Attitudes of Serbian biological anthropologists toward the concept of race

Abstract

The status of the concept of race in modern biological anthropology is not clear. While in some countries (e.g. in the USA, Australia and most of Western Europe) the majority of biological anthropologists favour the nonracial approach to the study of human variation, in others (e.g., China and most of Eastern Europe), racial approach, both populational and typological, is still utilized. In addition to the fact that human variation is a complex subject and almost by its very nature lends itself to different interpretations, it has been shown in a number of studies that the ways in which human biological variation is conceptualised is highly dependent on the socio-political context and the way the anthropological community is functioning within this broader framework. This study reports the results of a questionnaire based survey focusing on the attitudes of Serbian biological anthropologists towards the concept of race. It was found that the majority of respondents still accept the race concept. It is hypothesized that this is for a variety of reasons, including the development of the discipline in relative isolation from the centres of excellence in bio-anthropological research, lack of appropriate academic infrastructure and research funding. Further research, including surveys of academic communities in other countries and research traditions might throw more light on the elusive subject of the status of the concept of race in biological anthropology.