Conceptualizations of ‘race’: surveys of Polish academics on the race concept

Abstract

Recent studies suggest that race is no longer viewed as a biological category by most anthropologists in the United States, but less empirical work has been carried out in other countries. In this study, we engaged the Polish academic community in anthropology (biological and cultural) and biology by conducting surveys to assess how its members approach and conceptualize race in these disciplines. We surveyed participants (a total of 270 respondents) on their views on the existence of races (i.e. whether humans may be subdivided into biological races), whether race is a concept that is needed in science, what the term ‘race’ should symbolize, and whether the respondents were familiar with the term ‘social race’. The results demonstrate that although the view on the reality of races is still generally shared by the majority of the studied academic community, an awareness of the non‐existence of races in our species has emerged among a group of biological anthropologists. Both biologists and cultural anthropologists in Poland associated race mostly with a category of biological classification, while for biological anthropologists, race primarily symbolized a relic of the past. The article emphasizes the importance of becoming acquainted with the debate over race in academic discourse as well as the role of education in shaping attitudes towards race.