[Aztlan] Aztlan Digest, Vol 38, Issue 10

[Jaime Andres Pretell]

Oh wow. A fellow after my own heart.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Benjamin Carter" <spondylus.princeps at gmail.com>
To: "Janice Van Cleve" <janicevc at seanet.com>
Cc: <aztlan at lists.famsi.org>
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 6:10 PM
Subject: Re: [Aztlan] Aztlan Digest, Vol 38, Issue 10


> Race is simply ethinicity with a supposed biological basis.
> Anthropologists talk about population, not races (anymore). What you are
> talking about is ethnicity. Was there a presumed biological difference
> in the minds of the Maya? Perhaps, but that is not something that we can
> know archaeologically (or even ethnohistorically, in my opinion). We
> can, however, distinguish clear differences between archaeological
> populations in Honduras, in their material culture, architecture, etc..
> The Maya, at least the elite, were very clearly concerned ancestry, but
> the 'Lenca' probably were as well and may have considered their own
> culture better than the Maya, much as many people around the world today
> believe that their own cultures, though perhaps not as technologically
> complex, are better than those in the Western world.
>
> I would suggest that recognition of "race" is a "preoccupation" with
> "race". The scientific recognition of biological differences between
> populations is however an important scientific endeavor. Race is an
> extremely slippery concept, but which populations have which skeletal
> traits can be identified relatively easily. Note that these populations
> rarely line up with our popular conceptions of "race".
>
> Race can very easily change. The same person can be Black or African
> American in the US, but brunette in Brazil.
>
> Ben