Caroline Bond Day

Welcome to the publication, “Representations.” This is a project designed to bring the perspectives of a wider variety of groups to the forefront of the anthropology classroom. To celebrate Black History Month, we are covering the accomplishments of 28 Black anthropologists across 28 days. Learn more about our project; read on for the amazing accomplishments of Caroline Bond Day.

Today’s anthropologists are familiar with the intersectional way that both race and class can impact a person’s opportunities but, writing in 1932, anthropologist Caroline Bond Day’s research on this exact subject matter was entirely groundbreaking.

In her work, Day studied the physical and cultural similarities and differences across multi-racial families (Ross, Adams, and Williams 2018). Day conducted her research in an academic climate where many still embraced the racist principles of biological determinism causing her fieldwork to be limited in both scope and appreciation. Fortunately for modern anthropologists, we can look at her work today to better understand how the scientific and cultural trends of the time influenced her research and publications.

Caroline Bond Day was born in 1889 and lived to become an American physical anthropologist who also commented on cultural phenomena; Day was also an author, and educator in the fields of English, Drama, and Anthropology (Ross, Adams, and Williams 2018). Having recognized the struggle faced by children of mixed-race families, Day published a series of works designed to help children make sense of themselves and of their identities: these works included children’s books, plays for children, and journalistic coverage of the creative works produced by African-American young people in the United States (ibid). This desire to turn anthropological work into tangible cultural tools is something unique; today, we call the anthropologist who uses their research to influence society an “applied anthropologist.” Day’s legacy in holistic research and applied anthropology offers modern anthropology students a framework within which to imagine their own potential.

Day was the first African American person to receive a graduate degree in Anthropology (Bolles 2001; Drake 1979) and — in spite of the racial prejudices that permeate academia — Day continued to receive funding to conduct anthropological and genealogical research throughout her life and career (Ross, Adams and Williams 2018) Day received a bachelor’s from Atlanta University in 1912 and then attended Radcliff College where she earned her Master’s Degree.

While at Radcliff College, Day wrote her thesis which was published in 1932; which contained sociological and anthropological information on 350 mixed-race families. Day wrote her thesis in a manner that turned the lens on her own family and social world. The article, “A Black Woman Outsider within Physical Anthropology”, describes a more in-depth analysis about Day’s thesis.

Day’s work pushed back against ideas of eugenics in spite of her own academic advisor’s particular interest in it (Bolles 2001). Her publications showed that the mixture of African Americans and whites simply yielded children with some characteristics of each race, who were entirely normal. Day observed that these offspring were often middle-class and lived lives that were very like those of middle-class white people, although in U.S. culture they were not afforded the privilege of whiteness. As an outsider within her field, Day adapted the methods of anthropology to her own uses. (Curwood, pg 79) Day’s thesis was an attempt to eliminate racial preconception and discrimination; while advocating for social equality for all African Americans. Although her research was widely-known, Day did not receive any nominations or awards for her research due to controversy against mixed-race families at the time.

Whenever we study the work of an anthropologist, it’s essential to lend a critical eye so that our field may continue to improve. It appears that Caroline Bond Day’s motivation to conduct research was to correct dangerous and false stereotypes that impacted the well-being of Black people and mixed families (Ross, Adams, and Williams 2018; Bolles 2001). That being said, some of her fiction and non-fiction publications are now considered to have achieved the opposite impact: Day’s work has been used by some to purport the ideas of biological determinism (ibid). However, her own excellent research still lends an essential insight into early attitudes surrounding racial “passing” and scientific racism (issues that anthropologists still examine today).

Bibliography

Adams, Amelia; Ross, Hubert; Williams, Lynne. “Caroline Bond Day.” The Second Generation of African American Pioneers in Anthropology, 15 Nov. 2018, pp. 37–50., doi:10.5406/j.ctv9b2vtr.5.

Bolles, A. Lynn. “Seeking the Ancestors: Forging A Black Feminist Tradition in Anthropology.” Black Feminist Anthropology: Theory, Politics, Praxis, and Poetics, edited by Irma McClaurin, Rutgers Univ. Press, 2001, pp. 24–76.

Curwood, A.C. (2012), Caroline Bond Day (1889–1948): A Black Woman Outsider Within Physical Anthropology. Transform Anthropol, 20: 79–89.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-7466.2011.01145.x

“Caroline Bond Day (1889–1948).” Association of Black Anthropologists — ABA Is a Section of the American Anthropological Association, aba.americananthro.org/caroline-bond-day-1889–1948/.

Drake, St. Clair. 1978. “Reflections on Anthropology and the Black Experience.” Anthropology and Educational Quarterly 9 (2):85–109.

Written by Amanda Zunner-Keating and Maria Juarez. Edited by Brian Pierson, Los Angeles Pierce College.