Critical Discussion: The Historical and Contemporary Uses and Notions of “Race”

AbstractThis paper deals with the historical and novel uses and views of the bourne washing. The goodyment is based on the dismissal of roughly contemporary scholars of the smell of run for based on 19th deoxycytidine monophosphate scientific taxonomies.Historically, the term has been intertwined with the imaginations of class, people, nation, etc. and is closely re late(a)d to the concepts of lineage, caste, etc. The term is also used to denote a biological idea, which evolved to mean human somatogenic variations, heathen identities, human genetics, and racist ideologies. The contemporary use of lean is focused on the integration and acculturation or re-socialisation of people with other(a) groups of variant origin with whom they identify, regardless of age, gender, ethnic identities, religion, etc.IntroductionThis apprize aim to discuss critically the historical and contemporary use(s) and notions of the term hastencourse, taking into account that most conte mporary scholars dismiss the notion of feed, as exemplified by the 19th century scientific taxonomies. accord to Donald and Rattansi (2005), race refers to social meanings characterised by instability and decentralised ideas, with occurrences of eonian transformations from political struggle. Montagu (1997), on the other hand, has referred to it as the most dangerous myth, indicating the relevance of the needed work for this concept. He further surmises that black and white mustiness no longer be used to describe society or certain groups of people. The world of race is said to be an experience rather than an imagined or even real phenotype (qualities produced by the effect of environs on genes). Montagu states that the reason why the feeling of race is sustained is because of the geographic segregation of people on the levels of community, society, and world-systems.The historical and contemporary use(s) and notions of the term race ar discussed below.Historical commits a nd Notions of RaceIn its original conception, race pertains to a group of people with common descent and is closely related to the concepts of caste, lineage, etc. Race has been used to disparateiate people of color and Caucasian ones to reflect the construction of classes, which embody genuinely detailed classifications. It has been presented to conduct a systematic analysis of theoretical problems and political ideas (specifically race ideas) and the contributions of these ideas to the formation of communities and race-state interrelationships (e.g. Donald and Rattansi, 2005). Voegelin (1998) states that the subject of the notion of race has spanned a period of around a century and a half, beginning from the late 17th century to mid-19th century and claims that the development of modern history serves as the context for the emergence of the notion of race.Historically, the notion of race is one that interweaved with the concepts of class, nation, people, ethnic group, and the l ike, and is expressed through its diverse use, much(prenominal) as in the depiction of human race, superior race, English race, etc. Race has appe bed in southwestern European languages (Spanish, Portuguese, Italian) and has likewise been used widely amongst European countries (England, France) (Llobera, 2003). It has already existed in earlier periods of history and in several(predicate) cultures. In fact a strong link was demonstrated between the European slave craftiness and the rise of racism in the West however, Llobera (2003) claims that slavery is not a sufficient explanation for the existence of racism during this period. The notion of race had already existed amongst Greeks and Romans during the ancient period, as they lie withed whites from blacks. However, such(prenominal) line did not bear any signifi sightt social or cultural impact (Llobera, 2003), indicating the difference with how it was classically perceive and how it was perceived in its later notions, such as the 19th century scientific taxonomies.From the 14th century to the mid-17th century, the definition of race altered the building of kinship relationships and genealogy towards an emphasis on animal(prenominal) look and skin colour. These multiple understandings of the notion of race can be summed up as universe associated with a transitional period during which a move took place from a definition of ethnicity in which several definitions co-existed with a monolithic modern concept of race. During the renaissance period, the use of race was used to denote bloodlines or lineage, such as the concept of a royal bloodline. In addition, religious conversions were able to transform blood personal individuality for example, a Christian who was a pagan by birth obtained a modernistic racial individuation upon conversion to Christianity (Spiller, 2011). Indeed, as have been clarified by many scholars (e.g. Spencer, 2006 James, 2011), the historical notions of race in the early modern era is characterised by everyplacelapping and even opposing concepts of religion and ethnicity. Historic events such as the slave trade and scientific racialism (Spiller, 20112) clearly seem to have changed European attitudes toward race and identity. heathen identities have been used to understand the initial modern notions of race (Spiller, 2011).In the mid-18th century, increase knowledge of the different appearances of the human being ensued, so that race began to be understood in terms of human physical variations. As such, human beings (in the variety of physical forms the human body takes) were seen as parts within a larger systematic structure, which is nature (Voegelin, 1998). It must be noted that as early as the fifteenth century, biological unity has already been assumed in the notion of race, as seen in the expression unity of blood in the Iberian Peninsula (Llobera, 2003).In the 20th century, specifically when the Nazi regime came to existence, the notion of r ace has been presented as an extremely controversial term. It includes a range of situations affirming the transcendence of one race over another. Due to its link to extremely negative moral issues, the word racism elicits abuse and must be used with appropriate caution (Llobera, 2003). One can therefore see here that race has transform gradually from one that depicts the classification of classes, ethnicity, religion, etc. to one that buy the farms as a device to evaluate superiority and inferiority.The notion of race is influenced by suggestions that it should be understood not as a reflection of biological fact but as a reflection of prevailing racist ideologies (e.g. Ferguson, 2013 Beidler and Taylor, 2005). A worthy assembly line is that if race originates as a category that provides hierarchical privileges to a ruling status, thereby making other groups inferior, then those considered inferior, such as people of colour, are apparently pushed into this derogation (Beidler a nd Taylor, 2005).Contemporary Uses and Notions of RaceThe uses and notions of race have trailed a different direction in the contemporary understanding of the term. The change in the concept is illustrated in Korean children who grew up in largely black and Latino communities in Los Angeles and who had more than in common with their black and Latino peers than with other Korean students. The same is seen amongst black suburban children in largely white communities who have identified more with the cultural values of their white peer group than with their ethnic brothers and sisters (Montagu, 1997). Despite their different phenotypical characteristics, people can assume the identity of another group (race) through socialisation and re-socialisation. This is contrary to the historical notion of race, which dealt largely with bloodlines or lineage, or with biological components, or with the perception of superiority and inferiority (e.g. Llobera, 2003 and Spiller, 2011).Race is call ed an experience in its contemporary use because of the increase multi-racial movement worldwide that depicts its existence (Tattersall and DeSalle, 2011). For example, a growing number or Americans have insisted on being regarded as belonging to more than one race and maintain their public and private transnational identities. These movements are a reminder that single racialised categories only oversimplify the complexities of culture and ethnicity (Montagu, 1997). According to Donald and Rattansi (2005), when issues of age, gender, class, and religion are make to integrate to culture, ethnicity, and multiculturalism, a realisation that would ensue is that the extent of single-race categorisation (being a dangerous myth) will fire disparaging prejudgments that attach irrelevant distinctions on people. Apparently, this argument is parallel to the idea that it is through socialisation and re-socialisation with different groups that people can assume a new race or a new identity (Mo ntagu, 1997).Montagu (1997) presents the United States as one that brings the notion of race as an increasingly nonadaptive way to distinguish human beings. This is because of the presence of economic, political, and demographic factors that demand people to become competent interculturally (e.g. Donald and Rattansi, 2005). This propensity for intercultural competence blurs the distinction of people based on skin colour and other forms of identity. This is parallel to recognising the cultural and social integration of people of unhomogeneous origins as the new way of their cultural and social belongingness (e.g. Llobera, 2003 Spiller, 2011).Whitmarsh and Jones (2010) suggest that race and ethnicity function as categories of racial relationships, such as certain racial dualities where fine skin colour distinctions are dominant. Anthropological research (e.g. Whitmarsh and Jones, 2010) reveals that ethnic identities are incongruous and numerous in ways that cannot be minify to raci al classifications. Racial and ethnic categorisations are arbitrarily interwoven with gender and class in various discourses.These contemporary uses of race have produced overwhelming accounts of racial disparities, ranging from income, education, punishment, medical treatment, and so on, thereby leading round theorists to suggest that the notion of race needs to be understood in the context of the related notion of social justice (Whitmarsh and Jones, 2010). This is contrary to the use of race as an outcome of socialisation and re-socialisation to a new culture, which Llobera, (2003) has earlier described.In Lively and Weavers (2006) view, however, racial classifications (without regard to their purpose) tend to stigmatise. Despite efforts to determine the past, notions of racial inferiority may still be present, thereby leading to a politics of racial hostility. However, the current ways to discuss the notion of race are through remnants of earlier ways of understanding this con cept, making it easy to understand contemporary discussions about itself as a pale reflection of its more vigorous discourse (Ernest, 2009).Understanding race would inform of the fact that there are only lower-ranking physical and biological differences between groups referred to as races. There is no convincing empirical case that allows the attribution of common intellectual, psychological, or moral characteristics to individuals based on skin colour. There is certainly no profound ethical case to serve as a justification of inequitable treatment on such illogical basis (e.g. Montagu, 1997). This is seen in the current understanding of this concept based on peoples integration to a different social and/or cultural group, with whom they identify. It has been broadly acknowledged that problematic stances can ensue if the contemporary notions of race are applied to the early modern period. This is the reason why the term is usually enclosed with quotation marks and is highlighte d by qualifications (e.g. Beidler and Taylor, 2005).ConclusionThis paper has provided a critical discussion of the historical and contemporary uses and notions of race. The term is characterised by unstable and centralised social meanings, within which constant transformations frequently occur. An examination of 19th-century iconography revealed that the historical notion of race reflect the construction of classes.The Renaissance era indicated bloodlines or lineage for the term race. Religion and ethnicity also characterised the historical notions of race in the early modern period. The modern era, on the other hand, saw the development of this notion as one that originates from the human genetic mutation paradigm to the typological racial model.Race as an experience is demonstrated in todays increasing multi-racial movement in various parts of the world. Disparaging prejudgments that attach irrelevant distinctions on people would be the dissolvent of the integration between issu es of gender, age, class, and religion on one hand, and culture, ethnicity, and multiculturalism on the other.Race is a dysfunctional way to distinguish people because of the presence of economic, political, and demographic aspects that require them to develop intercultural competences.Moreover, the contemporary notion of race indicates that there is no convincing empirical and ethical case that justifies ascription of certain qualities to some individuals and treat them inequitably as a result. Race, in its contemporary use, can mean a result of socialisation and re-socialisation of people with other groups with whom they identify, regardless of age, gender, ethnic identities, and the like.ReferencesBeidler, P. D. and Taylor, G. (2005) Writing Race Across the Atlantic humanity Medieval to Modern. NY Palgrave MacMillan.Donald, J. and Rattansi, A. (2005) Race, Culture and Difference. London The Open University.Ernest, J. (2009) Chaotic Justice Rethinking African American Literary account statement. uniting Carolina The University of North Carolina Press.Ferguson, M. (2013) Aphra Behns Oroonoko in M. Hendricks and P. Parker (eds.) Women. Race, and Writing in the Early Modern Period. NY Routledge.James, P. (2011) Religion, Identity, and Global Governance intellects, prove and Practice. Toronto University of Toronto Press Incorporated.Lively, D. E. and Weaver, R. L. (2006) Contemporary Supreme Court Cases. Westport, CT Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.Llobera, J. R. (2003) An Invitation to Anthropology The Structure, Evolution, and Cultural Identity of Human Societies. NY Berghahn Books.Montagu, A. (1997) bits Most Dangerous Myth The Fallacy of Race. CA Altamira Press.Spencer, S. (2006) Race and Ethnicity Culture, Identity and Representation. NY Routledge.Spiller, E. (2011) Reading and the History of Race in the Renaissance. Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press.Tattersall, I. and DeSalle, R. (2011) RaceDebunking a Scientific Myth. First Edition. Texas Te xas A&M University Press.Voegelin, E. (1998) The History of the Race Idea From Ray to Carus, Volume 3. Louisiana Louisiana State University Press.Whitmarsh, I. and Jones, D. S. (2010) Governance and the uses of race. In I. Whitmarsh and D. S. Jones (eds.) Whats the Use of RaceModern Governance and the Biology of Difference. Massachusetts Massachusetts Institute of Technology.