Everything about Miscegenation totally explained
Miscegenation (Latin
miscere "to mix" +
genus "kind") is the mixing of different
racial groups, that is,
marrying,
cohabiting, having
sexual relations and having children with a partner from outside of one's racially or ethnically defined group.
Usage
The term "miscegenation" has been used to refer to
interracial marriage and interracial
sex, and more generally to the global process of
racial admixture that has taken place since the
Age of Discoveries, particularly through the
European colonization of the Americas and the
Atlantic slave trade. Historically the term has been used in the context of laws banning interracial marriage and sex, so-called
anti-miscegenation laws. It is therefore a
loaded word and is considered offensive by many.
Today, the word miscegenation is avoided by many scholars, because the term suggests a distinct biological phenomenon, rather than a categorization imposed on certain relationships. The word is considered offensive by many and other terms such as "interracial," "interethnic" or "cross-cultural" are more common in contemporary usage. However, the term is still used by scholars when referring to past practices concerning
multiraciality, such as anti-miscegenation laws that banned interracial marriages.
In
Spanish,
Portuguese and
French, the words used to describe the mixing of "races" are
mestizaje,
mestiçagem and
métissage. These words, much older than the term miscegenation, are derived from the Late Latin
mixticius for "mixed" and from the Spanish word
mestizo. Portuguese also uses
miscigenação, derived from the same Latin root as the English word. These non-English terms for "race-mixing" are not considered as offensive as "miscegenation", although they've historically been tied to the
caste system (
Casta) that was established in
Latin America during the colonial era. However, some groups in South America consider the use of the word mestizo offensive due to the fact that it was used during the times of the colony to just refer to the mixes between the conquistadores and the indigenous people. Today the mixes among races and ethnicities are diverse so it's preferable to use the term "mixed-race" or simply "mixed" (mezcla).
The concept of miscegenation is tied to concepts of racial difference. As the different connotations and etymologies of miscegenation and mestizaje suggest, definitions of
race, "race mixing" and
multiraciality have diverged globally as well as
historically, depending on changing social circumstances and cultural perceptions.
Thus, mestizo are people of mixed white and indigenous, usually
Amerindian ancestry who don't self-identify as indigenous peoples or
Native Americans. In Canada however, the
Métis, who also have partly Amerindian and partly white, often French-Canadian, ancestry, are a constitutionally recognized
aboriginal people.
The differences between related terms and words that encompass aspects of "racial" admixture show the impact of different historical and cultural factors leading to changing
social interpretations of race and ethnicity. Thus the
Comte de Montlosier, in exile during the
French Revolution, equated class difference in eighteenth century France with "racial" difference. Borrowing
Boulainvilliers' discourse on the "
Nordic race" as being the French aristocracy that invaded the plebeian "Gauls", he showed his contempt for the lowest
social class, the
Third Estate, calling it "this new people born of slaves ... mixture of all races and of all times".
Etymological history
Miscegenation comes from the
Latin, "to mix" and, "kind". The word was coined in the U.S. in 1863, and the
etymology of the word is tied up with political conflicts during the
American Civil War over the
abolition of
slavery and over the
racial segregation of
African-Americans. The reference to "genus" was made to emphasize the supposedly distinct biological differences between whites and non-whites. In fact, all humans belong to the same
genus,
Homo, to the same
species,
Homo sapiens and to the same subspecies,
Homo sapiens sapiens.
The word was coined in an anonymous
propaganda pamphlet printed in
New York City in December 1863, entitled
Miscegenation: The Theory of the Blending of the Races, Applied to the American White Man and Negro. The pamphlet purported to be in favor of promoting the
intermarriage of whites and
blacks until they were indistinguishably mixed, claiming this was the goal of the
Republican Party. The pamphlet was revealed to be a hoax written by
Democrats David Goodman Croly, managing editor of the
New York World, a Democratic Party paper, and George Wakeman, a
World reporter. (New York City at the time was a place where people often criticized the ongoing
American Civil War, to the point of
rioting against that war in a massive brawl that had racial overtones.)
The anonymous pamphlet was later exposed as an attempt by Democrats (the so-called
Copperheads) to discredit the Republicans, the
Lincoln administration, and the
abolitionist movement by exploiting the racist fears common among whites. The pamphlet and variations on it were reprinted widely in communities on both sides of the
American Civil War by opponents of Republicans. Only in November 1864 did it become known that the pamphlet was a hoax. By then, the word
miscegenation had entered the common language of the day as a popular
buzzword in political and social discourse. The issue of miscegenation, raised by the opponents of Lincoln, featured prominently in the election campaign of 1864.
In the United States, the concept of miscegenation has been used to focus primarily on the intermarriage of
white people and non-whites, and especially
black people.
Before the publication of
Miscegenation, the word
amalgamation, borrowed from
metallurgy, had been in use as a general term for ethnoracial intermixing. A contemporary usage of this metaphor was
Ralph Waldo Emerson's private vision in 1845 of America as an ethnoracial smelting-pot, a variation on the concept of the
melting pot. Attitudes in the U.S toward the desirability of such intermixing, including that between white
Protestants and
Irish Catholic immigrants, were divided. The term miscegenation was coined to refer specifically to the intermarriage of blacks and whites, and with the intention of stirring up debate over what was at the time a controversial issue.
Laws banning miscegenation
Laws banning "race-mixing" were enforced in
Nazi Germany, in South Africa during the
Apartheid era and in individual U.S. states from the Colonial era until 1967. All these laws primarily banned marriage between spouses of different racially or ethnically defined groups, which was termed "amalgamation" or "miscegenation" in the U.S. The laws in Nazi-Germany and South Africa under Apartheid, and many of the U.S. state laws, also targeted sexual relations between such individuals.
In the United States, the various state laws prohibited the marriage of whites and blacks, and in many states also the intermarriage of
whites with
Native Americans and/or
Asians. In the U.S., such laws were known as
anti-miscegenation laws. From 1913 until 1948, 30 out of the then 48 states enforced such laws. Although an
"Anti-Miscegenation Amendment" was repeately proposed in
United States Congress, in 1871, in 1912-1913 and in 1928, a nation-wide law against racially mixed marriages was never enacted. In 1967, the
United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled in
Loving v. Virginia that miscegenation laws are
unconstitutional. With this ruling, these laws were no longer in effect in the remaining 16 states that at the time still enforced them.
The laws in Nazi Germany, South Africa and in U.S. states all based themselves on concepts of
racial purity and
white supremacy. The Nazi ban on interracial marriage and interracial sex, part of the
Nuremberg laws, classified
Jews as a race and based itself on the racist concept of the superiority of Germans as members of the "
Aryan race".
Enacted by the
National Socialist government in September 1935 as part of the
Nuremberg Laws, the
Gesetz zum Schutze des deutschen Blutes und der deutschen Ehre (The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour) forbade marriage and extramarital sexual relations between persons of Jewish origin and persons of "German or related blood". Such intercourse was marked as
Rassenschande (lit.
race-disgrace) and could be punished by imprisonment (usually followed by the deportation to a concentration camp) and even by death.
The
Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act in South Africa, enacted under
Apartheid in 1949, banned intermarriage between
whites and non-whites. The
Immorality Act, enacted in 1950, also made it a criminal offense for a white person to have any
sexual relations with a person of a different race. Both laws were repealed in 1985.
History of ethnoracial admixture and attitudes towards miscegenation
In the United States
Historically, "race mixing" between
black and
white people was taboo in the United States (see also
Racism in the United States). In the past, the taboo centered more on white-black marriages than on sexual relations between whites and blacks, because most
white Americans refused to accept African-Americans as social equals. Today, a majority of Americans are not against black-white marriages. In a recent poll of 1,314 Americans of all ethnic groups, 3 in 10 people were opposed to white-black marriage, and a smaller proportion were opposed to white-Hispanic or white-Asian marriages.
The taboo among American whites surrounding white-black intermarriage can be seen as a historical consequence of the oppression and
racial segregation of African-Americans. In many U.S. states interracial marriage was already illegal when the term miscegenation was invented in 1863. The first laws banning interracial marriage were introduced in the late seventeenth century in the slave-holding colonies of Virginia (1691) and Maryland (1692). Later these laws also spread to colonies and states where slavery didn't exist.
It has also been argued that the first laws banning interracial marriage were a response by the planter elite to the problems they were facing due to the socio-economic dynamics of the plantation system in the Southern colonies. The bans in Virginia and Maryland were established at a time when slavery wasn't yet fully institutionalized. At the time, most forced laborers on the plantations were
indentured servants, and they were mostly white. Some historians have suggested that the at-the-time unprecedented laws banning interracial marriage were originally invented by planters as a
divide and rule tactic after the uprising of servants in
Bacon's Rebellion. According to this theory, the ban on interracial marriage was issued to split up the racially mixed, increasingly mixed-race labour force into whites, who were given their freedom, and blacks, who were later treated as slaves rather than as indentured servants. By forbidding interracial marriage, it became possible to keep these two new groups separated and prevent a new rebellion.
During and after slavery, most American whites regarded interracial marriage between whites and blacks as taboo. However, during slavery many white American men and women did conceive children with black partners. These children automatically became slaves if the mother was a slave or were born free if the mother was free, as slavery was
matrilineal;. Sometimes freed from slavery by their slave holding fathers or bought to be emancipated if the father wasn't the owner. Many children of these unions formed enclaves under names such as
Colored and
Gens de couleur, etc. Most mixed-raced descendants merged into the African-American ethnic group during
Jim Crow, while over the centuries a minority of mixed-raced Americans passed and became white, and others exist to this day in small mixed enclaves of
Mestees such as the
Melungeons,
Redbone (ethnicity),
Lumbee,
Jackson Whites, etc. Although this isn't widely known, genetic research suggests that a considerable minority of white Americans (estimated at 1/3 of the population by some geneticists such as Mark Shriver) has some distant African-American ancestry and the majority of African Americans have European ancestry. Interestingly, while marriage records have been consistent in showing a marriage rate of 60/40 White female/White male in inter ethnic marriages with African Americans, mitochondrial DNA confirms that only 40% of the European contribution to the African American genetic pool is from females.
After the
Civil War and the
abolition of slavery in 1865, the intermarriage of white and black Americans continued to be taboo, especially but not only in the former
slave states. The Motion Picture
Production Code of 1930, also known as
Hays Code, explicitly stated that the depiction of
"miscegenation... is forbidden."
One important strategy intended to discourage the marriage of white Americans and Americans of partly African descent was the promulgation of the
one-drop theory, which held that any person with so much as "one drop" of African "blood" must be regarded as completely "black". This definition of blackness was encoded in the anti-miscegenation laws of various U.S. states, such as Virginia's
Racial Integrity Act of 1924.
For a century after the Civil War, it was common for white
segregationists to accuse
abolitionists, and, later, advocates of equal rights for African Americans, of secretly plotting the destruction of the white race through miscegenation. After
World War II, white
segregationists commonly accused the
U.S. Civil Rights Movement and
Martin Luther King, Jr., of being part of a
communist plot funded by the
Soviet Union to destroy the "white United States" through miscegenation. In 1957, segregationists used the anti-semitic hoax "
A Racial Program for the Twentieth Century" in an attempt to prove these bogus claims. In 1958, the
Christian fundamentalist preacher
Jerry Falwell, at the time a defender of the
Jim Crow segregation of African-Americans, in a sermon railed against
racial integration, warning that it would lead to miscegenation, which would "destroy our [white] race eventually."
In the United States,
segregationists and
Christian identity groups have claimed that several verses in the
Bible, for example the story of
Phinehas and the so-called "
curse of Ham", should be understood as referring to miscegenation and that these verses expressly forbid it. Most theologians read these verses as forbidding inter-religious marriage, rather than inter-racial marriage.
In Portuguese colonies
According to
Gilberto Freyre, a Brazilian sociologist, miscegenation was commonplace in the
Portuguese colonies, and was even supported by the court as a way to boost low populations and guarantee a successful and cohesive settlement. Thus, settlers often released
African slaves to become their wives. The children were guaranteed full
Portuguese citizenship, provided the parents were married. Some former Portuguese colonies have large
mixed-race populations, for instance,
Brazil,
Cape Verde,
Timor Leste,
Macau and
São Tomé and Príncipe. Mixed marriages between
Portuguese and locals in former
colonies were very common in all Portuguese colonies. Miscegenation was still common in
Africa until the independence of the former Portuguese colonies in the mid-
1970s.
In Israel
The modern
State of Israel was established as a
nation-state for the
Jewish people. The
Jewish identity contains elements of religion (
Judaism),
ethnicity, and a sense of a common lineage.
In this sense, Jewish miscegenation could be viewed on two levels; one based on belonging to the Jewish ethnic group or Jewish people, and the other based on the race of a given Jew. Jewish miscegenation based on Jewishness (belonging to the Jewish ethnic group or Jewish people) would be defined on whether one parent isn't Jewish, independent of whether either the Jewish or non-Jewish parent are of the same or different races. Racial miscegenation would be defined as the union between a Jewish person of a given race with a person of a different race, be the other person a Jew or not. Two Jewish people may still be considered "interracial" if those two
Jews are of different races, although it wouldn't be considered exogamous in the context of Jewish ethnicity, as both are still Jews.
In
Israel, all marriages must be approved by religious celebrants, while civil marriages are legally recognized if performed abroad. Rules governing marriage are based on strict religious guidelines of each religion. By Israeli law, authority over all issues related to Judaism in Israel, including marriage, falls under the Orthodox
Chief Rabbinate of Israel.
Orthodox Judaism is the only form of
Judaism recognized by the state, and marriages performed in Israel by non-Orthodox Rabbis are not recognized.
The Rabbinate prohibits marriage in Israel of
halakhic Jews (for example people born to a Jewish mother or Jewish by conversion), whether they're Orthodox Jews or not, to partners who are non-Jewish or who are of Jewish descent that runs through the paternal line (for example not Jewish according to halakha). As a result, in the state of Israel, people of differing religious traditions can't legally marry someone in another religion and multi-faith couples must leave the country to get married, most often to
Cyprus.
The only other option in Israel for the marriage of a halakhic Jew (Orthodox or not) to a non-Jew, or for that matter, a Christian to a non-Christian or Muslim to a non-Muslim, is for one partner to formally convert to the other's religion, be it to
Judaism (Orthodox only), a
Christian denomination (such as
Eastern Orthodox or
Maronite) or a denomination of
Islam (such as
Sunni or
Shia). As for persons with patrilineal Jewish descent (for example not recognized as Jewish according to halakha) who wish to marry a halakhic Jew (for example born to a Jewish mother or is Jewish by Orthodox conversion) who is Orthodox or otherwise, is also required to formally convert to Judaism (Orthodox only) or they can't legally marry.
According to a
Haaretz article "Justice Ministry drafts civil marriage law for ‘refuseniks’" 300,000 people, or 150,000 couples, are affected by marriage restrictions based on the partners' disparate religious traditions or non-halakhic Jewish status.
Israeli law concerns itself with miscegenation based on Jewish ethnicity, not miscegenation based on race. Therefore, there are no restrictions on interracial marriages between Jews of different
Jewish ethnic divisions, or between other co-religionists of different races, although social stigma may still exist.
Demographics of ethnoracial admixture
In the U.S.
According to the U.S.
Census, in
2000 there were 1,432,908 Hispanic Origin-white marriages., 504,119 Asian-white marriages, 287,576 black-white marriages, 97,822 Hispanic Origin-black marriages, 40,317 Asian-Hispanic Origin marriages, and 31,271 Asian-black marriages.
In Brazil
Multiracial Brazilians make up
42.6% of Brazil's population, 79.782 million people, and they live in all regions of
Brazil. Multiracial Brazilians are mainly people of mixed
European,
African (
Afro-Brazilian) and
Amerindian ancestry.
Genetic studies of racial admixture
Miscegenation between two populations reduces the genetic distance between the populations. During the
Age of Discovery which began in the early 15th century, European explorers sailed all across the globe reaching all the major continents. In the process they came into contact with many populations that had been isolated for thousands of years. It is generally accepted that the
Tasmanian aboriginals were the most isolated group on the planet. They were driven to extinction by European explorers, however a number of their descendants survive today as a result of admixture with Europeans. This is an example of how modern migrations have began to reduce the genetic divergence of the human race.
The
demographic composition of the
old world hasn't changed significantly since the age of discovery. However, the
new world demographics were radically changed within a short time following the voyage of
Columbus. The colonization of Americas brought Native Americans into contact with the distant populations of Europe, Africa and Asia. As a result many countries in the Americas have significant and complex
multiracial populations. Furthermore many who identify themselves by only one race still have multiracial ancestry.
Admixture in the United States
Admixture in European-American population>
| % European Admixture |
Frequency |
| 90-100 |
68% |
| 80-89.9 |
22% |
| 70-79.9 |
8% |
| 60-69.9 |
< 1% |
| 50-59.9 |
< 1% |
| 40-49.9 |
< 1% |
| 0-39.9 |
0 |
Today the vast majority of African-Americans possess varying degrees of European admixture (the average Black American is 20% European) although studies suggest the Native American admixture in Black Americans is highly exaggerated; some estimates put average African-American possession of European admixture at 25% with figures as high as 50% in the Northeast and less than 10% in the south. A recent study by Mark D. Shriver of a European-American sample found that the average admixture in the white population is 0.7% African and 3.2% Native American. However, 70% of the sample had no African admixture. The other 30% had African admixture ranging from 2% to 20% with an average of 2.3%. By extrapolating these figures to the whole population some scholars suggest that up to 74 million European-Americans may have African admixture in the same range (2-20%).
Dr Mark Shriver himself the team leader of the study found that he'd 11% West African ancestry though he identifies as white. Studies based on skin reflectance have shown the color line in the US applied selective pressure on genes that code for skin color but didn't apply any selective pressure on other invisible African genes. Since there are an estimated 6 genetic loci involved in skin color determination it's possible for someone to have 15-20% African admixture and not possess any of alleles that code for dark skin. This is the basis of the
passing phenomena. Thus African admixture amongst white Americans can increase without any significant change in skin tone. Conversely amongst African-Americans, an amount of African Admixture is directly correlated with darker skin since no selective pressure is applied; as a result, African-Americans may have a much wider range of African admixture (>0-100%), where as European-Americans have a lower range (2-20%). A small overlap exists so that it's possible that someone who self identifies as
white may have more African admixture than a person who self identifies as
black
A statistical analysis done in 1958 using historical census data and historical data on immigration and birth rates, concluded that 21 percent of the white population had black ancestors. The growth in the white population couldn't be attributed to births in the white population and immigration from Europe alone, but had received significant contribution from the American black population as well.
The author states in 1958:
» The data presented in this study indicate that the popular belief in the non-African background of white persons is invalid. Over twenty-eight million white persons are descendants of persons of African origin. Furthermore, the majority of the persons with African ancestry are classified as white.
Admixture in Latin America
Background
Prior to the
European conquest of the
Americas the demographics of
Latin America was naturally 100%
Native American. Today those who identify themselves as Native Americans are small minorities in many countries. For example
Argentina's
native population is 0.9%,
Brazil is 0.4%, and
Uruguay is 0%.
In addition many
Africans were shipped to regions all over the Americas and were present in many of the early voyages of the
conquistadors.
Brazil has the largest population of African descendants outside of
Africa. Other countries such as
Cuba,
Puerto Rico,
Dominican Republic,
Venezuela,
Haiti, and
Colombia still have sizeable populations identified as
Black. However countries such as
Argentina and
Chile don't have a visible African presence today. Census information from the early 19th century shows that people categorized as Black made up to 30% of the population, or around 400,000 people. Though almost completely absent today, their contribution to Argentine culture is significant include the
Tango, the
Milonga and the
Zamba, words of
Bantu origin.
The early conquest of Latin America was primarily carried out by male soldiers and sailors from
Spain and
Portugal. Since they carried very few European women on their journeys the new settlers married and fathered children with Amerindian women and also with women imported from Africa. This process of miscegenation was even encouraged by the
Spanish monarchy and it led to the system of stratification known as the
Casta. This system had Europeans (mainly
Spaniards and
Portuguese) at the top of the hierarchy followed by those of
mixed race. Unmixed Blacks and Native Americans were at the bottom. A philosophy of whitening emerged in which Amerindian and African culture was stigmatized in favor of European values. Many Amerindian languages were lost as mixed race offspring adopted
Spanish and
Portuguese as their first languages. Only towards the end of the 19th Century and beginning of the twentieth century did large numbers of Europeans begin to migrate to
South America and consequently altering its
demographics.
| Demographics of Brazil from 1835 to 2000 |
| Year |
White |
brown |
black |
| 1835 |
24.4% |
18.2% |
51.4% |
| 2000 |
53.7% |
38.5% |
6.2% |
The ideology of whitening encouraged non whites to seek white or lighter skinned partners. This dilution of non-white admixture would be beneficial to their offspring as they'd face less stigmatization and find it easier to assimilate into mainstream society. After successive generations of European gene flow, non-white admixture levels would drop below levels at which skin color or physical appearance isn't affected thus allowing individuals to identify as white. In many regions, the native and black populations were simply overwhelmed by a succession of waves of European immigration.
Historians and scientists are thus interested in tracing the fate of Native Americans and Africans from the past to the future. The questions remain about what proportion of these populations simply died out and what proportion still has descendants alive today including those who don't racially identify themselves as their ancestors would have. Admixture testing has thus become a useful objective tool in shedding light on the demographic history of Latin America.
Recent studies
| Country |
Amerindian |
African |
| mtDNA |
-chromosome |
mtDNA |
y-chromosome |
| Brazil |
33% |
0% |
29% |
2% |
| Argentina |
45% |
9% |
ns |
ns |
| Chile |
84% |
22% |
ns |
ns |
| Colombia |
90% |
1% |
8% |
5% |
| Costa Rica |
83% |
6% |
ns |
7% |
Unlike in the United States there were no anti-miscegenation policies in Latin America. Though still a racially stratified society there were no significant barriers to gene flow between the three populations. As a result admixture profiles are a reflection of the colonial populations of Africans, Europeans and Amerindians. The pattern is also sex biased in that the African and Amerindian maternal lines are found in significantly higher proportions than African or Amerindian Y chromosomal lines. This is an indication that the primary mating pattern was that of European males with Amerindian or African females. For example a study of white Brazilians found 33% had Amerindian mtDNA and 29% had African mtDNA. However, only 2% had African y chromosomes and 0% Amerindian. According to the study more than half the white populations of the Latin American countries studied have some degree of either native American or African admixture (
MtDNA or
Y Chromosome). In countries such as Chile and Colombia almost the entire white population was shown to have some non-white admixture. Following the dispersal of Humans from Africa 50,000 - 70,000 years ago South America was the last continent to be occupied by humans. Thus the largest geographic distance between continents is between Africa and South America. Since genetic distance increases with geographic distance the two most genetically divergent groups are Africans and Native South American Indians based on distance. The arrival of Africans in Brazil and subsequent mixing with native South Americans entails the creation of intermediate populations, such as the
Zambo or
Garifuna between the two divergent groups.
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