Living Color: The Biological and Social Meaning of Skin Color / Edition 1

by Nina G. Jablonski

Overview

Living Color is the first book to investigate the social history of skin color from prehistory to the present, showing how our body’s most visible trait influences our social interactions in profound and complex ways. In a fascinating and wide-ranging discussion, Nina G. Jablonski begins with the biology and evolution of skin pigmentation, explaining how skin color changed as humans moved around the globe. She explores the relationship between melanin pigment and sunlight, and examines the consequences of rapid migrations, vacations, and other lifestyle choices that can create mismatches between our skin color and our environment.

Richly illustrated, this book explains why skin color has come to be a biological trait with great social meaning— a product of evolution perceived by culture. It considers how we form impressions of others, how we create and use stereotypes, how negative stereotypes about dark skin developed and have played out through history—including being a basis for the transatlantic slave trade. Offering examples of how attitudes about skin color differ in the U.S., Brazil, India, and South Africa, Jablonski suggests that a knowledge of the evolution and social importance of skin color can help eliminate color-based discrimination and racism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520283862
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	10/17/2014
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	224,093
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Nina G. Jablonski is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at Pennsylvania State University. She is the author of Skin: A Natural History, (UC Press), and was named one of the first Alphonse Fletcher, Sr. Fellows for her efforts to improve the public understanding of skin color.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction

Part One. Biology
1. Skin’s Natural Palette
2. Original Skin
3. Out of the Tropics
4. Skin Color in the Modern World
5. Shades of Sex
6. Skin Color and Health

Part Two. Society
7. The Discriminating Primate
8. Encounters with Difference
9. Skin Color in the Age of Exploration
10. Skin Color and the Establishment of Races
11. Institutional Slavery and the Politics of Pigmentation
12. Skin Colors and Their Variable Meanings
13. Aspiring to Lightness
14. Desiring Darkness
15. Living in Color

Notes
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

Delivers an open, frank and important dialogue on the causes and effects of pigmentation on our biological and social lives.

The Root

"Clear [and] thorough, but not exhaustive or boring."

American Journal of Anthropology

"Jablonski has crafted a lucid and precisely written book indeed. You can feel her weighing each word before setting it down."

Maclean's

"What is most impressive . . . is how easily and simply it transitions from very biologically based data in the first section to more social and historical data in the second section."

PaleoAnthropology

Accessible to general readers. . . . The book fascinates! Highly recommended.

CHOICE

"Living Color would make a fine addition to the collection of anyone interested in racial history, as it would an introductory text in any university class on the topic." 

American Journal of Human Biology

“Accessible to general readers. . . . The book fascinates! Highly recommended.

Choice - D. C. Cook

Children begin to attribute significance to skin color at about three years of age,” observes anthropologist Jablonski (Skin: A Natural History). “But,” she continues, “they don’t develop ideas of race based on what they see.” The book’s first half addresses the biology of skin color, lucidly explaining the science of what happened with skin color as “people moved into solar regimes markedly different from those under which their ancestors had evolved.” The second half focuses on the social consequences of skin color; Jablonski moves succinctly through recorded history from ancient Egypt, the early faiths (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), the European Middle Ages and Renaissance, a review of the “natural philosophers” (such as Kant), a consideration of the impact of slavery and the slave trade in modern Europe and the Americas, and a review of how skin color is regarded in South Africa, Brazil, India, and Japan. In the concluding chapters, Jablonski brings biology, culture, and health together. Her fresh approach to the skin color/race conundrum is not only provocative, but persuasive and exceptionally accessible whether she’s writing about the science of skin color or Kant (”one of the most influential racists of all time”). Agent: Regina Brooks, Serendipity Literary Agency. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"Accessible to general readers. . . . The book fascinates! Highly recommended."—Choice

From the Publisher