Читать книгу Introducing Anthropology - Laura Pountney - Страница 57

Are the statements below correct or incorrect? Give reasons for your responses.

Some early attempts to understand the differences between humans resulted in taxonomies or classification systems that were often crude and based judgementally on superficial physical differences. For example, in 1757 Carl Linnaeus divided Homo sapiens into five categories, among which were ‘wild man’, who was apparently mute and hairy, and ‘European’, who was ‘gentle’. Significantly, Linnaeus conflates physical characteristics such as hair type with cultural differences such as dress and political organization. This is a highly problematic assumption and one that is reflected in many ways by the widespread racism that has occurred in almost every single society in the world.

racism Discrimination against an individual or group based on their perceived ethnicity and the idea that ‘race’ is a fixed and bounded reality