Bodily and cultural notions of race developed together from the start

Evidence

Blumenbach echoed theories from antiquity about skin color and its relationship to the weather: dark skinned people lived in hot climates while light skinned in cold climates. However, he maintained that individual human bodies have lighter and darker parts and further that one could, even in colder climates, become dark after exposure to the sun. His views were more complex than previous iterations of weather-based theories and also more contradictory. Painter notes that while he argued that culture and climate played a determining role in human appearance, he also believed that certain groups maintained their distinctiveness over generations. Thus, the Swiss retained their “open countenance,” and the Turkish their “manly and serious” demeanor; Jews, despite living alongside gentiles for long periods, were marked by inherent difference which in their “eyes alone” could be seen the “breathe of the East.” What we see therefore is that both bodily and cultural notions of race developed coterminously. Furthermore, Blumenbach believed that the “Caucasians” were the first human race from which all others either diverged or degenerated. Finally, the revival of classical scholarship from the Renaissance period on meant that features associated with Greek and Roman physiques were considered supreme and paleness was projected back onto antiquity as the beauty ideal. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 125

Categorization

• XREF: Jews marked as inherently different despite external similarity echoes themes of racialization of Jews; also dovetails with how ‘immodesty’ discourse treats Jews as permanently foreign. — connects to: Race, class, and nationality condition how objects are revealed to me.; Reading judicial opinions as cultural productions exposes races’ contested origins — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 364; Eighteenth-century ethnology fused bodily and cultural notions of race together — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 137 (+17 more)

Broader Connections

• Eighteenth-century ethnology fused bodily and cultural notions of race together #corroborates (1.00) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 137
• Race operates to tie culture, body, and behavior together #expands (0.90)
• Early race concepts treated behavior and culture as evidence of hidden inner difference. #corroborates (0.90)
• Perceived race is shaped by class, culture, and perception #corroborates (0.85)
• Race originated as a cultural-religious distinction legislated into biological heredity #corroborates (0.85) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 724
• Race functioned as an organizing principle tying bodies to social statuses #exemplifies (0.80) — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 85
• Race is both biological and social because bodies are shaped by social practices #corroborates (0.80) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1561
• Muslim racialization merges learned cultural traits with bodily essentialism #exemplifies (0.80)
• Race is a medium that transforms contingent attributes into supposed essences #qualifies (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 106
• Racialized interactions carry histories and stereotypes that shape their meaning #expands (0.75)
• Race’s meaning shifts with prevailing social conditions across regions #expands (0.75)
• Race is socially constructed rather than biologically real but has powerful social effects #qualifies (0.70) — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 113