From Savage to Negro: Anthropology and the Construction of Race, 1896-1954Lee D. Baker explores what racial categories mean to the American public and how these meanings are reinforced by anthropology, popular culture, and the law. Focusing on the period between two landmark Supreme Court decisions—Plessy v. Ferguson (the so-called "separate but equal" doctrine established in 1896) and Brown v. Board of Education (the public school desegregation decision of 1954)—Baker shows how racial categories change over time. Baker paints a vivid picture of the relationships between specific African American and white scholars, who orchestrated a paradigm shift within the social sciences from ideas based on Social Darwinism to those based on cultural relativism. He demonstrates that the greatest impact on the way the law codifies racial differences has been made by organizations such as the NAACP, which skillfully appropriated the new social science to exploit the politics of the Cold War. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
History and Theory of a Racialized Worldview | 11 |
The Ascension of Anthropology as Social Darwinism | 26 |
Anthropology in American Popular Culture | 54 |
ProgressiveEra Reform | 81 |
Rethinking Race at the Turn of the Century | 99 |
The New Negro and Cultural Politics of Race | 127 |
Looking behind the Veil with the Spy Glass of Anthropology | 143 |
Unraveling the Boasian Discourse | 168 |
Anthropology and the Fourteenth Amendment | 188 |
The ColorBlind Bind | 208 |
Appendix | 227 |
Notes | 237 |
Bibliography | 285 |
Index | 311 |
Other editions - View all
From Savage to Negro: Anthropology and the Construction of Race, 1896-1954 Lee D. Baker Limited preview - 1998 |
From Savage to Negro: Anthropology and the Construction of Race, 1896-1954 Lee D. Baker Limited preview - 1998 |
From Savage to Negro: Anthropology and the Construction of Race, 1896-1954 Lee D. Baker Limited preview - 1998 |
Common terms and phrases
African Americans Alain Locke American culture American Dilemma anthro anthropology argued arguments began Bell Curve Black Boas's Boasian Brinton Brown century Chicago Civil Rights color color-blind Congress construct of race Democrats desegregation developed discourse on race disfranchisement Education ethnology eugenics evolution explained fair Fauset federal Franz Boas Frederic Ward Putnam Harlem Harlem Renaissance Harvard Herskovits Houston Howard Hurston Ibid ican ideas of racial immigrants institutions JAFL Jim Crow John Wesley Powell Journal Justice LDEF legislation lynching Museum Myrdal NAACP National Native American Negro folklore North organizations Plessy political Popular Science Monthly president published Putnam race and culture racial categories racial equality racial inferiority racism Republican scholars scientific scientists segregation Shaler Slavery Social Darwinism Social Darwinist social science society sociological South southern tion U.S. Supreme Court United University Press W. E. B. Du Bois Washington White York Zora Neale Hurston