Racial TheoriesThis thoroughly revised and updated edition of Michael Banton's classic book reviews historical theories of racial and ethnic relations and contemporary struggles to supersede them. It shows how eighteenth- and nineteenth-century concepts of race attempted to explain human difference in terms of race as a permanent type and how these were followed by social scientific conceptions of race as a form of status. In a new concluding chapter, "Race as Social Construct," Michael Banton makes the case for a historically sensitive social scientific understanding of racial and ethnic groupings that operates within a more general theory of collective action and is, therefore, able to replace racial explanations as effectively as they have been replaced in biological science. This book is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand contemporary debates about racial and ethnic conflict. This new edition is thoroughly updated and contains a new chapter on developments in recent years. |
Contents
Race as designation | 1 |
The first two phases | 4 |
The third phase | 7 |
Race as lineage | 17 |
Classification | 18 |
External conditions | 23 |
Chronology | 31 |
Naturphilosophie | 34 |
Kinds of system | 128 |
Micro and macro | 136 |
Discrimination | 140 |
Discrimination in housing markets | 145 |
Discrimination in employment markets | 150 |
Ethnic origin | 158 |
Assessment | 166 |
Race as class | 168 |
Nature and culture | 38 |
Implications of error for racial thought | 40 |
Race as type | 44 |
Lineage and variety confused | 45 |
The American school | 48 |
France | 62 |
Britain | 68 |
The typological school | 76 |
Race as subspecies | 81 |
Darwins theories | 84 |
Attempted applications | 88 |
Reductionist explanations | 97 |
Social ecology | 102 |
Genetic explanations | 109 |
Race as status | 117 |
Structure and function | 119 |
Epistemological assumptions | 169 |
Adapting the model | 177 |
Racism and capitalism | 184 |
Social rhetoric | 188 |
Assessment | 193 |
Race as social construct | 196 |
Collective action | 199 |
Choosing between alternatives | 207 |
Ethnic alignment | 215 |
Mobilisation | 219 |
Ethnicity and politics | 226 |
Conclusion | 233 |
Bibliography | 236 |
| 248 | |
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Common terms and phrases
African animals argument Banton behaviour believe biological biological inheritance black workers Bonacich called Carus Caucasian character Chinese Chinese Malaysians collective action colour competition concept of race conflict cultural Cuvier Darwin Deep South developed differentiation discrimination distinctive Dollard ecological economic employer environment Ernst Mayr ethnic groups ethnic origin European evolution example explanation genetic Gobineau human identify immigrants important individuals influence inheritance interest kind Knox labour market language maintained Malays Marxist minority mobilisation natural selection Negro Nott organisation particular persons political population preferences prejudice Prichard problem production question race relations racial groups racial relations racism rational choice theory Scientific Racism slave slavery social science social scientists society sociologists sociology South South Africa species status structure subspecies telegony Temne theory tion typological typologists United variation W. I. Thomas white workers word race writing wrote