Anthropologists in Denial about Biological Sex

At Public we learn that many anthropologists consider it impolite to acknowledge that there are two sexes. An excerpt:

In the field of anthropology, it’s difficult to avoid talking about sex. For physical anthropologists, much of the field’s focus is on skeletal remains where body size, bone mineral density, and other sex differences are of utmost importance. For forensic anthropologists, determining the sex of remains is a crucial element of identifying crime victims. Archaeologists, too, glean valuable insights into social structures by studying "grave goods" interred alongside individuals of each sex.

Thus, the distinction between males and females is crucial in the study of human beings and their cultures. So when a group of anthropologists organized a panel titled, ‘Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby: Why biological sex remains a necessary analytic category in anthropology,’ for the 2023 American Anthropological Association (AAA)/Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA) conference, the only reasonable question that should arise is why this seemingly evident truth even needs stating at all.

However, we are not living in reasonable times. Despite having their panel approved by both the AAA and CASCA in July, a little over a month before the event, the panelists received notice that their session had been removed from the conference program. The rationale behind this decision was that the ideas to be discussed would "cause harm to members represented by the Trans and LGBTQI of the anthropological community as well as the community at large." What’s more, the AAA explained that the decision to cancel the session about one of the most fundamental aspects of human existence was reached in the spirit of respect for the values of the AAA, the “safety and dignity of its members, and the scientific integrity” of the program.

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Excellent Documentary on the Collision of Comedy and Cancel Culture

I just finished watching "Can We Take a Joke: When Outrage and Comedy Collide" (2016). Awesome documentary for those who understand the importance of free speech and who are concerned about the future of comedy.

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The Pandemic of Resegregation

Eli Steele, writing at the Daily Mail:

When I learned that Boston's mayor Michelle Wu hosted a racially segregated holiday party for the city council's 'Electeds of Color,' I wondered: would I have been invited? After all, my father is black, but my skin looks white. The 'no whites' gathering was exposed this week after a city employee accidentally emailed invitations to Caucasian council members before hurriedly rescinding the offers....

[Above: Instagram photo published by the Office of Boston Mayor Wu]

It is incredible that nearly 60 years after the Civil Rights Act outlawed segregation in America — the country is once again grappling with this vile practice.

Today, in the name of social justice, K-12 educators divide students by race. Whites are told they are the oppressors while students of color are the oppressed. Teachers and administrative staff are separated into racial 'affinity groups'.

Our universities are no better — everything from freshmen orientation to housing decisions are determined according to immutable characteristics.Some colleges, including Harvard, hold 'special' celebrations during graduation week — whites and Jews excluded.

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Adam Smith and Endless War

In great empires the people who live in the capital, and in the provinces remote from the scene of action, feel, many of them scarce any inconveniency from the war; but enjoy, at their ease, the amusement of reading in the newspapers the exploits of their own fleets and armies. To them this amusement compensates the small difference between the taxes which they pay on account of the war, and those which they had been accustomed to pay in time of peace. They are commonly dissatisfied with the return of peace, which puts an end to their amusement, and to a thousand visionary hopes of conquest and national glory, from a longer continuance of the war.

— Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Book 5, Chapter 3

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