Browsing by Author "Walters, Handri"

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    Continuity and change after apartheid : a study of racial categories among white people in a rural area of the Western Cape
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2012-03) Walters, Handri; Van der Waal, C. S.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Sociology and Social Anthropology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The 1994 election seems to stand as a clear divide between past and present in South Africa. But while it was believed that this election would catapult South Africa into a promising new era of democracy and equality, it has become all too clear that the transition was unfortunately limited to the political sphere. Despite some progress being made in the economic sphere, we still have a visible correlation between race and class – a correlation that certainly stems from the apartheid era, signifying a definite continuity of an era long past. In the social sphere we have also struggled to achieve complete integration. We find that racial categories of old have remained an important part of the ‘new’ South Africa. While we were promised a non-racial country, government policies such as Affirmative Action and Black Economic Empowerment have been a constant reminder of supposed racial differences – signifying another continuity of apartheid. While the post-apartheid period can be summarised as a period of change, we find that it can also be summarised by the continuities of the past. It was found that, specifically in my research area, a rural farmers’ community, the continuities of the past are visible in the everyday structures of society. For my research subjects, white Afrikaners, it was found that the 1994 election proved to be no ‘road to Damascus’ regarding beliefs about the racial other. I found that interracial social interaction is still governed by fixed racial boundaries that are rarely crossed and, if crossed, this is done so conditionally. These boundaries seemed to be reinforced by the active socialisation of a community. While many argue that the post-apartheid period has brought on an identity crisis for white Afrikaners, I found that my research subjects have failed to encounter such a crisis, as they have held on to fixed racial boundaries in an attempt to preserve and protect their identity. We find ourselves in a time where we are urged to move beyond our apartheid past, yet many are unable to do so. But the question remains: given our past, should this come as a surprise to anyone?
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    Reinterrogating race in scientific research : a view from the history of physical anthropology
    (African Sun Media, 2020) Walters, Handri
    It might come as a surprise to some to learn that the concept of race is a fairly recent phenomenon in the history of humanity. Race, as a marker of human difference, was only introduced in the sixteenth century. However, over the course of a few centuries, the world would witness a powerful transformation in the “perceptions of human difference” as framed by the concept of race.1 First, there was the introduction of racial variation based on observable differences, then the idea of racial categorisation, followed by the idea that these categories could be organised according to a human hierarchy.
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    Religion, intolerance, and social identity
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2010-03) Walters, Handri; Du Toit, P. V. D. P.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Political Science.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Over the past few decades the secular world has witnessed an increasing assault, specifically from the monotheistic religious fundamentalist community, on their beliefs and values. The undeniable intolerance shown by the religious fundamentalist community has often translated into violent terrorist attacks against the secular world. The fact that religious beings can resort to such atrocious acts of violence has certainly baffled many onlookers. It surely comes as no surprise that religious fundamentalism is generally viewed as a ''hard-to-understand‟ phenomenon. This literature review will describe the ''hard-to-understand‟ phenomenon that is religious fundamentalism by employing social identity theory. The social identity of religious fundamentalists is generally derived from sacred texts and what they consider to be absolute truths. These presumed absolute truths not only provide ample opportunity for the development of the ''us‟/''them‟ duality, but also provide a platform for an intense intolerance of the ''other‟, also referred to as the out-group. Of course, the ''us‟/''them‟ duality can be created on many social dimensions, but religion has proven to bring quite an extensive, even murderous, intolerance to in- and out-group characterizations. The ever increasing actions of religious fundamentalist groups over the past few decades have certainly illustrated this point with some conviction. The importance of social identity has been recognised in many major traditions of the social sciences, not excluding political science. Social identity forms the basis of any group‟s actions or reactions. Therefore, its significance stretches far beyond simply providing an identity to a social group. Social identity also acts as a preamble to how a social group, in this case religious fundamentalists, chooses to deal with invidious comparisons. By employing social identity in this particular way we can go beyond investigating how religious fundamentalists act and react to the point of understanding why they act and react the way they do. In this study it was found that although a number of options to deal with invidious comparisons are available to social groups, only a few of these options are likely to be pursued by religious fundamentalists in order to remain a relevant and competitive social group within the social hierarchy. This approach will provide important insights into a formerly ''hard-to-understand‟ phenomenon namely religious fundamentalism.
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    Tracing objects of measurement : locating intersections of race, science and politics at Stellenbosch University
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03) Walters, Handri; Van der Waal, Kees; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Sociology and Social Anthropology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study departs from a confrontation with a collection of ‘scientific’ objects employed at Stellenbosch University in various ways from 1925 to 1984. Eugen Fischer’s Haarfarbentafel (hair colour table), Rudolf Martin’s Augenfarbentafel (eye colour table) and Felix von Luschan’s Hautfarbentafel (skin colour table) - a collection later joined by an anatomically prepared human skull - are employed in this study as vessels for revealing broader social, scientific and political narratives about race and racial classification, both historically and contemporary, in South Africa. The study traces the history of these objects at Stellenbosch University from one context to another, from one owner to the next, from active tool of measurement to dormant objects exuding powerful and lasting ideas, and from dormant objects to a confrontational re-emergence in 2013 – a moment which sparked controversy and debate about the place and nature of these objects at Stellenbosch University. Initially employed in studies of human measurement at Stellenbosch University (1925-1955) for the purposes of racial categorization, these objects were imbued with a strong eugenic slant, supported by racial and eugenic theories (most often stemming from German academic literature), to inform constructions of the racial self and other. Similar to Saul Dubow (2010), I highlight the malleability of these eugenic theories as they were applied to the local context. These biological notions of race continued to inform engagements with race throughout the apartheid era (see Dubow 2015). Over time these objects materialized in the results they produced – results that became scientific proof for racial difference and the foundation for further engagements with race. As the objects faded out of focus, the race knowledge they embodied, supported and produced, solidified in broader South African society where, as argued by Deborah Posel (2001b), race had become common sense. By the time the objects disappeared they were no longer needed to prove racial difference – for notions of race as the biological source of inherent difference had been deeply internalized by a populace that was both governed by race and applied this logic on a daily basis in their interactions with others. The objects had become “victims of their own productivity” (Daston 2000:11). Their re-emergence in 2013 proved to be unsettling as, on some level, they acted as a stark reminder of the scientific foundations of race-thinking in South Africa. It similarly highlighted the undeterred continued potency of race-thinking in a post-apartheid era. The objects revealed that the spectre of race is haunting South Africa.