Reason, Rhetoric, and Race: Explorations of Race and Science, 19th Century - 20th Century 98r, Spring 1998, Junior Seminar Barrington Steven Edwards, History of Science, Harvard University Email:bedwards@fas.harvard.edu Race is a peculiar kind of object of knowledge and practice. The meaningsof the word are unstable and protean: the status of the words referent has wobbled -- and still wobbles -- from being considered real and rooted in the natural, physical body to illusory and utterly socially constructed.In the United States, race immediately evokes grammars of purity and mixing, compounding and differentiating, segregating and bonding, lynching and marrying. Race, like nature and sex, is replete with all the rituals of guilt and innocence in the stories of nation, family and species. Race, like nature, is about roots, pollution, and origins. -- Donna Haraway, Universal Donors in a Vampire Culture: Its All in the Family: Biological Kinship Categories in the Twentieth Century United States, in William Cronon, ed., Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature(New York: W.W.Norton, 1995), pp. 321-322. Course Description and Overview In a nation where the calculus of social identity is greatly influenced by race, it is important to examine the significance of race as a concept. This course examines the development of race in theories of science and the role of science in theories of race, focusing particularly on the histories of biology, anthropology and American sociopolitics. Arranged around specific themes (i.e., craniology, ethnology, eugenics, mind sciences and genetics) and discussing many racial groups, our main goal in this seminar is to trace the historical development of the race concept since the nineteenth century. We will examine the relationship between scientific and social conceptions -- that is, focusing more on the invention of race than on racism. Many historians have characterized the mid- to late-nineteenth century as the period in which science constructed race. Is this the story? We will look more closely at how the rhetoric of science -- in all its various forms -- has impacted the American social and political thinking about race. Formal Requirements Paper 1 (15%), a discussion/response paper, 5-7 pp.; Paper 2 (20%), analysis of 1 source, 6-8 pp.; Annotated bibliography, with abstract (25%); Required outline; Final paper (30%), historical research paper, 12-15 pp.; Discussion (10%), including oral presentation. Books on order from the COOP Audrey Smedley, Race in North America: Origin and Evolution of a Worldview(Boulder: Westview Press, 1993). $24.00 Stephen Jay Gould, Mismeasure of Man([1981] New York: W. Norton & Co., 1996). $13.95 Sandra Harding, ed., The Racial Economy of Science (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1993). $18.95 Daniel Kevles,In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity(New York: Knopf, 1985). $16.00 Readings Week 1 (February 4) Introduction: Framing Race & Science Orientation reading 1. Sandra Harding, INTRODUCTION: Eurocentric Scientific Illiteracy-- A Challenge for the World Community, in Sandra Harding, ed.,The Racial Economy of Science: Toward a Democratic Future(Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1993), 1-22. 2. Barrington Steven Edwards, Strategy of Power, Agent of Disarmament: Racial Classification. [unpublished essay] Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University 1996. In class Viewing of Ethnic Notions (1986) by Marlon Riggs [to be viewed in Robinson 106, 5-6:15] Week 2 (February 11) Construction of Race: Some Theoretical Considerations 1. Audrey Smedley, Race in North America: Origin and Evolution of a Worldview(Boulder: Westview Press, 1993), 1-40. 2. Ashley Montagu, ed., The Concept of Race (New York: The Free Press, 1964), 1-11, 12-28. 3. Frank B. Livingstone, On the Nonexistence of Human Races, in Ashley Montagu, ed., The Concept of Race(New York: The Free Press, 1964), 46-60. 4. Ludwik Fleck, Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact(1935), trans. Fred Bradley and Thaddeus J. Trenn (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1979), xxvii-xxviii. 5. James C. King, The Biology of Race(New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1971), 112-137. 6. Stephen Jay Gould, The Geometer of Race, Discover15 (November 1994), 64-70. ***First paper topic available Week 3 (February 18) Theories about Race, Science & Scientific Racism 1. Audrey Smedley, Race in North America: Origin and Evolution of a Worldview(Boulder: Westview Press, 1993), 41-71, 92-112. 2. Stephen Jay Gould, Mismeasure of Man([1981] New York: W. Norton & Co., 1996), 351-366. 3. Nancy Leys Stepan and Sander Gilman, Appropriating the Idioms of Science: The Rejection of Scientific Racism, in Sandra Harding, ed., The Racial Economy of Science: Toward a Democratic Future(Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1993), 170- 193. 4. Frances Cress Welsing, The Cress Theory of Color-Confrontation and Racism (White Supremacy), The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors(Chicago: Third World Press, 1991), 1-14. 5. Gloria Marshall, Racial Classifications: Popular and Scientific, in Sandra Harding, ed., The Racial Economy of Science: Toward a Democratic Future(Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1993), 116-127. 6. Barbara J. Fields, Ideology and Race in American History, in J. Morgan Kousser and James M. McPherson, eds., Region, Race and Reconstruction: Essays in Honor of C. Vann Woodward(New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 1982), 143-177. Week 4 (February 25) Biological Theories of Race in the 19th Century Ethnology 1. Josiah Nott and George Gliddon, Types of Mankind(Philadelphia:Lipponcott, Grambo & Co., 1854), 80-87, 411-465. 2. Stephen Jay Gould, Mismeasure of Man([1981] New York: W.Norton & Co., 1996), 62-104. 3. William Stanton, The Leopards Spots: Scientific AttitudesToward Race in America 1815-59 (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1960), 161-173. 4. Audrey Smedley, Race in North America: Origin and Evolution of a Worldview(Boulder: Westview Press, 1993), 231-254. 5. William Tucker, The Science and Politics of Racial Research (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1994), 9-36. 6. Frederick Douglass, The Claims of the Negro, Ethnologically Considered(Rochester: Lee, Mann and Co., 1854), 37 pp. [located at Houghton Library US 5279.13] 7. George Stocking, Jr., The Persistence of Polygenist Thought in Post-Darwinian Anthropology, inRace, Culture and Evolution: Essays in the History of Anthropology(New York: Free Press, 1968), 42-68. PAPER 1 DUE Friday, February 27 by 5 p.m. NO LATE PAPERS ACCEPTED!! Week 5 (March 4) Question of Mental Evolution & the Inequality of Peoples 1. Francis Galton, Hereditary Genius: An Inquiry into its Laws and Consequences[1869] (New York: Horizon Press, 1952), 1-4, 325-337. 2. Daniel Kevles,In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity(New York: Knopf, 1985), 3-19. 3. Stephen Jay Gould, Mismeasure of Man ([1981] New York: W. Norton & Co., 1996), 105-142. 4. Martin Delany, Principia of Ethnology: The Origin of Races and Color(Philadelphia: Harper & Brother, 1879), 9-10, 20-36. 5. Samuel Morton, Catalogue of Skulls of Man, and the Inferior Animals (Philadelphia: Merrihew & Thompson, Prtrs., 1849), 74 pp. [located at MCZ Library V-M891] *** Second paper assigned Week 6 (March 11) The Notion of Otherness and Whiteness 1. Edward Said, Orientalism(New York: Vintage Books, 1979), 31-110. 2. Ronald Takaki,Iron Cages: Race and Culture in Nineteenth-Century America(Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1979), 215-249. 3. Audrey Smedley, Race in North America: Origin and Evolution of a Worldview(Boulder: Westview Press, 1993), 255-272. 4. David Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class(London: Verso, 1991), 3-18, 133-163. 5. Noel Ignatiev, When the Irish Became White(New York: Routledge, 1995), 1-3, 178-188. 6. Franz Boas, Changes in the Bodily Form of Descendants of Immigrants, in Race, Language and Culture([1922] New York: Free Press, 1966), 60-75. Week 7 (March 18) American Eugenics and Hereditarian Theory of IQ 1. Charles B. Davenport,Effects of Race Intermingling,Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 130 (1917): 364-368. 2. Daniel Kevles, In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity(New York: Knopf, 1985), 57-112. 3. Stephen Jay Gould, Mismeasure of Man([1981] New York: W. Norton & Co., 1996), 176-264. 4. Marouf A. Hasian, The Rhetoric of Eugenics in Anglo-American Thought(Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 1996), 1-24, 50-71 PAPER 2 DUE Friday, March 20 at 5 p.m. NO LATE PAPERS ACCEPTED!! March 21- 29: Spring Break! Week 8 (April 1) The IQ Factor and the Reification of Intelligence 1. Arthur Jensen, How Much Can We Boost IQ and Scholastic Achievement? Harvard Educational Review39 (Winter 1969): 1-12, 17, 28-30, 78-82, 84-86, 88-95. 2. Richard J. Herrnstein, IQ, The Atlantic Monthly(September 1971), 43-64. 3. Stephen Jay Gould, Mismeasure of Man([1981] New York: W. Norton & Co., 1996), 264-326. 4. Carl Campbell Brigham: The Man Who Devised the SAT, in The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education 17 (Autumn 1997): 72-73. 5. Vincent P. Franklin, Black Social Scientists and the Mental Testing Movement, 1920-1940, in Reginald Jones, ed.,Black Psychology(New York: Harper & Row, 1980), 201-215. 6. R.C. Lewontin, Steven Rose and Leon J. Kamin, IQ: The Rank Ordering of the World, in Sandra Harding, ed., The Racial Economy of Science: Toward a Democratic Future(Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1993), 142-160. 7. Robert L. Williams and Horace Mitchell, The Testing Game, in Reginald Jones, ed., Black Psychology(New York: Harper & Row, 1980), 186-195. ** NOTE: This week, schedule an appointment with me to begin discussing final papers/projects. Week 9 (April 8) Twentieth-Century Racial Categorization 1. Ashley Montagu, Statement on Race: An Annotated Elaboration and Exposition of the Four Statements on Race Issued by United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) (New York: Oxford University Press, 1972), ix-xii, 7-13, 139-164. 2. Donna Haraway, Universal Donors in a Vampire Culture: Its All in the Family: Biological Kinship Categories in the Twentieth Century United States, in William Cronon, ed., Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature (New York: Norton, 1995), 321-366. 3. W.E.B. DuBois, Conservation of Races. Occasional Papers No. 2 (New York: Arno Press, 1969), 5-15. 4. K. Anthony Appiah, The Uncompleted Argument: DuBois and the Illusion of Race, Critical Inquiry12 (1986): 21-37. 5. R.C. Lewontin, Steven Rose and Leon J. Kamin,The Politics of Biological Determinism, in Not in Our Genes(New York: Pantheon, 1984), 17-36. 6. William Provine, Geneticists and Race, American Zoologist26 (1986): 857-887. ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE Monday, April 13 by 5 p.m. NO LATE PROJECTS ACCEPTED!! Week 10 (April 15) Current Controversy over Race and Intelligence: The Bell Curve 1. Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray, The Bell Curve: Intelligence and the Class Structure in American Life(New York: Free Press, 1994), 269-340. 2. Daniel Kevles, In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity(New York: Knopf, 1985), 269-290. 3. Arthur R. Jensen, Paroxysms of Denial, in Russell Jacoby and Naomi Glauberman, eds., The Bell Curve Debate: History, Documents, Opinions (New York: Times Books, 1995), 335-337. 4. K. Anthony Appiah, Straightening Out The Bell Curve, in Russell Jacoby and Naomi Glauberman, eds., The Bell Curve Debate: History, Documents, Opinions (New York: Times Books, 1995), 305-313. 5. Leon J. Kamin, Lies Damned Lies, and Statistics, in Russell Jacoby and Naomi Glauberman, eds., The Bell Curve Debate: History, Documents, Opinions(New York: Times Books, 1995), 81-105. 6. Jason Ambroise, Kwame Anku, Demetrius Eudell, Jason Glenn, Taj James, Marshelle Jones and Khwezi Peters, The Final Solution to the Nigger Question: Droppin Some Science on The Bell Curve,Forum N.H.I.2 (Spring 1995), 4-40. Week 11 (April 22) The CQ Factor: Racial Stratification According to Class 1. Gunnar Myrdal, An America Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy(New York: Harper and Bros., 1944), 667-705. 2. James A. Geschwender,Racial Stratification in America(Dubuque, Iowa: W. C. Brown, Co., 1978), 2-51. 3. William Julius Wilson, The Declining Significance of Race: Blacks and Changing American Institutions (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980), 144-154. 4. Nathan Glazer, Scientific Truth and the American Dilemma, in Steven Fraser, ed., The Bell Curve Wars: Race, Intelligence, and the Future of America(New York: HarperCollins, 1995), 139-147. 5. Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray, The Bell Curve: Intelligence and the Class Structure in American Life (New York: Free Press, 1994), 1-27. REQUIRED OUTLINE DUE in class April 22 Week 12 (April 29) Redux in the 1990s? Popular and Scientific Debates 1. Troy Duster,Backdoor to Eugenics(London: Routledge, 1990), 93-111. 2. Sharon Begley, Three Is Not Enough: Surprising New Lessons from the Controversial Science of Race, Newsweek(13 February 1995), 67-69. 3. Norman J. Sauer, Forensic Anthropology and Concept of Race: If Races Dont Exist, Why Are Forensic Anthropologists So Good at Identifying Them?, Social Science and Medicine34 (15 January 1992), 107-112. 4. BOOK OF CHOICE Week 13 (May 6) Synthesis: Class Symposium FINAL PAPERS DUE Monday, May 11 by 5 p.m. NO LATE PAPERS ACCEPTED!!
