Augustin Fuentes the Myth of Race Essay
Chapter Summary and Central Ideas
Augustin Fuentes the Myth of Race chapter talks about the evolution of primatology, social organization, and biological anthropology. In From the Myth of Race chapter, Fuentes’ discuss about the “pernicious myth of race,” a misconception that if the audience notes the difference, if people can be told apart, then a real difference between groups of people will be evidenced. The central idea of Fuentes here is cautioning people to question their thinking about “race” in a manner that can shake their assumptions to the real fact.
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In the demonstration of his claim that there is a “biological variance among humans,” Fuentes uses various examples to prove that this variation does not fit to all cluster units. In this chapter, Fuentes states that what people consider to be human race are not biological units. The main concept of Fuentes is explaining this claim’s significance in terms of how people see the world. For example, Fuentes analyses blood types using biological language and also charts to explain the same data.
In the chapter, Fuentes presents various assumptions about race that must be tested to either be accepted or refuted. Such assumptions are: human race are divided into biological units, people mostly live in post-racial society, if race does not fall in any biological group, then racism is not vital in shaping people’s lives among other assumptions.
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In conclusion, Fuentes argues that race is a “myth”. He strongly asserts that race cannot be biologically associated but believes it matters a lot to the society. In building his argument, Fuentes uses the example of Barrack Obama’s election as the U.S. President among other instances. In his argument, Fuentes is optimistic that the society can break from these conservative myths.
Work Cited
Agustin Fuentes’ From the Myth of Race found on pages 629-647 of Inquiry, 4th edition.