Readings:
The Mismeasure of Man, by Stephen Jay Gould, and Myths of Gender,
by Anne Fausto-Sterling
The phenotypic
expression of almost every gene is effected by the environmental conditions
A.
sickle cell disease/environment
1. a simple molecular change (one amino acid):
multiple effects; expression of condition can be effected by environment (genetic
change same, expression different)
2. ex. extreme O2 depletion (even for a heterozygous
carrier), altitude and activity, stress levels (i.e., blood pressure, O2 demand)
B.
A woman carrying a child, environmental impact, effects
on fetus
1. woman deprived on food, effects on child's
development
2. depends on time of gestation when starvation
occurred
3. ex. brain development; fat deposition/metabolic
rate
(Hanna
and Shahzad, pp 62-82)
A.
Views presented in this section:
1.
blacks/indians socially inferior to whites;
2.
views of different historical figures presented (e.g,
Jefferson, Lincoln, Franklin): "degree of talent does not equal degree
of right" and "inferior, but deserve human rights"
B. Craniometry:
1.
resemblance between negros/apes (jaw structure, etc.);
blacks even placed lower than apes!
2.
Charles White, English surgeon; climate,racial differences
3.
Louis Agassez: geographic distribution/centers of creation,
evolutions
C.
Polygeny vs. monogeny
1.
multiple versus single origin of racial/ethnic groups
in humans
2.
"10 Adams versus 1 Adam" (religious tone)
3.
still a current anthropological debate
D. Other Classmate responses to how culture used evidence to show what
it wanted to show:
1.
ex. "mistakes" based upon biases; pictures
construed and exaggerated
2.
(Pat) arguments of science at the time based upon anatomy;
they thought anatomy=destiny (they actually believed this); culture shaped
the ideas; hard to believe that so many scientists were so blind for so long;
perhaps the cultural image was SO strong; science works differently now than
it did then; before, only wealthy people were able to afford to do science
because no outside agencies (e.g., government) supported research; science
was not open to women or minorities
3.
(Ariel) scientists rejected models of archeological
samples that indicated primates developed upright posture before larger cranial
capacity because it indicated our ancestry, which they didn’t want to
believe came from primates
4.
(Matt) researchers made conclusions before doing the
research; their expectations created biases
(No Class Summarizers, pp 82-104)
A.
Samuel George Morton
1.
did research to show cranial size difference between
different racial groups (which supposedly translated into intelligence/superiority)
2.
Gould reanalyzed data/mistakes made in Morton's work
3.
What could have effected skull size? how measurements
were made, age of skulls, sex of skulls, body size of human, environment!
(Hugo, ex.: from anthropology class: Eskimos are short and stout to conserve
heat while Africans in the Sahara are tall and thin}effects head size)
4.
Table 2.5, p98, Gould's corrected values, no significant
difference between cranial sizes of groups, even though Morton was conviced
that the differences were significant\
B. Class Comments:
1.
(Hugo) scientists have "selective anmesia"--they
ignore what they want to ignore
2.
(Brandon) this makes you want to question what they
write in the history books
3.
(Sarah and Matt): you have to question the media; it's
scary because how else do you know what the truth is when everything you hear
(e.g., about politics, the president) comes from the media?
4.
(Pat) same with human genome project; we only hear what
they tell us about it, unless we get to look at the hard data. THINK: what
is my evidence for this? does my evidence make sense?
Chapter 3 "Measuring Heads"
(Bella and Katie presented this information, from pp105-122)
A.
General views presented in this section:
1.
manipulating evidence to suit the hypothesis
2.
Galton: turned everything into numbers (like reification,
in a way)
B.
Dr. Bean (Johns Hopkins)--measuring brain
sizes
1.
compare graphs on pp110/113--the first measurements
were made by Bean, the second were made my observers (blind) to the hypothesis
(some of the samples even overlapped)
2.
correlation plots: compute linear regression through
the points, strength of relationship
3.
(Pat) quantifying data can skew the idea of the strength
of the relationship (i.e, the way you portray the data sends a difference
messages); you must understand statistics!) r = the significance; r2
= explains how much of the variation is accounted for by the results.
Continuing
the discussion of Mismeasure Chp 5
1.
(Matt) angry about Goddard and his work
2.
(Cecelia and Pat): the most severely handicapped "idiots"
were locked up, but morons were breeding and were swamping out smarter people,
according to Goddard
3.
(Sarah): they are so one-sided to only consider genetics,
should consider environment the people are raised in
4.
(Pat): this was the age of the rise of genetics (with
Mendel and others)
5.
(Matt): they carried it all too far
6.
(Pat): we seem to always like the simple explanation
and solutions (like, just sterilize them), rather than the complex ones
7.
Goddard used women to pick out immigrants who were "morons;"
(Ashley): interpreter said he couldn't have passed test when he first came
into the country either
8.
(Miel): the tests were like self-fulfilled prophesies
9.
(Pat): teachers in a study--conveyed expectations to
what a child can perform in the way they treat their students; the Barbie
doll that said "my math class was sooo difficult"
10.
(Pat): this introduced a scary era in science when they
used (and still do!) genetics to classify people and to make rules about whether
or not they should breed
11.
(Matt): Goddard was one of the most stupid people he'd
read
12.
(Pat): the politics of the time: there were mass immigrations
and a hug political response to this (like today in some areas with Mexican
immigrants)
13.
(Sarah): everyone has intelligence, just different types/mixtures
of different forms
14.
p212 quote that Goddard said an IQ above 86 in a barber
is dead waste; (Pat): like medieval guilds, based on position of the parents
15.
Goddard: colonization because morons can’t suppress
sex drive, no sense of morals
16.
(Cecelia): brought up art, that everyone should be able
to associate with, but Goddard said he was the perfect illustration of an
imbecile
17.
(Pat): they twisted everything!
18.
(Sarah): could they have done anything else in their
time? (Harshita): Did they really think they were right? (Pat): wouldn't have
seen otherwise because of the paradigm of their times
19.
(Pat): just shows that the scientific method and the
educational system don't work as well as we'd like them too!
*Dr. Pat
Marsteller, the instructor of the course. The name of the person who contributed
the ideas summarized is included in parenthesis next to the sentence; students
are members of the Spring 2001 Emory University Neuroscience and Behavioral
Biology (NBB) Seminar "The Mismeasure of Woman/The Mismeasure of Man."
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designed and discussion written by:
Ashley M. Cimino