Anthropological perspective on Race, gender and class

Anthropology studies how different communities of people define the meaning of life and

how they affect human activities. Anthropologists approach the study of human beings basing

their argument on the principle that human beings are complex beings thus they examine the

ideas across multiple angles. There has been a debate on the harmful concepts of race so several

researchers have been investigating the factors that can reduce racial injustices. Anthropologists

regardless of the perspective on race are influential in determining concepts about race.

Lierberman and Reynolds conducted an investigation about 40 years ago investigating about

existing views on races among anthropologists (Bolin & Kurtz, 2018). The aim was to

distinguish the beliefs about human race among anthropologist and scientists who had their

belief about the existence of human races. They studied the influence of sociocultural towards

the anthropologist’s perspectives on race and came up with a report on the agreed statements

about race.

The results about the research on perspectives on race by physical anthropologist

concluded that: races are taxonomic units that exist below the species level and if those units are

not races then they have the same meaning as the taxonomic meaning. Some of the

anthropologists also believed that races are inexistence since isolation of groups has been

infrequent and there has been interbreeding of the population and that boundaries called races are

arbitrary depending on the wishes of the classifier.

Anthropology examines gender as a critical issue in the social and social aspects of

human life about sexuality that have power as the focal point of the study. Anthropology

therefore defines sex and gender in different ways as sex is perceived on biological difference

while gender is defined on cultural practices in a society. During the twentieth century there was
rise in sociocultural anthropology that led to gender being defined on terms of kinship or family

and some monograph might include a woman in one of the issues raised. Therefore there was a

rise in feminist anthropology who challenged the study of gender to include women in the study.

Later there were many perspectives that challenged the assumptions made about women. The

study of anthropology on gender has to explain how disciplines such as sex, sexuality and

gender-related codes of conduct are different across cultures (Lindsey, 2015). These

developments to include women in practicing social sciences were achieved by Franz Boas who

fought racism and sexism.

Class was considered an appropriate field of research and an anthropologist by the name

Lloyd Fallers before he died discovered that social stratification also called class did not exist.

He observed that the term was mainly affected by the cultural bias and should be assumed.

Others were Needham who discovered that kinship is inexistence. Even after the discoveries

social classification is a common debate in the society and class was commonly used in Europe

during Capitalism. During the time of capitalism class became a mode in social organization of a

society. In 1901 Industrial workers of the World claimed that there were two different classes the

working class and the employing class but later the claim about class was regarded as an

ideology by the communists and therefore people avoided it (Belkhir & Charlemaine, 2017).

Anthropologists were afraid to discuss about class and some even contributed to denial about the

existence of class.

Marlon Riggs

Marlon Riggs was a black writer, filmmaker born 1957 in Texas United States. He

graduated from Havard University in 1978 with honors in journalism. He then started to make

documentaries about the black identity and the role of African-American in the United States.
His first work was entitled Ethnic Notions that was based on stereotypes that affected the

African-American society. His other works were towards granting of gay rights, treatment of the

African American in some national television. All his works were focused on potraying the

African American as a masculinity community; this brought him a lot of criticism because of

these issues (Li, 2019). His works also highlighted issues dealing with sexuality by encouraging

acceptance of gays in the society and also some of his works contributed to the unification of the

Black society. The black community was divided by class, gender and also sex.

Barbara Myerhoff

Barbara was born in 1935 and spent most of her life studying how man and women from

different cultures used their stories inspired the lives of other people. She was an anthropologist

and also a professor who encouraged her students to anthropology tools to understand their lives

and the lives of other people. She believed in living a life that can transform the lives of other

people. She wrote a book Peyote Hunt that was about the Huichol Indians who lived in Mexico

and through exploration participated in their annual pilgrimage in collection of peyote (Cattell &

Schweitzer, 2016). She promoted the study of cultures of different people. She played a vital role

in the promotion of a good coexistence between people regardless of their religion and cultures.

Anna Grimshaw

She was an anthropologist and carried her research on Buddhist nuns in the Himalayas.

She focused on ethnographic cinema and experimental anthropology. Grimshaw argued that

cinema and film was to study ethnographic promotion in the society (Grimshaw & Ravetz,

2015). This played a big part in motivating the women in the society where she also participated

in a film called Material women. Her books are used to explain anthropology in the modern

society.
 The anthropology understanding is fundamental in the society because it shapes

society in many aspects. It helps to understand the human cultures values and also ideas. The

fields of anthropology regarding the community focus on many issues of human life (Tax, 2017).

Anthropology focus on the study of human beings as social beings with many elements such as

the environment and fellow human beings. Anthropologists help to make a comparison in the

different cultures and have direct contact with societal data.

Five disciplines deal with anthropology which includes applied anthropology, biological

anthropology, archaeology, linguistic anthropology, and the cultural anthropology. Culture focus

patterns with a shared behavior belief (Cohen, 2015). Culture is a collection of many aspects that

comprise the many elements that affect human life. The anthropological portion is viewed in the

two main categories which include change and diversity. The culture in which one is brought up

makes one different from the other religions that exist on. Anthropology facilitates in no small

part in the shaping of one’s attributes.

The field of archeology focuses on human or even the animal’s interpretation together

with their history and culture. It is done through a thorough examination of the artifacts and

another kind of remains. The biological anthropology focuses on the human body using genetics

together with the human ancestry. The study of anthropology has enlightened people on cultural

universals and the different kind of cultures that exist in much variety of societies. There are two

views of religion which include emic and the etic as the two main views of culture.

Cultural relativism is an idea that help people from different cultures have common

knowledge of understanding. This has enabled people from a different culture to be in a position

to see the possibilities.

Bolin, B., & Kurtz, L. C. (2018). Race, class, ethnicity, and disaster vulnerability.

In Handbook of disaster research (pp. 181-203). Springer, Cham.

Mascia-Lees, F. E., & Black, N. J. (2016). Gender and anthropology. Waveland Press.

Lindsey, L. L. (2015). Gender roles: A sociological perspective. Routledge.

Belkhir, J. A., & Charlemaine, C. (2017). INTRODUCTION: RACE, GENDER &

CLASS 2016 CONFERENCE. Race, Gender & Class, 24(1/2), 3-5.

Li, X. (2019). Black Masculinity, Homosexuality and Hip-Hop Music. In Black

Masculinity and Hip-Hop Music (pp. 17-43). Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore.

Cattell, M. G., & Schweitzer, M. M. (2016). Women in anthropology: autobiographical

narratives and social history. Routledge

Grimshaw, A., & Ravetz, A. (2015). The ethnographic turn–and after: a critical approach

towards the realignment of art and anthropology. Social anthropology, 23(4), 418-434..

Cohen, A. (2015). Two-dimensional man: An essay on the anthropology of power and

symbolism in complex society. Routledge.

Tax, S. (2017). Horizons of anthropology. Routledge