For your final assignment, share how this class has changed your view on race. What will you take with you to use in the future? How are your ideas on race different now? How will you use what you've learned here to better navigate your raced world?

Student's Name Professor’s Name Course Date Understanding Human Race in a Broader Perspective Introduction In anthropology, the study of human societies, behaviors, and trends aims to identify the criteria to ascertain humans’ distinctiveness as a species and, within this species, the existence of races. In the contemporary modern world, especially in American society, the conception of race is mainly based on the binary distinction between blacks; this fixed perception of race is mainly due to the sociocultural anthropology of Americans in a typical social context of America (Shankles 669). Hence, it is natural to acknowledge this erroneous fixed and color-blinded distinction between blacks and whites as races. After evaluating this binary notion of races under the lens of various scholarly discussions highlighting various physical and mental dimensions of race, one is compelled to reevaluate the traditional idea of the human race. The scholarly discussion indicates that scientific evidence against the existence of distinct human races paves the way for understanding the social and psychological aspects of the notion of human races. Likewise, a deeper understanding of the distinction in human races based on physical characteristics further enlightens the heterogeneous nature of human concepts of races (Shankles 672). Based on various case studies of different nations highlighting how the notion of the human race varies with the social, cultural, ethical, and even theological perspectives, one must review the standard binary conception of black. Therefore, based on these discoveries, one may infer that the concept of the human race is a highly complicated notion as multiple factors, physical appearance, social and economic divisions, heterogeneous ancestry, and vagaries of human social bonds play their role in shaping a human race. The following discussion, therefore, provides a rational discussion on these aspects of the human race to substantiate this thesis. Discussion Understanding the research on American social anthropology conducted by renowned anthropologists is a crucial factor that reshapes the prevalent binary notion of race. In this regard, one may refer to n Franz Boas’s radical study of the notion of races using critical evaluation of scientific and social evidence of human races (Shankles 670). Boa’s categorically renounces the existence of human racial identities based on scientific facts and considers race nothing but an irrelevant social response to differences in skin color (Shankles 670). The way he quotes the scientific information denouncing any biological basis for the distinction of races enlightens us about the role of physical factors in shaping human races. One of the revolutionary information that these readings reveal is the presentation of concrete scientific proofs against the existence of human racial identities. Take the example of UNESCO’s statement of facts about the falsehood of racial discrimination, as these facts categorically prove that, scientifically, humans have no racial distinction (Shankles 670). Scientific evidence reveals that cognitive faculties do not depend on race, human hybridization does not produce biological deterioration, and religious or ethnic groups are not biologically distinct populations (Shankles 670). Therefore, this new race information shifts the focus of attention toward the social aspect of the human race. Understanding the social dimension of the concept of the human race through studying various ethnic groups and their existing definitions of race has been instrumental in developing new views about human races in a typical context of social anthropology. For instance, the social life of Euroamericans in the early years of the nineteenth century in South America and their impact on the natives’ concept of race present an example of heterogeneity of the definition of race and its link with social and political context (Sturm 52). The emergence of national identity based on cultural and social distinction verifies the role of various external factors in shaping the concept of race. Under the impending threat of social, political, and economic subjugation by the invading Euroamerican people, the native Cherokee community developed a national identity that determined their racial differences from the invading forces. This Cherokee nationalism, which was based on the confluence of their distinct cultural heritage, historical context, and language, was a manifestation of the underlying complexity behind developing and stabilizing the notion of race in a community (Sturm 52). Th...