The nature of race:how scientists think and teach about human difference

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Morning Ann Juanita 1968-
Published: University of California Press,
Publisher Address: Berkeley
Publication Dates: c2011.
Literature type: Book
Language: English
Subjects:
Carrier Form: xiii, 310 p.: ill., maps ; 23 cm.
ISBN: 9780520270305 (hbk.)
0520270304 (alk. paper)
9780520270312 (pbk. : alk. paper)
0520270312 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Index Number: C912
CLC: C912.4
Call Number: C912.4/M866
Contents: Includes bibliographical references (p. 279-303) and index.
What is race? -- What do we know about scientific and popular concepts of race? -- Textbook race: lessons on human difference -- Teaching race: scientists on human difference -- Learning race: students on human difference -- Race concepts beyond the classroom -- The redemption of essentialism.
What do Americans think "race" means? What determines one's race, appearance, ancestry, genes, or culture? How do education, government, and business influence our views on race? To unravel these complex questions, the author takes a close look at how scientists are influencing ideas about race through teaching and textbooks. Drawing from in-depth interviews with biologists, anthropologists, and undergraduates, she explores different conceptions of race, finding for example, that while many sociologists now assume that race is a social invention or "construct," anthropologists and biologists