Page 282 - DSOC202_SOCIAL_STRATIFICATION_ENGLISH

Unit 13: Changing Dimensions of Social Stratification

3. Negroid or “Black” Notes
Negro
Melanesian
Pigmy Black
Bushman
4. Doubtful Classification
Australoid
Veddoid (Indo-Austral)
Polynesian
Ainu
After discussing various classifications of races based on some specific physiological traits, Kroeber
reiterates his view that “the term ‘race’ has here been used in its biological sense, for a group
united in blood or heredity. A race is a subdivision of species and corresponds to a breed in
domestic animals. Popularly, the word is used in a different sense; namely, that of population
having any traits in common, be they hereditary or nonhereditary, biological or socio-cultural,
organic or superorganic”. Thus, Kroeber also enlarges the initial definition of race by way of
incorporation of socio-cultural traits. Scientifically speaking, to say that there is the French race,
the Anglo-Saxon race, the Gypsy race, the Jewish race, etc., is not correct.
Caste and Race Compared
In a recent study, Chris Smaje considers both “race” and “caste” as natural hierarchies, that is,
people can be divided into ordered collectivities as sui generis. However, caste and race are not the
same thing, the two have some differences and similarities as well. Three common points as under
are discerned in the two institutions :
1. the separation or identity between persons and things;
2. conceptions of cosmic order and its relation to worldly diversity, particularly with respect to
political boundaries; and
3. the character of the persons and the “substance” that they embody.
Both create certain tensions and conflicts vis-a-vis social processes. The very essence of the two
institutions is against egalitarianism. Social science theories and conceptualizations are also free
from the socio-cultural limitations of caste and race. In case of race, the physical traits are socially
consequential. Smaje does not understand “race” principally in terms of somatic traits, but in
terms of a specific engagement between political ideology and the colonial expansion of Europe.
Race can be regarded as one of broader class of social phenomena that we might term as essentialist
identifications.
Smaje is opposed to the idea that some actual, substantive quality or qualities exist which
unambiguously and unfailingly differentiate some kinds of people from others. In other words, it
opposes the idea that involves natural properties which define groups of people. Race inheres
relations of a particular kind between persons – relations which are symbolized or denoted by the
concept of “race”. Race denotes categories or devices through which particular ideas of groupness
are constituted. Thus, according to Smaje, race is not a given “natural” property, it is the idea of
a relation, which is created in specific historical or social contexts, usually involving exclusion or
discrimination of some kind. In reality, many societies practise “racism”, without knowing fully
connotations of the idea of race.
Kenan Malik observes that “the concept of race ... is not an expression of a single phenomenon or
relationship. Rather it is a medium through which the changing relationship between humanity,

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