Anthropology reading response

Article

Sterk, Claire “Fieldwork on Prostitution in the Era of Aids” from 2012 Conformity and Conflict, Readings in Cultural Anthropology. Pearson, New York

Stryker, Rachael “Public Interest Ethnography-Women’s Prisons and Health Care in California” from from 2012 Conformity and Conflict, Readings in Cultural Anthropology.  Pearson, New York

Format :

1 – Citation (found below)

2 – The central theme of the reading / article 

3 – A few paragraphs of what the reading / article was about 

4 – Your critical thoughts and feelings on the reading / article, such as did it change your view of the topic. This is your opportunity to share a personal experience, draw other commonalities from what you read in the article to your life experience, or ask a question you had from the articles. 

THIS IS NOT A SUMMARY. Each response should be at least a page to a page and a half long and they must be thorough.

ANTH 3142 – 006 Article Response 18 Isabella Saad

THIS IS AN EXAMPLE FOR YOU TO GO BY FOR ANTHROPOLOGY 3142, ARTICLE
RESPONSES. EACH ARTICLE FOR EACH WEEK NEEDS TO BE SET UP IN THIS
WAY.

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Article 1:
Citation:
Kottak, C., & Kozaitis, K. 2012. On Being Different: Diversity & Multiculturalism in the North
American Mainstream. (4th ed., pp. 108-125). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Chapter 7.
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Central Theme:
The central theme in the seventh chapter of On Being Different is about the concept of race in
terms of biological and cultural views. The chapter goes into different approaches at discussing
major topics on race and differentiate between the biological and social.
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What was the article about?:
Race is a complex and ambiguous term that has political, social, and cultural
connotations. Race was used as means to categorize peoples in order to ascertain the natural
superiority of white Europeans. However, science has proven that human races, as mistakenly
understood, are not static and distinct. Phenotypic differences result from an unclear association
and combination of environmental factors and inherited genes (Kottak & Kozaitis, 2012).
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The assumption that race is a biological concept led scientists to classify certain diseases
as black or white. Because Europeans and White Americans had economic control over
resources, they believed that biological differences accounted for their apparent success. In fact,
economic and health disparities are results of discrimination and political decisions rather than
biological differences.
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Culture plays a crucial role in confining, or enlarging, the genetic pool of a population.
The concept of whiteness was a cultural construct contoured by restrictions on social behavior
and interactions, such interracial marriages. Therefore, racial classification was institutionalized
in concordance to what culture identifies as natural. Culture works because in addition to
interpreting differences, it is a dynamic way to establish social order and homogeneity. Racial
classification was the result of cultural norms within a political and socioeconomic context.


Thoughts and Feelings:
This chapter was very interesting as I have been exposed to race all of my life. I live in a Middle-
Eastern home in the United States, and I have been exposed to the profiling of people towards

ANTH 3142 – 006 Article Response 18 Isabella Saad

my faith. There have been times when I was about to board a plane and airport security did
“extra” screening at the gate and “randomly”. My uncle whose name is Mohammad is almost
always questioned when entering the United States even though he is a citizen. This shows how
racial profiling actually works on the personal level at airports. The controversial utilization of
race as a measure of difference between individuals and groups is dependent of the political,
historic, social, and economic contexts. Race is a powerful notion because it is associated with
visible physical traits. The field of genetics rejects the idea that race has a biological foundation.
Nonetheless, as more scientific knowledge is discovered, genetic discrimination might replace
racism and racial classification.
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Article 2:
Citation:
Blumer, H., & Allport, G. Is race prejudice a product of group position?. (pp. 152-173). From:
Allport, G. W. (1979). The Young Child. The Nature of Prejudice.
Blumer, H. (1958). Race Prejudice as a Sense of Group Position. The Pacific Sociological
Review.
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Central Theme:
The central theme of this particular article is the question of what causes racial prejudice. The
theory of prejudice needs to be simultaneously built and considered from the collective process
of defining race, and from the individual learning of the meanings of race and ethnicity through
social experiences during childhood.
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What was the article about?:
According to Blumer, prejudice is the result of dominance and challenge to the dominant
perspectives. The mores and behaviors that oppose the dominant group`s set of values and
cultural norms are protected by different forms of prejudice, such as racism. Subsequently, in
order for race prejudice to exist, four different feelings have to meet and intertwine: superiority,
distinctiveness, the sense of proprietary claim, and the feeling that the subordinate group is
threatening the intrinsic rights of the dominant group. These feelings are necessary to formulate
race prejudice, which positions the dominant group, by virtue of natural supremacy, above the
other groups. Thus, prejudice should be understood and alienated from the group perspective
(Blumer, 1958).
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Conversely, Allport argued that the first six years of childhood are fundamental in
breeding prejudice within an individual. Further, the parents’ reactions to the child`s behavior
can instill prejudice and predispose the child for intolerance, racism and ethnophobia. The latter
is founded on the association between purity (whiteness) of the skin and categorization of

ANTH 3142 – 006 Article Response 18 Isabella Saad

colored individuals and groups as inferior by nature (Allport, 1979).
!
Thoughts and Feelings:
This article viewed prejudiced from the group and collective perspective, and from the
individual acknowledgement of the social and cultural meaning of prejudice during early
childhood. However, prejudice is a continuum between the two extremities of individual
experiences and collective learning and definition of prejudice. Consequently, the sole view of
prejudice, such as racism, from a single perspective is insufficient to reduce prejudice and its
adverse impacts in the society.
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A Question I had from the Articles:
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1. How equitable is the American society?
2. Does racism still exist in the United States? Or, did it take different forms?