New Guinea!

Answer 5

Honestly, I don't think that many who ask or answer questions in this section even know what anthropology is.

Answer 6

Because anthropology is a social science, thus somewhat ideological, it attracts the ideologically motivated. We see some of this in biology, but not near the prevalence that is seen on this site.

If your discipline is not worthy of respect, it will be disrespected.