Jim's 70th Birthday Party

Erik and Jim at the party!

In this episode we talk about teaching race at the University of Alabama and Bill Dressler discusses his biocultural racial research collaboration with Jim. Oh, and we also celebrate Jim’s 70th birthday!
     The “1991” study (actually done in 1985, published in 1989) of the acceptance of biological race by anthropologists that Jo referenced and Jim misremembered (30-40% was actually 50% physical anthropologists agree with the statement that “There are biological races within the species Homo sapiens”): Lieberman, Leonard, Blaine W. Stevenson, and Larry T. Reynolds. "Race and anthropology: A core concept without consensus." Anthropology & Education Quarterly 20, no. 2 (1989): 67-73. A follow-up done in 1999 (24% physical anthropologists agreed): Lieberman, Leonard, Rodney C. Kirk, and Alice Littlefield. "Perishing Paradigm: Race—1931–99."American Anthropologist 105, no. 1 (2003): 110-113. A 2016 Survey that found 85+% of all anthropologists disagree with biological race (no comparable result to the earlier surveys because different questions were used and the results are not broken out by subdiscipline): Wagner, Jennifer K., Joon‐Ho Yu, Jayne O. Ifekwunigwe, Tanya M. Harrell, Michael J. Bamshad, and Charmaine D. Royal. "Anthropologists' views on race, ancestry, and genetics." American Journal of Physical Anthropology 162, no. 2 (2017): 318-327. Our survey from 2016 that Jo mentioned found 4% physical anthropologists agree with the same statement used in the earlier studies.
     A good look at the biocultural research discussed by Bill Dressler: Dressler, William W., and James R. Bindon. "The health consequences of cultural consonance: Cultural dimensions of lifestyle, social support, and arterial blood pressure in an African American community." American anthropologist 102, no. 2 (2000): 244-260.
     The first episode of this series, which tells about Jim’s involvement with race: http://speakingofrace.ua.edu/podcast/how-i-came-to-study-race-by-jim-bindon. The book on race, class, and intelligence that played a part in Jim creating the UA race course in anthropology: Herrnstein, R. and C. A. Murray. The Bell curve: Intelligence and class structure in American life. New York: Free Press, 1994. Here is a link to the syllabus for the last time (fall 2015) that Jim taught the race course. Powerpoints are available for all of the topics, just email Jim at [email protected]: http://jbindon.people.ua.edu/uploads/1/0/7/1/107177609/syllabus.pdf

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