A race is a socially constructed category composed of people who share biologically transmitted traits that members of a society consider important. People may classify each other racially on the basis of physical characteristics, such as skin colour, facial features, hair textures, and body shape. Race is a group which shares in common a certain set of innate physical characters and a geographical origin within a certain area. It is not a sociological term, but is distinctly a biological and anthropological concept.
If we go through the history of mankind, we find that man lived in a small homogeneous society in the earliest periods. Later on, as a result of migration, conquest, and continuous and extensive contact between different members of society and inter-mixture of people, different social categories were created. Social differences occur on the basis of race, language, religion, culture, and so on. Based on such criteria, people developed differential attitude and unequal treatment.
A race is one of the major groups in which human beings are divided according to their physical features, such as the skin colour, eyes, and simple body structures. Research details about the people with different racial and ethnic groups and rank them as per the scale of worth.
Most of the social scientists and biologists disagree that race is a biological truth because parents who belong to different racial groups can produce offspring, and offspring means it is combination of two different categories. Therefore, race has no biological base but has significance on the society. Sociologists define race as wide and vast group of people bonded by sharing the selected history, have definite ancestors, with specific physical features; therefore, people belonging to same race and ethnic group share same thoughts and they regard themselves as a distinct group.
Ethnicity means the people who have same thoughts, ideas, concepts, beliefs, national origin, common ancestors, same place of birth, different concrete social traits, and socially important physical characteristics. It lays stress on physical features and geographical origin with infinite number of traits.
The societal importance on race stresses on history that is shared by broad category of ancestors, who always adopt the law and social practices which will be different from other broad categories of ancestors.
The race and ethnicity has three interrelated factors:
As per sociologists, chance means that we do not choose our biological parents and cannot control over the physical characteristics that are inherited from them.
Context means the social setting where racial and ethnic categories are identified, developed, and challenged.
Choice means the emphasis on choosing or rejecting particular behaviour and appearance that is always linked with racial and the ethic group.
According to sociologist Larry T. Reynolds (1992), race helps to classify the humans as a product. The 1700s identified through European exploration, conquest, and colonization that did not end till World War II. Japanese and Europeans used racial differences to show their superiority and exploited, dominated, and destroyed people of other races.
Physical anthropology is chiefly concerned with the classification of men into races. On the basis of different physical traits, a number of classifications have been formulated. The races of the world are primarily divided into three kinds. They are Caucasians (white race), Negroes (black race), and Mongolians (yellow race) (Table 14.1).
TABLE 14.1 Kinds of Races
A racial group no doubt refers to a biological category that represents common observable hereditary traits. A race is a group that shares in common a certain set of intimate physical characteristics and geographical origin within a certain area. Historically, three diagnostic traits have been used to divide the human species into races: skin colour, hair form, and various combinations of nose, face, and lip shapes. The discoveries of fossils in different parts of the world reveal that man is biologically related to prehistoric men like Java man, Neanderthal man and Cro-Magnon man. Thus, finally anthropologists have come to the conclusion that living men have evolved from a single species, namely homo sapiens. Although man evolved from a single species, biological differences occurred. Such a differentiation is due to hereditary process, mutation (variation in genes), natural selection, isolation, and in-breeding and inner-breeding processes.
A.W. Green: A race is a large, biological, human grouping with a number of distinctive inherited characteristics which vary within a certain range.
J. Biesanz and M. Biesanz: A race is a large group of people distinguished by inherited physical differences.
E. Adamson Hoebel: A race is a biological inherited group possessing a distinctive combination of physical traits that tend to breed true from generation to generation.
I.C. Dunn: A race, in short, is a group of related inter-marrying individuals, that is, a population which differs from other populations in the relative commonness of certain hereditary traits.
A.L. Kroeber: A race is a valid biological concept. It is a group united by heredity, a breed or genetic strain or sub-species.
Paul A.F. Walter: A race is a large division of human beings distinguished from another by relatively obvious physical characteristics presumed to be biologically inherited and remaining relatively constant through numerous generations.
According to Herbert Risley, India has seven racial types: (1) pre-Dravidian (tribes such as the Bhils); (2) Dravidian (people living in the Southern Peninsula up to the Gangetic valley); (3) Indo-Aryan (people of Kashmir, Punjab, and the Rajputana); (4) Aryo-Dravidian (people of the Gangetic valley); (5) Cytho-Dravidian (people living to the east of the Indus); (6) Mongoloid (those living in Assam and the foothills of the eastern Himalayas); and (7) Mongolo-Dravidian (those living around the delta region of the Ganges and its tributaries).
UNESCO arranged a conference of prominent sociologists, anthropologists, and psychologists in order to determine a single concept of race. The conference gave the following judgements concerning race:
Figure 14.1 Characteristics of Race
They are transmitted from one generation to another.
Colour of skin: Usually, on the basis of the colour of the skin, people differentiate between white, yellow, and black races. Distinctions on the basis of the colour of the skin are as follows:
Hair: The texture of hair is another indefinite physical trait of race. Three kinds of hair distinguish between the races:
Eyes: Races are also distinguished on the basis of the colour of the eyes: Caucasians have a variety of eye colours, such as blue, green, brown, and grey, apart from black, whereas Negroids and Mongolians largely have brown or black eyes. The structure of the orifice of the eye is usually horizontal. At some places like southern Europe and North Africa, however, diagonal eyes at found.
Figure 14.2 Indefinite Physical Traits
Definite physical traits are the ones that can be measured. The following are such traits:
Figure 14.3 Definite Physical Traits
TABLE 14.2 Kinds of Head
Kind | Cephalic Index |
---|---|
Dolichocephalic | 65 per cent |
Mesocephalic | 75–80 per cent |
Brachycephalic | 80 per cent |
TABLE 14.3 Structures of Nose
Kind | Nasal Index and Location |
---|---|
Leptorrhine (thin) | Less than 70 per cent—typical of Punjab |
Mesorrhine (medium) | 70–85 per cent—found in the people of Uttar Pradesh |
Platyrrhine (thick) | Above 85 per cent—found in Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Nagpur areas of India |
Heredity determines the racial characteristics of all the community. On the basis of the bodily traits human society has been divided into different stocks. This division started in the beginning of the 19th century where the evolutionary theory originated, which started the difference between superior and inferior among the different racial groups.
Racism includes the belief that people of some races are inferior to others and the behaviour that results from such beliefs.
According to Paula Rothenberg, racism means dominance of white coloured or skinned people over dark-skinned or blacks. They believe that blacks or non-whites are not qualified and never accepted them, but we cannot describe racism in such a manner as history shows that white people held power and position for long time.
According to Jacobs and Stern, racism means each society is characterized by cluster of values inherited with specific physical, mental, and criticizing features that may be superior or inferior to the ethnic subdivision, and the hereditary factors determine each phase of the cultural life of the people in the society. It is the belief of the people in the society that some races are inferior or superior to others and the behaviour of the people change according to their belief on racism.
Institutionalized racism means in our society each person’s thoughts are entwined on cultural ideology with different ideas on the racism. Each person has different thoughts, ideas, and concepts about the industrialized racism in the society. The thought about racism has not only badly affected the minds of all people in the society, but has also brought certain kinds of conflicts in the society.
Industrialized racism has different impacts in the society. It benefits particular groups in the society that have the power and potential, and that carry the multiple generational effects from one generation to other from past to the present, which is called as the ‘past in present’ discrimination.
Structure of racism features two types of privileges towards the people:
There are certain inherited traits and environmental influences that determine the superior and the inferior division or the stratification in the human society. According to Franz Boas there are strong dislikes, antipathy, and antagonism shown by the people belonging to different races because of different cultural practices. Bodily appearances never allowed them to accept and appreciate people of different races and castes. Instead of having the beliefs of scientific facts, main importance is given to the ideas and feelings. The whites believed that they are dominant and superior and described the blacks as recessive and inferior.
According to Paul A.F. Walter, racism has given wrong popular ideas and concepts that described and differentiated the people into superior and inferior based on the races they belonged. The racism created a nationality feeling that white people, for example, disagree that the black formed an ethnocentrism against the blacks in United States of America, which formed to be a universal tendency of each cultural group. Whites have the strong thought that being with blacks is abnormal.
There is strong concept that superior race are pure and serene and lower race are impure. It is not so. Purity cannot be determined based on the race. It was the wrong of certain people that created the strong conflicts among the people in the community.
Race has being developed in the society and discriminated based on the bodily and cultural differences. These differences between the people are found to be meaningless and reflected the character of the society. According to R.M. Maclvar and C.H. Page, ethnic group means there exists social division among people who share different social and cultural traditions, which are maintained from one particular generations to another.
The term ethnicity means state or fact of belonging to a particular ethnic group, where the people of same race and culture live together and share the same religion, belief, language, and heritage.
Meaning of ethnicity: It means members in the same race living together and forming a community and respecting only their values, customs traditions, taboos will be from same cultural background that forms the fundamental base of any ethnic background.
Main characteristics of ethnicity are as follows:
It means the strong belief of a particular ethnic group that they are superior to other ethnic groups. They always disagree with other ethnic groups and never accept them. They show strong emotional reactions towards other cultural groups and are loyal only to their ethnic group.
By the end of 20th century, ethnocentrism has created ethnic problems not only in countries, such as Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Nigeria, but also in developed countries like United States of America. Therefore, ethnicity has become a worldwide problem.
Ethnicity and plurality have been existing in all states of India. It gained more political interference shown in terms of language, race, and religion. Ethnic conflicts resulted in loss of human life. Social system in India is more heterogeneous and highly segmented due to the ethnic plurality. Nation literally ignores the plurality that forms the constant problems even today in India.
A minority is any category of people distinguished by physical or cultural differences that a society sets apart and subordinates. Both race and ethnicity are the bases for minority status. Man is separated from man not only on the basis of race, but also socially distinguished on the basis of national, religious, linguistic, and other group traditions. Such social divisions are called ethnic groups and minorities.
Figure 14.4 Characteristics of Minorities
Indian constitutional experts have identified the different elements of minority problems in India. Articles 29 and 30 of the Indian Constitution guarantee the protection of interests of the minorities in India. Article 29 envisages that any section of citizens having a distinct language script or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve the same. Article 30 protects the interests of minorities based on religion or language to establish and administer educational institutions. The minorities in India are generally classified into two groups: religious minorities and linguistic minorities.
TABLE 14.4 Minority Groups
Louis Wirth: Minority is defined as a group of people who are singled out from the others in the society because of their physical or cultural characteristics. They are subjected to social difference and unequal treatment and collective discrimination.
Europe Minority Association: Minority is defined as a group of people living on a soil that they have occupied from time immemorial, but who through change of boundaries have been politically subordinated.
United Notions Sub-commission: Minorities are those non-dominant groups in a population who wish to preserve stable ethnic, religious, or linguistic traditions or characteristics markedly different from the rest of the population.
Many studies have proved in large scale that certain races and ethnic groups show high level of disease expression in their families. One such study examined around 4197 genes and compared Mongolian race with the Whites. It showed that around 1097 genes had different kinds of genetic expressions. According to Cheung, those differences highlighted that 11 particular genes have a specific regulator that determine the presence or absence of diseases in the genes; for example, on comparing the Caucasian with Asian population, the genetic regulator and genetic expression regarding the presence of diseases are found more frequent in the Caucasians than the Asians.
According to biologists, race and ethnicity form an important concern that seems to predispose any kinds of diseases in differently expressed genes. Much concern was not given during the earlier periods to detect the genetic diseases. Many studies proved that genetically bounded diseases in particular ethnic groups were more prevalent. Those groups were given more importance and care to prevent the diseases at the early stage. Genetic diseases occur due to changes or mutations in the DNA of a particular ethnic group. There are many reasons such as exposure to radiations, teratogens, harmful chemicals, and so on that change or manipulate the genetic coding and expression.
There are always inequalities in health status in every society. Many factors interfere health status of the individuals in the society, such as lifestyle they adopt, which may be sedentary, additive; low financial status; educational status achieved; job insecurity; bad housing conditions; lots of psychosocial stress; and availability of unequal distribution of health services.
Inequalities in availability of health services has a collective effect on the entire life of any individual since this problem has become primary issue in the health-care scenario. Equal distribution of health-care services has been the main goal of primary health-care services in India. These inequalities in health-care issue have been passing over from one generation to other where those affect growth and development of the children in every family. Many illness found to be frequent are discussed in the following.
Global statistics says that men in South Asia have 50% more chances to get heart attack or myocardial infarction, angina, or coronary diseases when compared with others in the general population. Next highest are Bangladeshi, then Pakistanis, and then Indians. Interestingly, Caribbean population are at high risk of getting cerebrovascular accidents or stroke, but have less death rate due to cardiovascular illness. Many factors interfere in causing the illness, which are classified into modifiable and non-modifiable factors:
Therefore, the highly risky populations can be identified and those families should be informed and given special care to prevent such illness through counselling.
Global statistics shows that smoking is the main cause of lung cancer. Death rates are more in Ireland and Scotland due to lung cancer but very low in South Asia, Caribbean, and in African countries. Breast cancer rate is higher in women residing in the England and Wales than the women who have migrated from other countries. This shows that many risk factors interfere with causing cancer in women and all these issues are under research.
Mental illness and ethnic influence are interrelated. Research studies shows that psychosis is more prevalent among the black Caribbean’s than the white British. Many factors interfere in the presence of psychiatric illness in the community, such as social isolation and discrimination shown on the particular ethnic group in receiving any health care. Research proves that most of black Caribbean’s and the Africans receive psychiatric care as they are treated differently by the people in the society. Even the psychiatric doctors treat them based on the ethnic group they belong to, and this kind of social discrimination increases the incidence of illness in a particular ethnic group.
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