Farber 5

The new physical anthropology that uses the new biology of the modern synthesis

• How do you apply population genetics to humans
• population genetics=explaining the genetic variation of a population in the light of evolution
• the focus is on patterns of variation, not on static types and averages
  
• image to the right shows the mix of different ancestral populations in present day populations in Africa (more details)--wide variations over short distances in what we used to think of as one race
  
• many people at first hoped this would lead to a scientific understanding of race, but it did not
  

Montague argued that race mixing was an important way that desirable traits emerged

• species=a set of intermixing subpopulations (subspecies)
  
• race=a subpopulation of a species
• mixing among subpopulations is common and normal
• subpopulations are not different types, variation within subpopulations is extensive
• the argument can not be made that race mixing is unnatural
  

Did science have an impact on court cases seeking to overturn laws banning interracial marriage?

• reaction against Nazi racial laws led to more questioning of segregation
• prejudice against African-Americans was diminishing somewhat
• 1948 Perez v. Sharp California Supreme Court struck down California's anti-miscegenation law by a 4-3 decision
  
• the argument used in the majority opinion was that marriage was a fundamental right but also that "race restrictions must be viewed with great suspicion"
• if marriage is a fundamental right you shouldn't prohibit people from marrying unless there is a strong social good to be achieved by such a prohibition
  
• Roger Traynor, the judge who wrote the opinion, also pointed out that recent science had shown that race mixing would do no harm
• one of the officials who argued to uphold the law made the argument that Negroes were genetically inferior, but the judge rejected that, pointing out that science showed no evidence that any race was superior to any other and that the problems more common among African-Americans were environmental, not genetic
  
• he also argued that the law was too vague and uncertain because races could not be clearly defined
• science was not explicitly discussed in the decisions of other states that overturned their laws, but older scientific arguments could no longer be used

Supreme Court decisions:

• 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruled that separate schools for blacks and whites were unconstitutional
• 1967 Loving v. Virginia brought by a black woman and a white man who had been sentenced to a year in prison for marrying each other (suspended if they left the state and did not return for 25 years)
  
•  the judge who initially sentenced them argued that God had created the races separately--religion could still be used as an argument but no longer science
• the Supreme Court
  
• argued that marriage is a basic civil right, ruled unanimously
• did not use arguments from science as much as the California decision, but the Supreme Court often takes into account what will be harmful to society and they no longer saw race mixing that way
• public opinion had changed enough that the ruling was timely
  

science was instrumental in changing public opinion, which then led to changes in the laws
you could no longer argue for laws against race mixing on the basis of science
when culture is changing, when should the Supreme Court step in?