Michael Blakey (anthropologist)
{{short description|American anthropologist|bot=PearBOT 5}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix = Professor
| name = Michael Blakey
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| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1953|2|23}}{{cite web
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| title =Michael L. Blakey
| work =African American Trailblazers in Virginia History
| publisher =The Library of Virginia
| year =2012
| url =http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/trailblazers/2012/?bio=blakey
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| accessdate =August 7, 2012}}
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| nationality = American
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| occupation = Anthropologist
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| employer = College of William & Mary
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Michael Blakey (born February 23, 1953) is an American anthropologist who specializes in physical anthropology and its connection to the history of African Americans. Since 2001, he has been a National Endowment for the Humanities professor at the College of William & Mary,{{cite web
| title =Michael Blakey: National Endowment for the Humanities Professor
| work =William and Mary: Anthropology
| publisher =College of William and Mary
| url =http://www.wm.edu/as/anthropology/faculty/blakey_m.php
| accessdate = August 7, 2012}} where he directs the Institute for Historical Biology. Previously, he was a professor at Howard University and the curator of Howard University's Montague Cobb Biological Anthropology Laboratory.{{cite book|last=Quigley|first=Christine|title=Skulls and Skeletons: Human Bone Collections and Accumulations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tTST7UFzncoC&pg=PA117|accessdate=August 7, 2012|year=2001|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9780786410682|page=117}}
Early life and education
Blakey obtained his B.A. in Anthropology from Howard University in 1978, and an M.A. (1980) and a Ph.D. (1985) from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.{{cite web
|title = Alumni Profiles: UMass Amherst Graduate School to Honor Anthro Alum at 100th Anniversary Gala
|work = College of Social and Behavioral Sciences
|publisher = University of Massachusetts Amherst
|date = March 3, 2008
|url = http://www.umass.edu/sbs/alumni/profiles/blakey.htm
|accessdate = August 7, 2012
|url-status = dead
|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20100615055455/http://www.umass.edu/sbs/alumni/profiles/blakey.htm
|archivedate = June 15, 2010
}} He served as president of the Association of Black Anthropologists from 1987 to 1989.
Career
=African burial ground in Manhattan=
Blakey was a director of the New York African Burial Ground Project, now the African Burial Ground National Monument.{{cite book|last=Byrd|first=W. Michael|title=An American Health Dilemma: A Medical History of African Americans and the Problem of Race: Beginnings to 1900|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sZPP62hXBX0C&pg=PR20|accessdate=August 7, 2012|year=2000|publisher=Psychology|isbn=9780415924498|page=20}} According to Blakey, the existence of this burial ground in what is now Lower Manhattan{{cite book|last=Ferraro|first=Gary|title=Cultural Anthropology: An Applied Perspective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DwgwGs__4c4C&pg=PA5|accessdate=August 7, 2012|date=2007-03-02|publisher=Cengage|isbn=9780495100089|page=5}} (where between 10 and 20 thousand people of African descent were buried in the eighteenth century) was evidence of "false historical representation" and exposed as a myth the idea that New York and the northern states were not slave-owning areas.{{cite book|last=Johnson|first=Matthew|title=Archaeological Theory: An Introduction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eYHwXdNVxzMC&pg=PA206|accessdate=August 7, 2012|date=2010-01-26|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=9781405100144|page=206}} Blakey says that, in general, educated Americans had the impression that slavery played little role in the development of the northern American colonies in general, and New York City in particular. Blakey's research helps dispel those myths, and offers a "compelling portrait of the exploitation and violence suffered by enslaved Africans, and equally to the active resistance of people of African descent to this exploitation and violence". Blakey concluded that these slaves faced "brutal working conditions, premature rates of mortality, and excessive workloads, while nutritional deficiencies were common among young children."{{cite news
| last =Kirkwood
| first =Scott
| title =History Unearthed: An African burial ground unearthed in New York City becomes the latest addition to the National Park System
| newspaper =National Parks
| location =Washington, DC
| pages =12–13
| language =
| publisher =National Parks Conservation Association
| date =Summer 2006
| url =https://books.google.com/books?id=sQUEAAAAMBAJ&q=%22Michael+Blakey%22&pg=PA12
| accessdate =August 8, 2012}}
Blakey's research team examined 27 skeletons that had filed or "culturally modified" teeth, which was considered a strong indication of African birth. Previously, only nine such skeletons had been discovered in the Americas. It is likely that these individuals had come to New York previous to 1808, when the importation of slaves from Africa was banned.{{cite news
| last =Beresford
| first =Jane
| title =The African foundations of New York
| newspaper =BBC News
| location =London
| date =April 26, 2004
| url =http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3659397.stm
| accessdate =August 8, 2012}} Blakey's team examined more than 1.5 million artifacts discovered at the site, which included everything "from pottery and glassware to tools and children's toys".{{cite news
| last =Luo
| first =Michael
| title =In Manhattan, Another Burial For 400 Colonial-Era Blacks
| newspaper =The New York Times
| date =October 2, 2003
| url =https://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/02/nyregion/in-manhattan-another-burial-for-400-colonial-era-blacks.html
| accessdate = August 8, 2012}} His research determined that approximately half of the African people buried at the site were children. After his research was completed, the skeletal remains were reinterred at the site "in 400 hand-carved mahogany coffins" in a 2003 ceremony described as "joyous and bitter all at once".
=Analysis of racism=
Blakey says that physical anthropology has a "pattern of denial" about racism, which has its origins in the dominant view that social differences are due to the inherent characteristics of individuals, and less on political and economic factors.{{cite book
| last =Gregory
| first =Steven
|author2=Roger Sanjek
| title =Race
| publisher =Rutgers University Press
| year =1994
| location =New Brunswick, New Jersey
| pages =33–34
| url =https://books.google.com/books?id=ROuqj_xIRMoC&q=%22Michael+Blakey%22&pg=PA33
| isbn =9780813521091
}} Blakey maintains that the history of physical anthropology has been "sterilized", downplaying the role that eugenics and scientific racism had in its origins.
Discussing a museum exhibit about race at the Science Museum of Virginia, Blakey criticized the contemporary reluctance to discuss racism, maintaining that "it has become illegitimate to talk about racism" and that failing to do so is "the new racism".{{cite news
|last = Green
|first = Kristen
|title = Blakey: 'Racism' key to any discussion of race
|newspaper = Richmond Times-Dispatch
|location = Richmond, Virginia
|date = February 3, 2012
|url = http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2012/feb/03/tdmet02-blakey-racism-key-to-any-discussion-of-rac-ar-1660478/
|accessdate = August 7, 2012
|url-status = dead
|archiveurl = https://archive.today/20130204094509/http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2012/feb/03/tdmet02-blakey-racism-key-to-any-discussion-of-rac-ar-1660478/
|archivedate = February 4, 2013
}}
References
{{Reflist|2}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20160503063937/https://books.google.com/books?id=yP6TrXRpPdMC Blakey on the New York African Burial Ground Project]
- [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15187759 Blakey interviewed on National Public Radio in 2007]
- [http://www.nps.gov/afbg/index.htm African Burial Ground National Monument]
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Category:21st-century American anthropologists
Category:African-American archaeologists
Category:College of William & Mary faculty
Category:Howard University faculty
Category:Physical anthropologists
Category:University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Social and Behavioral Sciences alumni