Chapter 14 Additional Resources

What Can Anthropology Tell Us about Social Groups and Inequality?

Websites

  • Centre for Social Justice
    http://www.socialjustice.org/
    This is an excellent resource for exploring issues of social stratification and inequality in Canada. The website contains various sections on such topics as gender and racial inequality, Aboriginal peoples and economic inequality, and other topics. It has links to relevant research and publications, research and support groups, and statistics on identity and inequality.
  • “Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies”
    http://www.concordia.ca/research/migs.html
    Website for the think tank based at Concordia University to help foster research to improve policies for protecting human rights. This resource provides an intersection of technologies and interventions aimed at predicting future impacts, as well a mix of publications and research resources.

Videos

Bringa, Tone. 1994. We are all Neighbours: Bosnia. London: Granada Television, Disappearing World Series.

In this ethnographic film, anthropologist Tone Bringa explores the development of ethnic conflict in Bosnia in 1993 in a small village near Sarajevo. Within the span of three months of filming, Muslim and Croat neighbours go from living peacefully with each other to killing each other. As such, this film documents how conceptions of ethnicity and nationalism are invented cultural traditions and not inevitable or “natural.”

Goode Bryant, Linda, and Laura Poitras. Flag Wars. 2003. New York: Zeitgeist Films. DVD, 90 min.

This film documents the gentrification of a Columbus, Ohio community and the subsequent ethnic tension that it creates. The Olde Towne East area of Columbus has historically been a black, working class community. But with rising property taxes and increasing home values, many residents cannot afford to pay the taxes and/or maintain their properties. As such, they lose their homes to affluent white gentrifiers. This has contributed to a rise in ethnic tension, racism, and violent crime in the community.

Loninotto, Kim. 2010. Pink Saris. New York: Women Make Movies. DVD, 100 min. http://www.discoveranthropology.org.uk/about-anthropology/specialist-areas/anthropology-of-gender.html

Filmed in Northern India, this documentary explores the stories of a number of women who choose to protest the fact that they have been assigned at birth an untouchable caste, or the lowest social caste. Calling themselves the “Gulabi Gang,” they wear bright pink saris to show their collective affiliation, and this film documents the work that they do to alleviate legal and social injustice, abuse, and other stresses and injustices that they experience on a daily basis.

University of Manchester, School of Social Sciences. 2014. “Mind the Gap: Exploring Gender Inequality.” YouTube video, 16:23. Posted Aug 2014,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAwgMj6RCW4.

This short video adopts a historical perspective to examine the pervasive “gender gap” within Western contexts. Looking at the relationship between women’s work and pay grades, it examines how and why women’s work has been undervalued. It also examines some of the ways in which women’s groups are attempting to draw attention to, and rectify, the gender gap.

Asha Tomlinson, CBC News (2015) “Being Black in Canada”. YouTube video, 22:34. Posted Feb 8 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORW_e8P8RcY

The program highlights the work of two Windsor teachers who show their students what is missing in many history books, including an interview with Book of Negroes author Lawrence Hill about Canadian black history, as well as highlighting Western Canada’s Black pioneers.

Books and Articles

Bodley, John H. 2008. Anthropology and Contemporary Human Problems: Fifth Edition. Lanham: Altamira Press.

An overview of the how human society has changed from relatively egalitarian hunter-gatherers to more complex states and the need to use humanizing approaches to appropriate development and technology creation and implementation. The author reviews the underpinnings of the crises in environmental, social justice, and health along with economics and population change. The goal of anthropology, he argues, is to play an appropriate role in helping foster sustainable change through working with others to build local solutions that respect the diversity of cultures.

Chandler, Michael J., and Christopher E. Lalonde. 1998. Cultural Continuity as a Hedge against Suicide in Canada's First Nations. Transcultural Psychiatry 35 (2):191-219.

Part of the value of cultural continuity is the counter-acting of the view by youth that their life is without meaning or that life is cheap, and that our selfhood is part of a greater reality. In their study, the authors learned from interviews with suicidal youth that many do not have a reason to connect with their culture, due to the impacts of residential schools and systemic inequality in their communities. They saw—in their study of 196 First Nations bands in BC—that communities with self-government and land claims, along with control of education that promoted strong language and cultural practice, tended to have much lower rates of suicide and more engaged community members.

Codjoe, Henry M. 2001. “Fighting a Public Enemy of Black Academic Achievement: The Persistence of Racism and the Schooling Experience of Black Students in Canada.” Race, Ethnicity and Education 4(4): 343–375.

In this article, Codjoe draws upon his fieldwork with academically successful black students in Alberta’s public school system to explore their educational experiences in a predominantly “white” educational system. He demonstrates that systemic forms of racism affect these students, and he examines how and why this may be a broader and more pervasive issue within the context of the Canadian educational system.

Frohlich, Bruno, and David Hunt. 2006. “A History Not to Be Forgotten: Mass Burials in Mongolia.” AnthroNotes 27(1): 1–5.

The authors discuss the challenges involved with examining remains recovered in an unsystematic fashion by Mongolian monks from what they considered to have been a mass grave. Because mass graves are often evidence for war crimes, they must be carefully analyzed. Frohlich and Hunt use artifacts and other objects, including preserved clothing, to demonstrate that the bodies do date to a period associated with mass executions by the Mongolian Stalinist regime between 1937 and 1939. Damage to the skulls verified that the individuals had been executed—70 of 80 preserved skulls had bullet entry and exit trauma.

Fluehr-Lobban, Carolyn. 1998. “Cultural Relativism and Universal Human Rights.” AnthroNotes 20(2).

Fleuhr-Lobban considers how the issue of universal human rights is leading to critical self-examination among anthropologists with respect to the core principle of cultural relativism. The author defines cultural relativism, noting that the concept holds that each culture has its own inherent integrity. Further, value judgments of a culture’s practices need to be made only after their cultural context is considered. Fleuhr-Lobban argues that many anthropologists and others challenge this concept, especially from the perspective of universal human rights. She examines these challenges by evaluating anthropology’s role in human rights struggles.

Gould, Stephen Jay. 1981. The Mismeasure of Man. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

Gould, known for his erudite but accessible writing, updates his important work on the history of scientific racism to explicitly refute arguments presented in Richard J. Herrnstein’s and Charles Murray’s The Bell Curve. Gould demonstrates that The Bell Curve is simply the latest work that manipulates human biological variation to level racist claims. The development of biological anthropology is considered from its racist and misogynistic beginnings in this thought-provoking volume.

Hartigan, John. 2006. “Saying ‘Socially Constructed’ Is Not Enough.” Anthropology News (Rethinking Race and Human Variation). http://www.understandingrace.net/resources/pdf/rethinking/hartigan.pdf.

Hartigan challenges anthropologists to move beyond simply viewing race as a “socially constructed” form of classification. He notes that some geneticists and other scientists have linked race to significant and persistent biological differences. Hartigan’s challenge followed the development of drugs targeted specifically to African Americans.

Henry, Frances. 1994. The Caribbean Diaspora in Toronto: Learning to Live with Racism. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Based upon ethnographic fieldwork, this ethnography explores the experiences and narratives of Afro-Caribbean and West Indian immigrants to the Toronto area. It focuses in particular upon their experiences of both overt and embedded racism within the context of the Canadian workplace, educational settings, and in a variety of other inter-personal situations. For many, racism has become a normalized, everyday experience that people “learn to live with.” In many ways, this ethnography challenges the widespread and popular assumption that Canadian multicultural society is both accepting and inclusive of difference.

Hou, Feng, and John Myles. 2013. “Interracial Marriage and Status–Caste Exchange in Canada and the United States.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 36(1).

Feng and Myles examine statistics regarding the relationship between class and race among racially mixed marriages in Canada and the United States. They test the status–caste exchange thesis, arguing that in the United States, white women who marry black men are more likely to do so if they are marrying a man of a comparatively higher economic/class-based status. This trend, however, is not as common in Canada, which highlights different national values concerning attitudes toward interracial marriage and partnerships.

Hunter, Margaret. 2007. “The Persistent Problem of Colorism: Skin Tone, Status, and Inequality.” Sociology Compass 1(1): 237–254.

Colourism refers to the practice of privileging light-skinned people over those with darker skin in all areas of society, including income, education, housing, and marriage. Hunter considers colourism from the perspective of African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans. Her research produced interesting findings—notably that, while light-skinned people had greater advantages over those with darker skin, darker-skinned peoples were viewed as more authentically “ethnic.”

Mencher, Joan P. 1974. “The Caste System Upside Down, or the Not-So-Mysterious East.” Current Anthropology 15(4): 469–493.

India’s caste system usually is viewed from the top down (e.g., from the perspective of the highest castes to the lowest castes). Mencher argues that the caste system should be viewed upward from the lowest caste, which reveals important qualitative and quantitative differences. Lower caste members tend to see the system as functioning to reinforce economic exploitation and to prevent the formation of social classes, as opposed to castes. Her analysis shows that the failure to consider these issues is partly responsible for the failed attempts to break down the caste system.

Porter, J. 2015. Vertical Mosaic: An Analysis of Social Class and Power in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

In Vertical Mosaic, Porter shatters the myth of Canada as an inclusive cultural mosaic by arguing that, while Canadian society may consist of a bricolage of disparate identities and ethnic groups, they are by no means equal. In other words, the Canadian mosaic is one that is vertical and predicated upon notions of hierarchy and social inequality. These inequalities include gendered, racial, ethnic, and class-based inequalities (among others).

Strong, Pauline Turner, and Barrik Van Winkle. 1996. “‘Indian Blood’: Reflections on the Reckoning and Refiguring of Native North American Identity.” Cultural Anthropology 11(4): 547–576.

The authors consider what it means to be “part”Indian. If one is “part” Indian, which part of them is Indian? Whatever percentage one has of “Indian-ness,” the social result is often the same—full discrimination. Strong and van Winkle consider these issues by examining literary and artistic works by a number of individuals, including the artist Joane Cardinal-Schubert. Their analysis concludes by noting the problematic nature of the concept of “Indian blood” and the social reality the leads people to continue to embrace this concept.

Thompson, Eric C. 2006. “The Problem of ‘Race as a Social Construct.’” Anthropology News (Rethinking Race and Human Variation)

http://www.understandingrace.com/resources/pdf/rethinking/thompson.pdf

Thompson thinks anthropologists act too casually when they teach that race is a social construct. He notes that all ideas anthropologists examine are social constructs and that we need to say more about race if we plan to argue against the concept. The author points out that, in addition to noting that race is a social construct, we need to show the following: race is not accurately descriptive of what we seek to describe, and race has had a long and negative impact on social groups.

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