I have anthropological training. I'm 98.44% sure they don't use paint chips any more. Also, that attempt to gather "neutral information" I would argue was not neutral at all.
There is a LONG LONG history of anthropologists being racist, sexist, etc. and also of anthropologists using science to "prove" that native peoples are inherently "noble savages."
Part of my first class about anthropology included reading multiple anthropological texts about one particular tribe (the !Kung) and seeing how race/gender/class/etc affected how anthropologists wrote their allegedly neutral observations.
Given the timing of when Ms. Russell probably earned her Phd in Physical Anthropology, I suspect that the idea of paint chips was a radical new idea. And yes trying to find ways to describe skin color in more objective terms than "dark" is a good thing. Just um... OK. So that is a good example of terminology that comes out of a particular context (the academic field of physical anthropology) that does not seem to have translated well out of that context.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2011-06-01 03:27 pm (UTC)I have anthropological training. I'm 98.44% sure they don't use paint chips any more. Also, that attempt to gather "neutral information" I would argue was not neutral at all.
There is a LONG LONG history of anthropologists being racist, sexist, etc. and also of anthropologists using science to "prove" that native peoples are inherently "noble savages."
Part of my first class about anthropology included reading multiple anthropological texts about one particular tribe (the !Kung) and seeing how race/gender/class/etc affected how anthropologists wrote their allegedly neutral observations.
Given the timing of when Ms. Russell probably earned her Phd in Physical Anthropology, I suspect that the idea of paint chips was a radical new idea. And yes trying to find ways to describe skin color in more objective terms than "dark" is a good thing. Just um... OK. So that is a good example of terminology that comes out of a particular context (the academic field of physical anthropology) that does not seem to have translated well out of that context.
Um....I have to run off but I want to add one thing
American Anthropological Association Statement on "Race" (May 17, 1998)