racial science | Pandaemonium

ON THE ENLIGHTENMENT’S ‘RACE PROBLEM’

February 13, 2013 by Kenan Malik

In an essay this week in New York Times, the philosopher Justin Smith tells the story of Anton Wilhelm Amo, a West African student and former slave who defended a philosophy dissertation at the University of Halle in Saxony, written in Latin and entitled On the Impassivity of the Human Mind. A dedicatory letter was attached to the dissertation from the rector of the University of Wittenberg, Johannes Gottfried Kraus, who, Smith observes, ‘praised the “natural genius” of Africa, its […]

Categories: History, Race & Immigration, Science & Technology • Tags: blumenbach, buffon, enlightenment, hume, linnaeus, locke, race, racial categories, racial science

SCIENCE, MYTH AND HISTORY

December 21, 2012 by Kenan Malik

This is the third in a series of extracts that I have been running from my book Strange Fruit. The extracts tell the story of ‘Kennewick Man’ and explore what the debate around a 9000-year old skeleton reveals about current ideas of culture and race. The first extract looked at questions cultural ownership, the second at the issue of race. This third extract links the two in a discussion of the relationship between science, myth and history, and the way […]

Categories: Science & Technology • Tags: anthropology, clovis, creation myths, human origins, indigenous culture, jonathan marks, kennewick man, native americans, paul martin, racial science, racism, romanticism, vine deloria

ANCIENT RACE WARS AND MODERN RACE SCIENCE

December 18, 2012 by Kenan Malik

I published last week an extract from my book Strange Fruit which looked at the ‘Kennewick Man’ controversy and at what that controversy told us about contemporary ideas about cultural identity and cultural ownership. The Kennewick Man debate gets also to the heart of another major contemporary controversy: that over the meaning of ‘race’. In this extract from Strange Fruit, I look at how discussions about a 9000-year old skeleton laid bare our understanding (and misunderstanding) of race. My own […]

Categories: Race & Immigration, Science & Technology • Tags: anthropology, craniometry, earnest hooton. ainu, human origins, kennewick man, native americans, race, racial categories, racial science

THREE MYTHS OF IMMIGRATION

May 8, 2012 by Kenan Malik

I am giving the Milton K Wong Lecture in Vancouver in June. Entitled ‘What’s Wrong with Multiculturalism? A European Perspective’, it will try to explain to a Canadian audience, for whom multiculturalism has a very different meaning than it does to a European one, the contours of the European debate, as well as my disagreements with both sides. In particular I want to show why both multiculturalists and many of their critics (particularly their rightwing critics) buy into the same […]

Categories: Multiculturalism, Race & Immigration • Tags: british asians, british politics, britishness, christopher caldwell, europe, french politics, immigration, islam, multiculturalism, muslims, racial science, racism, secularism, tariq modood

WHY BOTH SIDES ARE WRONG IN THE RACE DEBATE

March 4, 2012 by Kenan Malik

Is race a biological reality? Or is it a social construction? It is a debate that shows no sign of being resolved. The more that we know of the genetics of human differences, ironically, the more fractious the debate seems to get, and the more entrenched the various positions seem to be. The latest issue of the magazine American Scientist contains a review by the biologist Jan Sapp of two books that insist that race has no biological validity. Sapp agrees. ‘The […]

Categories: Race & Immigration, Science & Technology • Tags: anthropology, cavalli-sforza, ernst mayr, genetics, jerry coyne, jon entine, population genetics, race realism, racial categories, racial science, sally satel, scientific classification

IS IT ANTIQUATED TO BELIEVE IN SOCIAL PROGRESS?

September 3, 2011 by Kenan Malik

In June I wrote a post questioning Brazil’s ‘no contact’ policy towards uncontacted Amazonian tribes. A version of that blog post was published as an essay in Göteborgs-Posten. The essay (like my post) attracted a lot of critical comment. It led to a short debate last week on the pages of the newspaper between myself and Dan Rosengren, associate professor of social anthropology at the Institute for Global Studies at Göteborgs University. The Swedish version of the debate is not available […]

Categories: International, Politics • Tags: anthropology, brazil, culture, dan rosengren, ethics, modernity, progress, racial science

NO CONTACT

June 25, 2011 by Kenan Malik

The Prime Directive. As any self-respecting Trekkie knows, it is Star Trek‘s most important ethical rule. And possibly the most stupid. ‘Thou shalt not interfere with the natural evolution of another culture by giving primitive peoples technology or knowledge beyond their years.’ Or as Starfleet Regulations put it: As the right of each sentient species to live in accordance with its normal cultural evolution is considered sacred, no Star Fleet personnel may interfere with the normal and healthy development of […]

Categories: Race & Immigration • Tags: anthropology, brazil, culture, ethics, george stocking, herder, levi-strauss, modernity, progress, racial science, romanticism, star trek

THE SCIENCE OF SEEING WHAT YOU WANT TO SEE

June 12, 2011 by Kenan Malik

Stephen Jay Gould’s The Mismeasure of Man is one of the classic works of history of science. Gould, who died in 2002, was, as many probably know, not only an evolutionary biologist and influential popularizer of science, but also a vocal critic of racial theories. The Mismeasure of Man is a full-frontal assault on ideas of race and IQ that helped transform they way that many looked upon these issues. The importance of Gould’s work, as Marek Kohn put it in […]

Categories: Race & Immigration, Science & Technology • Tags: craniometry, racial science, scientific bias, stephen jay gould

RACE, SCIENCE AND THE POLITICS OF IDENTITY

March 15, 2011 by Kenan Malik

A second extract from the talk I gave last week on ‘Why both sides are wrong in the race debate’. I posted the first extract yesterday. For a fuller version of the argument see my book Strange Fruit. THE DEBATE ABOUT RACE IS NOT A DEBATE ABOUT WHETHER DIFFERENCES exist between human populations. Jon Entine, a staunch defender of the idea of race, defines race as ‘human biodiversity’. That is meaningless. No one, on either side of the debate, would deny […]

Categories: Race & Immigration, Science & Technology • Tags: armand leroi, black identity, diversity, genealogy, genetics, identity politics, joseph harker, pluralism, race realism, racial science, rick kittles

THE TROUBLE WITH RACE: SCIENCE AND THE PROBLEM OF RACIAL CATEGORIES

March 14, 2011 by Kenan Malik

I gave a talk last week on ‘Why both sides are wrong in the race debate’ at a conference hosted by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. For the full argument (not just about the science, but also the history and politics of race) see my book Strange Fruit. THE PROBLEM FOR SO-CALLED RACE REALISTS TODAY IS THE VERY OPPOSITE OF that for nineteenth century racial scientists. Then racial scientists ‘knew’ the significance of race but could find no way […]

Categories: Race & Immigration, Science & Technology • Tags: genetics, medical research, racial categories, racial science, scientific classification