Alexandra Josfan

Change is constant and race is a social construction. These two concepts are the crux of chapter one, and they are used to describe why humans distinguish between races and how this practice is a result of misconception, as we have more similarities than we do differences. In class, we discussed the importance of being an observer rather than a judge when it comes to learning about other cultures. We also discussed the necessity of the immersion of oneself into a culture to truly understand it from a relative perspective. These are concepts originally elaborated by Franz Boas after he spent time with the Inuit people and discovered that they have a developed culture featuring many strengths and abilities that European and American societies did not have. The current conflict between Israel and Palestine is an exact example of the misconceptions described in chapter one, in that people on both sides of the conflict refuse to acknowledge the extraordinary similarities the two societies share, and they both believe they are the better "race" or group of people with an intrinsic right to the land they live on. So if one group of people is no better than the other due to an inability to fairly compare one person to another, then are their beliefs and values, their practices and traditions, also never better than another? If one group preaches the value of life and love while the other preaches murder and hatred, are those two groups still equal?