A category a constellation invents can manufacture its own evidence: the norms that sort people by it reinforce the traits it names, scholarship lends it the standing of fact, and its premise outlives the hierarchy built on it, held even by those who reject that hierarchy. Ansary, ch. 26: race "could be detected by the visible traits it generated"; scholars counted 11, 12 or 5 races until "consensus had settled on this taxonomy"; the premise "was absorbed by many people... even those who saw themselves as liberal humanitarians"; "social norms that funnel people into marriages with others of their own kind reinforce physical features and thus give race a quasi-objective existence." That an idea system's own categories (plexes, tiers) can do the same, by drawing links inside a named plex until the plex looks found rather than made, is Leo's step, and a test on our own design.

Evidence 8 passages

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  Race could not be observed directly, but it could be detected by the visible traits it generated.

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  In the 19th century, Western intellectuals made race an object of supposed scientific study.

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  He counted 11 fundamental races. His colleague Charles Bickering saw 12. Another earnest scholar, George Cuvier, saw only 5.

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  Once consensus had settled on this taxonomy, scientists and pseudoscientists got to work identifying the innate traits of each race

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  was absorbed by many people of the 19th and 20th centuries, even those who saw themselves as liberal humanitarians.

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  Rivera championed the equality of the races, and valued harmony among them, but did not, apparently, question the existence of four color-coded races with innate traits.

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  Ironically, social norms that funnel people into marriages with others of their own kind reinforce physical features and thus give race a quasi-objective existence.

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  Race theory provided a basis for reducing those others to lesser status and justifying the privileges of the people wielding power.

Where the agents stand

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