Research Paper on:
Concept of Race

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
interpretation as one individual may argue that the history of race is purely political and another that it is purely social. There are philosophical explanations as well as religious explanations,  all of which perhaps give us some clue as to the inherent history of race. In the following paper we address the idea of the history of race as it  involves many perspectives, all of which essentially leave us with a sociological possibility for the origins of race. The Idea of Race When we think of race today  we often think of the color of ones skin as a determining factor of race. But, we also think, as do the ancients, about the origins of ones birth or  ones ancestors. According to one author, whose article discusses racism, "It wasnt that the Greeks or the Romans didnt notice differences in colour. They did. But those differences were generally  attributed to differences in climate, the effects of diverse environments upon a uniform Human Nature... (Snowden, 1983, p 87)" (McCaskell HistoryRacism.htm). They thought that "Black people were dark because the  burning sun had darkened their skin and frizzed their hair. The pale people of the north were suffering from lack of sunlight. Particular groups might feel they were superior, but  what they felt made them distinct was not their colour" (McCaskell HistoryRacism.htm). What made the different people noticeably different was their degree of being civilized: "For these early civilizations what  was significant was not skin colour but whether you were civilized or barbarian - questions of culture, language or religion. Civilized generally meant living in or near a city, and  engaging in settled agriculture. Barbarian referred to nomadic peoples who often preyed on the wealth of their more settled rivals" (McCaskell HistoryRacism.htm). In these respects we can see