Race And Postnational Belonging In The Twentieth Century

Terence Turner’s Anthropology and Multiculturalism: What is Anthropology that Multiculturalists should be Mindful of it? demonstrates that discussions of multiculturalism do not include anthropology-based arguments because multiculturalists use the term culture in different ways and for different purposes. For instance, Turner claims that the anthropological concepts of culture are not oriented towards political mobilization, cultural transformation or social change. He criticizes anthropology for failing to develop insights into critical understandings of cultural phenomena. He does, however, provide a citation from Fernando Coronil who uses an anthropological perspective to understand the issues that multiculturalists are concerned with.
His essay also analyzes how these terms were historically overlapped together. He does so by analyzing selected discourses on race and culture from the 1920s to 1970s. He concludes by arguing that the concept of culture is used nowadays as a form of collective belonging that transcends national borders.
In Cultural Relativism 2.0, Michael Brown argues that anthropologists today fail to endorse the concept of cultural relativism. He reviews the history of classical cultural relativism in order to study how it changed progressively in the field of anthropology since the early 20th century. Instead of abandoning the theory, Brown proposes an amended version of cultural relativism – Cultural Relativism 2.0 – that keeps some defensible elements of the classical version while being consistent with contemporary anthropological practice. He maintains that cultural relativism is worth keeping as a “rule of thumb or an intellectual tool” despite its flaws
Turner provides a guideline on how anthropologists can adapt and engage in the discussion of multiculturalism. Cowan proves that there is a common ground between anthropology and other disciplines in terms of interpretations of culture and rights. Guelen provides a historical understanding of race and culture by looking at multiple discourses on those topics. Brown proposes a new theory of cultural relativism for the field of anthropology. Finally, Vertovec encourages anthropologists to change public perception by denouncing culturalism. The social construction of race and culture is one key idea that is predominant in the articles. They clearly prove how humans have this need to categorize individuals into groups. This can be seen by how the terms race and culture are historically changed by different scholars in order to fit their ideologies. In the end, as Vertovec argues, popularizing certain definitions of the term culture can indeed change people’s perceptions. Vertovec quotes Hannerz (1990) who argues that “many people tend to fall back on at least mild versions of cultural fundamentalism” (250). This is indeed true – for instance, there are many Americans (especially in the South) who take pride in their Confederate flag and argue that it is a symbol of Confederate nationalism