Jonathan S. Friedlaender (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195300307
- eISBN:
- 9780199790142
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195300307.001.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Evolutionary Biology / Genetics
The broad arc of islands north of Australia, extending from Indonesia east towards the central Pacific, is home to a set of human populations whose diversity is unsurpassed elsewhere. Approximately ...
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The broad arc of islands north of Australia, extending from Indonesia east towards the central Pacific, is home to a set of human populations whose diversity is unsurpassed elsewhere. Approximately 20% of the world's languages are spoken here, and the biological and genetic heterogeneity among the groups is also extraordinary. This book describes the origins of the genetic and linguistic variation there. It lays out the very complex structure of the variation within and among the islands in this relatively small but important region. This book applies genetic analyses to an intensively sampled set of populations, and subjects these and complementary linguistic data to a variety of phylogenetic analyses. This reveals a number of heretofore unknown ancient Pleistocene genetic variants that are only found in these island populations, and identifies the genetic footprints of more recent migrants from Southeast Asia who were the ancestors of the Polynesians. Finally, a number of explanatory models are tested to see which best account for the observed pattern of genetic variation. The results indicate that a number of commonly used models of evolutionary divergence and biogeography are overly simple in their assumptions, and that human diversity often has accumulated in very complex ways.Less
The broad arc of islands north of Australia, extending from Indonesia east towards the central Pacific, is home to a set of human populations whose diversity is unsurpassed elsewhere. Approximately 20% of the world's languages are spoken here, and the biological and genetic heterogeneity among the groups is also extraordinary. This book describes the origins of the genetic and linguistic variation there. It lays out the very complex structure of the variation within and among the islands in this relatively small but important region. This book applies genetic analyses to an intensively sampled set of populations, and subjects these and complementary linguistic data to a variety of phylogenetic analyses. This reveals a number of heretofore unknown ancient Pleistocene genetic variants that are only found in these island populations, and identifies the genetic footprints of more recent migrants from Southeast Asia who were the ancestors of the Polynesians. Finally, a number of explanatory models are tested to see which best account for the observed pattern of genetic variation. The results indicate that a number of commonly used models of evolutionary divergence and biogeography are overly simple in their assumptions, and that human diversity often has accumulated in very complex ways.
Justin E. H. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691153643
- eISBN:
- 9781400866311
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691153643.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter focuses on those early modern accounts of human phenotypic diversity that do not resort to claims of essential difference, but instead appeal to some form or other of degeneration to ...
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This chapter focuses on those early modern accounts of human phenotypic diversity that do not resort to claims of essential difference, but instead appeal to some form or other of degeneration to account for human diversity. Degenerationism is the view that there was an original, ideal type of the human species (and generally also of animal species), but that different groups have deviated from this perfect state as a result of migration, changes in diet and in climate, and hybridity with other species. The chapter shows that degenerationist accounts of human variety are particularly interesting in the way they conflate descriptive and normative claims. It also considers in some detail the place of apes, and in particular of higher primates, in degenerationist reflections on the lower limits of the human species.Less
This chapter focuses on those early modern accounts of human phenotypic diversity that do not resort to claims of essential difference, but instead appeal to some form or other of degeneration to account for human diversity. Degenerationism is the view that there was an original, ideal type of the human species (and generally also of animal species), but that different groups have deviated from this perfect state as a result of migration, changes in diet and in climate, and hybridity with other species. The chapter shows that degenerationist accounts of human variety are particularly interesting in the way they conflate descriptive and normative claims. It also considers in some detail the place of apes, and in particular of higher primates, in degenerationist reflections on the lower limits of the human species.
Justin E. H. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691153643
- eISBN:
- 9781400866311
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691153643.003.0010
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter surveys some of the more important developments in the history of the concept of race in eighteenth-century Germany. It reveals an inconsistency between the desire to make taxonomic ...
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This chapter surveys some of the more important developments in the history of the concept of race in eighteenth-century Germany. It reveals an inconsistency between the desire to make taxonomic distinctions and a hesitance to posit any real ontological divisions within the human species. This inconsistency was well represented in the physical-anthropological work of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, who was, in many respects, the most important eighteenth-century theorist of human difference. Johann Gottfried Herder, a contemporary of Blumenbach's, was intensely interested in human diversity, but saw this diversity as entirely based in culture rather than biology, and saw cultural difference as an entirely neutral matter, rather than as a continuum of higher and lower. Herder constitutes an important link between early modern universalism, on the one hand, and on the other the ideally value-neutral project of cultural anthropology as it would begin to emerge in the nineteenth century.Less
This chapter surveys some of the more important developments in the history of the concept of race in eighteenth-century Germany. It reveals an inconsistency between the desire to make taxonomic distinctions and a hesitance to posit any real ontological divisions within the human species. This inconsistency was well represented in the physical-anthropological work of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, who was, in many respects, the most important eighteenth-century theorist of human difference. Johann Gottfried Herder, a contemporary of Blumenbach's, was intensely interested in human diversity, but saw this diversity as entirely based in culture rather than biology, and saw cultural difference as an entirely neutral matter, rather than as a continuum of higher and lower. Herder constitutes an important link between early modern universalism, on the one hand, and on the other the ideally value-neutral project of cultural anthropology as it would begin to emerge in the nineteenth century.
John D. Robinson and Larry C. James (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195143904
- eISBN:
- 9780199848171
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195143904.001.0001
- Subject:
- Psychology, Clinical Psychology
This book provides a comprehensive overview of human diversity by examining how issues of race, ethnicity, disability, religion, and sexual orientation affect daily interactions. With the increased ...
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This book provides a comprehensive overview of human diversity by examining how issues of race, ethnicity, disability, religion, and sexual orientation affect daily interactions. With the increased awareness of cultural diversity, chapters focus the reader on the many factors to consider in our ever-expanding society. Rather than adopting an elaborately theoretical style to explore these issues, the chapters address the question of interaction in a clear and accessible style. Each chapter, written by a leading scholar in the field, presents a different perspective on how appreciating and understanding human variety can enhance the quality of interactions between social groups.Less
This book provides a comprehensive overview of human diversity by examining how issues of race, ethnicity, disability, religion, and sexual orientation affect daily interactions. With the increased awareness of cultural diversity, chapters focus the reader on the many factors to consider in our ever-expanding society. Rather than adopting an elaborately theoretical style to explore these issues, the chapters address the question of interaction in a clear and accessible style. Each chapter, written by a leading scholar in the field, presents a different perspective on how appreciating and understanding human variety can enhance the quality of interactions between social groups.
Amartya Sen
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198289289
- eISBN:
- 9780191596896
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198289286.003.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Public and Welfare
The introduction to the book discusses the fact that the idea of equality is confronted by two different types of diversities: (1) the basic heterogeneity (diversity) of human beings, and (2) the ...
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The introduction to the book discusses the fact that the idea of equality is confronted by two different types of diversities: (1) the basic heterogeneity (diversity) of human beings, and (2) the multiplicity of variables in terms of which equality can be judged. This book is concerned with both these diversities, and also, specifically, with the relation between the two. The heterogeneity of people leads to divergences in the assessment of equality in terms of the choice of different focal variables (income, wealth, etc.), which in the language of economics, are called ‘space’. It is pointed out that ethical theories that reject equality in terms of one variable or space, may endorse it in terms of another. After a preamble on these matters, the introduction gives an outline of the content of the rest of the book.Less
The introduction to the book discusses the fact that the idea of equality is confronted by two different types of diversities: (1) the basic heterogeneity (diversity) of human beings, and (2) the multiplicity of variables in terms of which equality can be judged. This book is concerned with both these diversities, and also, specifically, with the relation between the two. The heterogeneity of people leads to divergences in the assessment of equality in terms of the choice of different focal variables (income, wealth, etc.), which in the language of economics, are called ‘space’. It is pointed out that ethical theories that reject equality in terms of one variable or space, may endorse it in terms of another. After a preamble on these matters, the introduction gives an outline of the content of the rest of the book.
Justin E. H. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691153643
- eISBN:
- 9781400866311
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691153643.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter follows the development of Renaissance debates about the nature of human diversity into the following century, and particularly as they played out in France and England. It focuses in ...
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This chapter follows the development of Renaissance debates about the nature of human diversity into the following century, and particularly as they played out in France and England. It focuses in particular on so-called polygenesis, as represented most famously by Isaac La Peyrère's pre-Adamism, according to which different human groups were created at different moments. Furthermore, the chapter considers some of the elaborate attempts to account for the migration of human beings throughout the world in terms of diffusionist models, focusing in particular on the work of the seventeenth-century English jurist Matthew Hale, and arguing that such attempts played an important role in the increasing naturalization of modern paleoanthropology, and therefore also of modern accounts of the nature of human diversity.Less
This chapter follows the development of Renaissance debates about the nature of human diversity into the following century, and particularly as they played out in France and England. It focuses in particular on so-called polygenesis, as represented most famously by Isaac La Peyrère's pre-Adamism, according to which different human groups were created at different moments. Furthermore, the chapter considers some of the elaborate attempts to account for the migration of human beings throughout the world in terms of diffusionist models, focusing in particular on the work of the seventeenth-century English jurist Matthew Hale, and arguing that such attempts played an important role in the increasing naturalization of modern paleoanthropology, and therefore also of modern accounts of the nature of human diversity.
Amartya Sen
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198289289
- eISBN:
- 9780191596896
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198289286.003.0010
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Public and Welfare
Some of the general points that have emerged from the analysis of inequality presented in the rest of the book are reviewed and assessed. Particular concern is given to the interrelations between the ...
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Some of the general points that have emerged from the analysis of inequality presented in the rest of the book are reviewed and assessed. Particular concern is given to the interrelations between the methodological and substantive issues. The different sections of the chapter are questions of equality; equality, space, and [human] diversity; plurality, incompleteness, and evaluation; data, observations, and effective freedoms; aggregation, egalitarianism, and efficiency; alternative defences of inequality; incentives, diversity, and egalitarianism; on equality as a social concern; responsibility and fairness; and capability, freedom, and motivations.Less
Some of the general points that have emerged from the analysis of inequality presented in the rest of the book are reviewed and assessed. Particular concern is given to the interrelations between the methodological and substantive issues. The different sections of the chapter are questions of equality; equality, space, and [human] diversity; plurality, incompleteness, and evaluation; data, observations, and effective freedoms; aggregation, egalitarianism, and efficiency; alternative defences of inequality; incentives, diversity, and egalitarianism; on equality as a social concern; responsibility and fairness; and capability, freedom, and motivations.
Amartya Sen
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198289289
- eISBN:
- 9780191596896
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198289286.003.0002
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Public and Welfare
The two central issues in the ethical analysis of equality—‘Why equality?’ and ‘Equality of what?’ are addressed. It is noted that ethical plausibility is hard to achieve unless everyone is given ...
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The two central issues in the ethical analysis of equality—‘Why equality?’ and ‘Equality of what?’ are addressed. It is noted that ethical plausibility is hard to achieve unless everyone is given equal consideration in some space (or variable) that is important in the ethical theory under consideration. In addition, it is difficult to see how an ethical theory can have general social plausibility without extending equal consideration to all at some level. However, it is argued that the question of ‘why equality’ is not a central issue in differentiating standard theories, since they are all egalitarian in terms of some space or variable; rather, it is ‘equality of what’ that is the important issue. The different theories give different answers to the question, ‘equality of what’ that are distinguishable in principle and involve conceptual different approaches, but whose practical force depends on the empirical importance of the relevant human heterogeneities that make equality in one space diverge from that in another.Less
The two central issues in the ethical analysis of equality—‘Why equality?’ and ‘Equality of what?’ are addressed. It is noted that ethical plausibility is hard to achieve unless everyone is given equal consideration in some space (or variable) that is important in the ethical theory under consideration. In addition, it is difficult to see how an ethical theory can have general social plausibility without extending equal consideration to all at some level. However, it is argued that the question of ‘why equality’ is not a central issue in differentiating standard theories, since they are all egalitarian in terms of some space or variable; rather, it is ‘equality of what’ that is the important issue. The different theories give different answers to the question, ‘equality of what’ that are distinguishable in principle and involve conceptual different approaches, but whose practical force depends on the empirical importance of the relevant human heterogeneities that make equality in one space diverge from that in another.
Justin E. H. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691153643
- eISBN:
- 9781400866311
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691153643.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter turns to the history of the race concept. It considers the early development of thinking about human diversity and human origins in the context of the Renaissance. In important respects, ...
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This chapter turns to the history of the race concept. It considers the early development of thinking about human diversity and human origins in the context of the Renaissance. In important respects, later reflections in European philosophy echo debates that played out a century earlier within the Ibero-American world, largely as a result of the fact that the Iberians were the earliest Europeans to have significant encounters with non-European peoples in the modern era. The chapter focuses on those sixteenth-century engagements with the novissima americana, the latest news from the Americas, that dealt with the question of the origins and nature of biological kinds in the New World, and particularly with the origins and nature of New World peoples.Less
This chapter turns to the history of the race concept. It considers the early development of thinking about human diversity and human origins in the context of the Renaissance. In important respects, later reflections in European philosophy echo debates that played out a century earlier within the Ibero-American world, largely as a result of the fact that the Iberians were the earliest Europeans to have significant encounters with non-European peoples in the modern era. The chapter focuses on those sixteenth-century engagements with the novissima americana, the latest news from the Americas, that dealt with the question of the origins and nature of biological kinds in the New World, and particularly with the origins and nature of New World peoples.
Amartya Sen
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198289289
- eISBN:
- 9780191596896
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198289286.003.0007
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Public and Welfare
After a preamble on the choice of space (variable) and evaluative purpose, the matter of whether a person's position in terms of achievement should be judged positively (as level of achievement ...
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After a preamble on the choice of space (variable) and evaluative purpose, the matter of whether a person's position in terms of achievement should be judged positively (as level of achievement reached) or negatively (in terms of shortfall compared with possible maximal achievement) is addressed. It is noted that the welfare economics literature on inequality has typically overlooked human diversity in terms of this maximum potential. The rest of the chapter examines and contrasts the evaluation of inequality in terms of (1) justice and (2) welfare.Less
After a preamble on the choice of space (variable) and evaluative purpose, the matter of whether a person's position in terms of achievement should be judged positively (as level of achievement reached) or negatively (in terms of shortfall compared with possible maximal achievement) is addressed. It is noted that the welfare economics literature on inequality has typically overlooked human diversity in terms of this maximum potential. The rest of the chapter examines and contrasts the evaluation of inequality in terms of (1) justice and (2) welfare.
Amartya Sen
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198289289
- eISBN:
- 9780191596896
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198289286.003.0009
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Public and Welfare
The relevance of the capability perspective is discussed in the context of differences in class, gender, and other social features. Human diversity is shown, once again, to play a crucial part in ...
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The relevance of the capability perspective is discussed in the context of differences in class, gender, and other social features. Human diversity is shown, once again, to play a crucial part in strengthening the significance of the informational departure in moving from the spaces of incomes, opportunities, happiness, primary goods, etc. to taking direct note of the achievement of functionings and the capability to achieve them. The capability perspective is more sensitive than utility‐based approaches to problems of entrenched deprivation, which can lead to defensive adjustment of desires and expectations (thereby distorting the metric of utilities). It can also be fairer in dealing directly with freedoms rather than concentrating on the means of freedoms. These differences are significant in assessing inequality and injustice across the barriers of class, gender, and other social divisions.Less
The relevance of the capability perspective is discussed in the context of differences in class, gender, and other social features. Human diversity is shown, once again, to play a crucial part in strengthening the significance of the informational departure in moving from the spaces of incomes, opportunities, happiness, primary goods, etc. to taking direct note of the achievement of functionings and the capability to achieve them. The capability perspective is more sensitive than utility‐based approaches to problems of entrenched deprivation, which can lead to defensive adjustment of desires and expectations (thereby distorting the metric of utilities). It can also be fairer in dealing directly with freedoms rather than concentrating on the means of freedoms. These differences are significant in assessing inequality and injustice across the barriers of class, gender, and other social divisions.
Justin E. H. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691153643
- eISBN:
- 9781400866311
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691153643.003.0011
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This concluding chapter links antiquarian and contemporary conceptions of race, though at the same time noting that there can be no easy distinction between the two. It shows that while there may be ...
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This concluding chapter links antiquarian and contemporary conceptions of race, though at the same time noting that there can be no easy distinction between the two. It shows that while there may be transhistorical and innate predispositions to divide human society into a fixed number of essentialized subgroups, it would be extremely hasty to suppose that these “kinks” of the human mind are somehow fixed in the human brain. Between any possible predisposition and the actual modern history of thinking about race, there is a tremendous amount of room for conceptualizing alternative paths our deep-seated propensities for thinking about human diversity might have taken, and could still yet take.Less
This concluding chapter links antiquarian and contemporary conceptions of race, though at the same time noting that there can be no easy distinction between the two. It shows that while there may be transhistorical and innate predispositions to divide human society into a fixed number of essentialized subgroups, it would be extremely hasty to suppose that these “kinks” of the human mind are somehow fixed in the human brain. Between any possible predisposition and the actual modern history of thinking about race, there is a tremendous amount of room for conceptualizing alternative paths our deep-seated propensities for thinking about human diversity might have taken, and could still yet take.
Amartya Sen
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198289289
- eISBN:
- 9780191596896
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198289286.003.0006
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Public and Welfare
This chapter first addresses the informational bases of justice. It then goes on to discuss and give a critique of the Rawlsian theory of justice as fairness, which is regarded by Rawls himself as a ...
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This chapter first addresses the informational bases of justice. It then goes on to discuss and give a critique of the Rawlsian theory of justice as fairness, which is regarded by Rawls himself as a political conception. The assessment of justice is discussed in terms of distribution of primary goods (which include rights, liberties and opportunities, income and wealth, and the social bases of self‐respect), and in terms of capabilities (the freedoms enjoyed by people to choose lives that they value). The last part of the chapter addresses the issue of human diversity in the Rawlsian theory of justice as fairness.Less
This chapter first addresses the informational bases of justice. It then goes on to discuss and give a critique of the Rawlsian theory of justice as fairness, which is regarded by Rawls himself as a political conception. The assessment of justice is discussed in terms of distribution of primary goods (which include rights, liberties and opportunities, income and wealth, and the social bases of self‐respect), and in terms of capabilities (the freedoms enjoyed by people to choose lives that they value). The last part of the chapter addresses the issue of human diversity in the Rawlsian theory of justice as fairness.
Jenny Reardon
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262015950
- eISBN:
- 9780262298667
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262015950.003.0114
- Subject:
- Biology, Bioethics
This chapter introduces the theme of bottom-up agency with an account of struggles for authority between socially and scientifically constituted groups of genetic research subjects. It addresses how ...
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This chapter introduces the theme of bottom-up agency with an account of struggles for authority between socially and scientifically constituted groups of genetic research subjects. It addresses how subsequent human genome variation research projects continue to bypass responsibility for their roles in co-constituting natural and moral orderings of human difference. It considers the assumptions about the constitution and proper ordering of human differences and demonstrates how they hindered consideration of the role that both population genetics and liberal systems of rights play in producing human differences. This chapter shows that the Human Genome Diversity Project and Haplotype Map Project (HapMap) cases suggest that genome scientists and their administrators seek “precise” methods for ordering human differences and defining groups that they believe protect against bias, namely racism.Less
This chapter introduces the theme of bottom-up agency with an account of struggles for authority between socially and scientifically constituted groups of genetic research subjects. It addresses how subsequent human genome variation research projects continue to bypass responsibility for their roles in co-constituting natural and moral orderings of human difference. It considers the assumptions about the constitution and proper ordering of human differences and demonstrates how they hindered consideration of the role that both population genetics and liberal systems of rights play in producing human differences. This chapter shows that the Human Genome Diversity Project and Haplotype Map Project (HapMap) cases suggest that genome scientists and their administrators seek “precise” methods for ordering human differences and defining groups that they believe protect against bias, namely racism.
Justin E. H. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691153643
- eISBN:
- 9781400866311
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691153643.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter focuses on the life and work of Anton Wilhelm Amo, who was active in Germany in the period between Leibniz and Kant. It shows how Amo's identity as an African in Europe helped to shape ...
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This chapter focuses on the life and work of Anton Wilhelm Amo, who was active in Germany in the period between Leibniz and Kant. It shows how Amo's identity as an African in Europe helped to shape both his philosophy and its reception, and what lessons may have been drawn in the era for thinking about the relationship between human racial diversity, on the one hand, and the universality of human reason, on the other. Finally, the chapter argues that the position occupied by Amo in the philosophical landscape of early eighteenth-century Germany reveals the likely influence of Leibniz, who had provided a model for a nonracial philosophical anthropology for which he has generally not been given much credit.Less
This chapter focuses on the life and work of Anton Wilhelm Amo, who was active in Germany in the period between Leibniz and Kant. It shows how Amo's identity as an African in Europe helped to shape both his philosophy and its reception, and what lessons may have been drawn in the era for thinking about the relationship between human racial diversity, on the one hand, and the universality of human reason, on the other. Finally, the chapter argues that the position occupied by Amo in the philosophical landscape of early eighteenth-century Germany reveals the likely influence of Leibniz, who had provided a model for a nonracial philosophical anthropology for which he has generally not been given much credit.
Robert J. Priest and Alvaro L. Nieves
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195310566
- eISBN:
- 9780199851072
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195310566.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This book is intended to reflect commitment inspired by ideals of heaven, at the same time as being thoroughly grounded in earthly social and historical settings. This chapter outlines the chapters ...
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This book is intended to reflect commitment inspired by ideals of heaven, at the same time as being thoroughly grounded in earthly social and historical settings. This chapter outlines the chapters in this book. The first section of this book explains the basic concepts related to race, ethnicity, and culture; whereas the second part provides analytic accounts of encounters between people of European ancestry and people of other ancestry, especially African ancestry. The third section explores the use and misuse of the Bible in ethnic and racial contexts. Lastly, congregations as a base for cultural and racial engagement are addressed. These sections make clear that human diversity involves tough issues of living in an imperfect “not yet” world.Less
This book is intended to reflect commitment inspired by ideals of heaven, at the same time as being thoroughly grounded in earthly social and historical settings. This chapter outlines the chapters in this book. The first section of this book explains the basic concepts related to race, ethnicity, and culture; whereas the second part provides analytic accounts of encounters between people of European ancestry and people of other ancestry, especially African ancestry. The third section explores the use and misuse of the Bible in ethnic and racial contexts. Lastly, congregations as a base for cultural and racial engagement are addressed. These sections make clear that human diversity involves tough issues of living in an imperfect “not yet” world.
Marianne Sommer
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226347325
- eISBN:
- 9780226349879
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226349879.003.0014
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
The Human Genome Diversity Project was closely related to Cavalli-Sforza’d earlier research, especially as it was presented in History and Geography of Human Genes (1994). Not only the interest in ...
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The Human Genome Diversity Project was closely related to Cavalli-Sforza’d earlier research, especially as it was presented in History and Geography of Human Genes (1994). Not only the interest in reconstructing the modern human history, but also the blood collecting effort date further back. The HGDP was to expand that effort into a concerted global endeavour. In the project, the gene pools of indigenous peoples – the people who were to be sampled – were conceptualized as a panhuman heritage along the lines of notions of cultural heritage. Like his science before, the HGDP met with criticism from other disciplines and now also from indigenous groups. The chapter shows how the legacy of the HGDP is clearly visible in what is seen as its successor: The Genographic Project, with which Cavalli-Sforza, too, was associated. It in particular profited from the coming of age of the Y-chromosome as a population genetic system. It is shown that the Genographic Project was driven by a similar rhetoric of human advancement as Cavalli-Sforza used.Less
The Human Genome Diversity Project was closely related to Cavalli-Sforza’d earlier research, especially as it was presented in History and Geography of Human Genes (1994). Not only the interest in reconstructing the modern human history, but also the blood collecting effort date further back. The HGDP was to expand that effort into a concerted global endeavour. In the project, the gene pools of indigenous peoples – the people who were to be sampled – were conceptualized as a panhuman heritage along the lines of notions of cultural heritage. Like his science before, the HGDP met with criticism from other disciplines and now also from indigenous groups. The chapter shows how the legacy of the HGDP is clearly visible in what is seen as its successor: The Genographic Project, with which Cavalli-Sforza, too, was associated. It in particular profited from the coming of age of the Y-chromosome as a population genetic system. It is shown that the Genographic Project was driven by a similar rhetoric of human advancement as Cavalli-Sforza used.
Marianne Sommer
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226347325
- eISBN:
- 9780226349879
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226349879.003.0016
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Throughout the book, there is a strong emphasis on practices of narration and visualization as necessary conditions for circulating the knowledge about history within. In this final chapter of Part ...
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Throughout the book, there is a strong emphasis on practices of narration and visualization as necessary conditions for circulating the knowledge about history within. In this final chapter of Part III, visualization and exhibition once again take center stage. Also a topic that runs through Part III, it closely engages with the tree structure as a way to visualize the phylogeny of human populations. It problematizes this way of visualization as presenting the evolution of human populations as independent histories. The tension between human unity and diversity is shown to be fundamental to human population genetics. These points are highlighted through the analysis of a traveling exhibition that Cavalli-Sforza curated: ‘Homo Sapiens: The Great History of Human Diversity’. The exhibition is a culmination of Cavalli-Sforza’s work. On these premises, the exhibition and visitors’ reactions allow to make general points about genetic history and the ways in which it impacts understandings of ‘self and other’.Less
Throughout the book, there is a strong emphasis on practices of narration and visualization as necessary conditions for circulating the knowledge about history within. In this final chapter of Part III, visualization and exhibition once again take center stage. Also a topic that runs through Part III, it closely engages with the tree structure as a way to visualize the phylogeny of human populations. It problematizes this way of visualization as presenting the evolution of human populations as independent histories. The tension between human unity and diversity is shown to be fundamental to human population genetics. These points are highlighted through the analysis of a traveling exhibition that Cavalli-Sforza curated: ‘Homo Sapiens: The Great History of Human Diversity’. The exhibition is a culmination of Cavalli-Sforza’s work. On these premises, the exhibition and visitors’ reactions allow to make general points about genetic history and the ways in which it impacts understandings of ‘self and other’.
R. A. Foley and M. Mirazón Lahr
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199608966
- eISBN:
- 9780191804656
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199608966.003.0015
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology
The abundant evidence that Homo sapiens evolved in Africa within the past 200 000 years, and dispersed across the world only within the past 100 000 years, provides us with a strong framework in ...
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The abundant evidence that Homo sapiens evolved in Africa within the past 200 000 years, and dispersed across the world only within the past 100 000 years, provides us with a strong framework in which to consider the evolution of human diversity. While there is evidence that the human capacity for culture has a deeper history, going beyond the origin of the hominin clade, the tendency for humans to form cultures as part of being distinct communities and populations changed markedly with the evolution of H sapiens. In this chapter, we investigate ‘cultures’ as opposed to ‘culture’, and the question of how and why, compared to biological diversity, human communities and populations are so culturally diverse. We consider the way in which the diversity of human cultures has developed since 100 000 years ago, and how its rate was subject to environmental factors. We argue that the causes of this diversity lie in the distribution of resources and the way in which human communities reproduce over several generations, leading to fissioning of kin groups. We discuss the consequences of boundary formation through culture in their broader ecological and evolutionary contexts.Less
The abundant evidence that Homo sapiens evolved in Africa within the past 200 000 years, and dispersed across the world only within the past 100 000 years, provides us with a strong framework in which to consider the evolution of human diversity. While there is evidence that the human capacity for culture has a deeper history, going beyond the origin of the hominin clade, the tendency for humans to form cultures as part of being distinct communities and populations changed markedly with the evolution of H sapiens. In this chapter, we investigate ‘cultures’ as opposed to ‘culture’, and the question of how and why, compared to biological diversity, human communities and populations are so culturally diverse. We consider the way in which the diversity of human cultures has developed since 100 000 years ago, and how its rate was subject to environmental factors. We argue that the causes of this diversity lie in the distribution of resources and the way in which human communities reproduce over several generations, leading to fissioning of kin groups. We discuss the consequences of boundary formation through culture in their broader ecological and evolutionary contexts.
Robert A. Hinde
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198523901
- eISBN:
- 9780191689048
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198523901.003.0012
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology
To be able to understand human social behaviour and human diversity, this chapter focuses on the relations between one's biological heritage and the complexities of cultural beliefs in more complex ...
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To be able to understand human social behaviour and human diversity, this chapter focuses on the relations between one's biological heritage and the complexities of cultural beliefs in more complex societies. Its aim is to merely sketch an emphasis on the need to understand social behaviour in terms of levels of social complexity; provide a brief reference to the nature of ‘culture’; give a discussion of human universals; and show some examples of the dialectical relations between individuals, the successive levels of social complexity, and the ‘socio-cultural structure’.Less
To be able to understand human social behaviour and human diversity, this chapter focuses on the relations between one's biological heritage and the complexities of cultural beliefs in more complex societies. Its aim is to merely sketch an emphasis on the need to understand social behaviour in terms of levels of social complexity; provide a brief reference to the nature of ‘culture’; give a discussion of human universals; and show some examples of the dialectical relations between individuals, the successive levels of social complexity, and the ‘socio-cultural structure’.
