By Cienna Slattery
During the first two weeks in the program, we explored the meaning of
community. Community is something that takes on different meanings for different
people. For some of us in the program, community meant a group of people sharing
similar interests or a common goal, for others it meant working together on a project.
For me, community means a group of people who have eachothers backs, regardless of
their differences. For me, community is all about support and trust. Community also
does not have to be all together, one’s community can be made up of people whom one
trusts from different groups. During these weeks, we also went on to explore identity.
Identity describes who someone is, though the way in which identity is formed is
incredibly complex. Identity is layered— that is, it has many different facets.
Additionally, identity is constructed through someone’s individual experiences.
Identity also overlaps with community because one’s community influences how they
identify. This could be through the experiences that the community creates, through
influences from the community, or simply because of the structure of the community.
People’s identity also changes in light of the things they learn from their community
members. For example, advisors and mentors can have a large influence on people
that affects their identity. During this module, we also learned to represent concepts
visually by representing our own identities through an art piece. Furthemore, we built
on this knowledge by learning about and using color theory to create shapes with color
schemes to represent concepts.
During the second two weeks of the program, we explored how scientific truth
is constructed. Scientific truth has long been influenced by social factors. Though
many scientists try their best not to be parial, it is impossible to separate human desire
from the scientific process. This can result in differences in the way that scientists
interpret data, present information, process information, or even conduct research
that distorts certain information. The construction of race within the collection of
skulls is a perfect example of this. The collection of skulls has deep social connections.
Skulls were frequently gifts or donations to museums, and along with these gifts or
donations, letters outlining the history of the skulls were sent. This allowed the sender
to easily construct or distort the history of the skull and relied on the sender to have
an accurate account of the skull’s history. The process to rank how accurate these
histories were was also incredibly faulted. The museums would judge the credibility of
the histories by looking at the status of the people who sent the skull. The people with
higher social standing were considered more trustworthy. This process made it easy
for senders to shape the history of the skulls and thus how race was constructed. As
the credibility of the story was based on the social status of the sender, this also barred
many people of color from sharing their stories. Due to racism, it was much less likely
for people of color to be in positions of power. As such, even if a person of color ws to
send in a skull with an attached history outlining the cultural context of the skull, their
truth was less likely to be considered factual. In accurately, constructing race,
however, it is crucial that other cultures are allowed to participate. This way of
collecting scientific data has led to an incredibly white-washed view of race within
anthropology, that is unfortunately now accepted as truth. Today, these practices
remain a part of the study of skulls, though the extent to which these practices are
used is uncertain.
In exploring the construction of scientific truth, we also looked at how pictures
of the cosmos by nasa are constructed. Nasa uses the hubble telescope to capture
pictures from space. This telescope captures data from space— and based on that data
constructs a picture of the scene. The image is then sent down to earth. Once the data
arrives at nasa, photo editing similar to photoshop is done by space scientists to make
the picture “more accurate.” The people working at nasa who manipulate these photos
claim that they use their own mathematical expertise to modify these scenes so that
they are more accurate. This can include revealing things that are invisible to the
naked eye but are still present in the scene, motifying lighting or colors, etc.
Additionally, another organization within Nasa that works on making information
about space accessible to the public is known to modify these scenes even further so
that they also look visually appealing for audiences. During these weeks, we also
expanded on our artistic ability by learning to use adobe spark. We used this platform
to create graphics about concepts we discussed in class.
On the surface, these topics are very different. The first includes talk about
community and identity, while the second includes talk about the social history of
truth. The first seems much more based in psychology and individuality while the
second seems much more scientifically grounded. Additionally, the cosmos is
incredibly different from one’s identity. Despite the differences, I think these topics are
very interconnected. One's culture is incredibly tied to their identity. As we stated
during the first module, community shapes identity. If a child was to learn something
negative about their own community, it could easily have drastic effects on their view
of themselves. This view can cause one to develop a negative or positive association
with their identity. As a hypothetical example, if a child who connects deeply with their
indigious roots finds out that science says that indiginous skulls are smaller and
therefor indiginous people are not as smart, the child may internalize feelings of not
being good enough or smart enough. While this includes how the community one
grows up in affects them, it also includes how one’s culture and community is
perceived by outsiders. The scientific construction of race deeply influences how
outsiders view a community. Scientific findings could easily lead people to view a
certain race or culture as inferior. As a result people may treat that race or individuals
associated with that race as inferior. Once again, this could lead to internalizing
stereotypes. On the other hand, it could also lead to someone becoming incredibly
protective of their community. Regardless, this would deeply affect the way one views
their identity. Finally, as we learned in module one, one’s identity is also incredibly
connected to their experiences and therefore, how people treat them and their
community. If a child were to experience a lot of negative events due to racism— such
as riots or harassment— the way in which the kid forms their identity is likely to be
influenced.
As the articles about the construction of scientific truth outlined, scientific
“truth” is faulty and in many ways has been shaped by elites. This has almost certainly
led to inaccuracies in the classification of race and in discoveries about different races,
especially non-white races. Additionally, as it was mostly white people making the
decisions about scientific truth and there is a long history of xenophobia and racism, it
is probable that many people had the agenda of keeping other races scientifically
inferior and therefore constructed histories that made those races look inferior to
white races. Likewise, outside of anthropology, science has heavy social influences.
Together, these false histories and the false construction of race has led to the
reinforcement of stereotypes. As a result, people of color and their cultures continue to
be treated as inferior by some and in other contexts, they continue to be labeled by
stereotypes. For some, these labels and stereotypes likely lead to people internalizing
the bad things people say about them. For me, I don’t think that I have internalized
stereotypes, but knowing about the stereotypes and being treated as if I am one has
caused me to become protective of the black community. Having grown up plagued by
stereotypes, I am more driven to learn about diverse cultures, systemic racism, and to
advocate against racism. For me, this has become a core part of my identity and
self-concept.
Module one is also deeply connected to module two because the scientific
construction of race and the construction of scientific truth is deeply connected with
racism. In the collection of skulls, people of color were thought to be less credible and
were barred from positions of power due to racism. For the longest time, people of
color were barred from positions of power due to slavery, Jim Crow, then systemic
racism, and more. As a result, white people were able to construct truth in the way
they desired. As one of the articles concerning scientific truth outlined, each person
also has their own agenda. This certainly existed within the social histories sent in
with skulls. As many white people at the time were deeply racist and viewed people of
color as inferior, it is probabilite that they either had the agenda of keeping people of
color scientifically inferior, or their account of the history of the skull was influenced
by their racist beliefs about the people of that race or culture.