Anthropological Measurement: The Mismeasure of African Americans

W. E. B. Du Bois's prophetic century-old statements on America's unwillingness to fairly assess its citizens of African descent still provide important insights into the continuing philosophical and methodological problems of Western anthropology and biology. Too frequently, the bias of a...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 2000-03, Vol.568 (1), p.154-171
Main Author: JACKSON, F. L. C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
African Americans
Africans
Anthropology
Biodiversity
Biological anthropology
Biology
Black people
Classification
Cultural identity
Evolutionary genetics
Genetic variation
Human genetics
Humans
Measurement
Medical genetics
Methodological Problems
Molecular genetics
Philosophy
Physical anthropology
Race
Racial discrimination
Racism
Sociobiology
Stereotypes
United States
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:W. E. B. Du Bois's prophetic century-old statements on America's unwillingness to fairly assess its citizens of African descent still provide important insights into the continuing philosophical and methodological problems of Western anthropology and biology. Too frequently, the bias of a "problem of the color line" mentality undermines the accurate measurement, analysis, and valid scientific interpretations of human variation. The history of biological anthropology is replete with instances of "virtual science" being used to camouflage a political and social agenda. Today, as the post-genome era approaches, arbitrary and often capricious evaluations of Africans and African Americans still abound, as Du Bois had predicted. New paradigms such as ethnogenetic layering are proposed to disentangle cultural identity from genetic identity and provide an alternative to static, stereotype-dependent racial models of traditional anthropology and biology. Ethnogenetic layering has been applied in ecological risk assessment studies and has already revealed significant regional biodiversity (genetic substructuring) among African Americans.
ISSN:0002-7162
1552-3349
DOI:10.1177/0002716200568001012