This week’s readings and videos were very intriguing to me. In our society today, race is a huge topic to many. As I was reading the American Anthropological Association (AAA), I found one particular statement that stood out was “It is a basic tenet of anthropological knowledge that all normal human beings have the capacity to learn any cultural behavior.” I found this statement to be important, because anthropologists during the 18th century thought of race differently than what modern day anthropologists see race as. In the 18th century, race was understood as “ a mode of classification linked specifically to people in the colonial situation.” This was use to jusitfy slavery during this time. During this time, race was seen under economic, historical, and economic circumstances rather than biological inheritance. This way of thinking impaired many people to think that biological variations and cultural behavior were genetically determined. However, in the 20th century many anthropologists will argue race is “natural and separate divisions within the human species based on visible physical differences.” Modern day anthropologists argue that our cultural behaviors are conditioned and learned as infants, and they are subjected to modification. For us to develop as humans, we learn through culture. Overall, the preconception of race in the 18th century lead to inequalities “racial” groups face in today’s society.

Another reading that was given to us was from the American Association of Physical Anthropologists (AAPA). The reading was AAPA statement on biological aspects of race. They summarize in the preamble that popular conceptualizations of race were acquired from the 18th to early 20th century. The rest of the reading was the 11 different aspects that modern day anthropologist go against the 18th century conceptualizations. One particular aspect I found interesting was number 11. Aspect 11 states that different factors such as physical or social environments influence our behavorial differences among people in society. However, we as human beings have the capacity to assimilate in any human culture. This capacity for development was seen as essential for our species survival. I found this particular aspect interesting, because my parents were immigrants from Vietnam. On the other hand, my brother and I were born in the US. My parents had to assimilate to the American culture, as well as keep the Vietnamese culture in our household. We as humans are able to learn our cultural behaviors, and are not genetically determined.

I learned a lot from this week’s readings and videos. I would explain to someone who is unfamiliar with the topic of non-existence of biological race is we have different physical traits that determine what we are. However, we as humans all belong to a single species called homo sapiens. No one is actually considered “pure,” because of the migration patterns of our ancestors. As our ancestors continued to migrate, and they eventually assimilated to the cultural behaviors in that region. Many preconceptions of race comes from the 18th century, and this leads to inequalities of racial groups are consequences of historical, economic, and political circumstances during that time.