Slavery Systems & Labor Hierarchies
A historian compares Old World slavery in ancient Rome to New World slavery in colonial Virginia. What key difference should they highlight?
New World slavery was racialized and hereditary, while Old World slavery was often based on war, debt, or punishment.
A textbook describes Linnaeus’s four human “varieties” as scientific fact. What critique applies?
Linnaeus’s categories were based on stereotypes, not observation, and gave a scientific veneer to racism.
A 1920s U.S. law mandates sterilization of people deemed “unfit.” What ideology underpins this policy?
Eugenics promoted selective breeding to “improve” society, targeting marginalized groups based on racist and ableist beliefs.
A museum exhibit arranges artifacts from “primitive” to “advanced” cultures. How would Franz Boas critique this display?
Boas would argue that it falsely implies cultural evolution and ignores the unique historical context of each society.
A museum displays Indigenous artifacts collected in the early 1900s but refuses to return them. What ethical issue arises?
This reflects extractive research practices that treated Indigenous cultures as vanishing and denied their right to self-representation.
A colonial official offers land and legal rights to European indentured servants but permanently enslaves Africans. What does this reveal about racial hierarchy?
It shows how race was used to justify unequal treatment and create a permanent underclass based on skin color.
A researcher claims skull shape determines intelligence. How would Boas respond?
He’d argue that skull shape varies due to environment and nutrition, not innate racial differences.
Alberta and British Columbia passed sterilization laws targeting Indigenous people. What does this reveal about scientific racism in Canada?
It shows how pseudoscience was used to control and erase marginalized populations under the guise of public health.
A student claims some cultures are “more advanced” than others. What Boasian concept challenges this view?
Cultural relativism: the idea that cultures must be understood on their own terms, not judged by external standards.
A timeline entry links prenatal diagnostics (e.g., Rh-factor testing) to eugenic history. What caution does this raise?
It shows how medical technologies can be entangled with eugenic ideologies, raising ethical concerns about reproductive control.