Humans possess the innate need to simplify and categorize the complexities of human identity. For the purposes of this article, fingerprinting, DNA typing, and genetic mapping are modern manifestations of the idea that identity is located on the skin and in the blood. These methods of determining a person's character, propensities, and abilities based on physical markers rely on the idea that identity can be read into the body. While the social implications of locating racial identity in the body are apparent, even obvious, the social implications of centering identity in the body are not as obvious when it comes to the topic of sexual orientation. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayMark Twain's novel Pudd'nhead Wilson and outside sources show that locating identity in the body transforms society into a hierarchy of dominant and oppressed groups. groups. Thus, by locating identity in the body and using scientific evidence to confirm that identity, dominant groups within society maintain their control. This article will examine the social construction of race and the use of science to locate identity in the body during the antebellum South through the lens of Pudd'nhead Wilson's dominant and oppressive groups. In comparison, it will also examine the social implications of sexuality and the use of science to locate this identity in the body during the 20th century. This statement will be shown to be true both in societies in which race was the central issue and in modern societies that view same-sex marriage as the civil rights struggle of the decade. Many scholars have debated Twain's satire on the economic and legal institution of slavery and whether Twain supports the notion that identity is located in the body (Gillman and Robinson 137). Unfortunately, the criticism barely rises above the satirical. Scholars fail to critique the idea that identity is located in the body and the role science plays in upholding this idea. For example, Roxy's interaction with "Tom" highlights society's adherence that identity is located in the body. Roxy, "Tom's" mother, is only one-sixteenth black, making her son only one part black in thirty-two. When Roxy is alerted to her son's cowardly refusal to confront Luigi Capello, she correlates this cowardly part of his identity to his black lineage, commenting "that little part is your soul" and that you just have to "paint your soul". » (Twain 88-89). “Tom’s” behavior is confined to his black race and any debate that his behavior is a result of his upbringing is omitted. This is a clear example of how identity was located in the body during the antebellum South. Additionally, this example indicates that scientific knowledge and methods maintained the stratification of society. The categorization of individuals during the antebellum South was based on bodily identity, not just skin. The characters in the novel are aware that skin can betray identity. To combat this limitation of identity localization in the skin, genetic knowledge is used. In a society based on identity in the skin, individuals like Roxy and “Tom” would go unnoticed. Not only is identity in the body, but racial identity, as described in Pudd'nhead Wilson, is found in the blood. Skin color does notonly contributes to maintaining the separation of the races. But separating individuals based on genetics, or their racial proportions, ensures that inferior races – and the inferior traits they carry – do not penetrate into the higher spheres of society. Scientific knowledge of genetics empowers dominant groups and oppresses marginalized groups. Second, the final scenes of Pudd'nhead Wilson, where "Tom" is revealed to be the murderer through Wilson's collection of fingerprints, illustrate the power of science in affirming the stratification of a society based on identity in the body. As we noted previously with Roxy, it is not only the novel's actions that reveal adherence to the idea that identity, and therefore character, are properties of the body, but the words of the characters also reveal this truth. Notably, as Wilson gives his statement to the court, he presents the bulk of the fingerprints. He states that they are “physical marks which do not change their character” (Twain 136). The use of the word character is striking and immediately stands out in the surrounding debates. This word seems to suggest that a person's character, which is based on their identity in the body, on their race, can be read and sorted through the use of a scientific method: fingerprinting. Taken by itself, this singular word does not suggest that dominant groups use the location of identity in the body and science to maintain their position in society. But the comments don't stop there. Pembroke Howard's comments and the story's crucial ending strengthen the argument. Furthermore, Pembroke Howard, in presenting his case against Luigi and Angelo Capello, asserts that the crime was committed by “the blackest heart and the cowardliest hand” ( Douain 126). Howard's statement relates to Roxy's comments about "Tom" earlier in the novel. He argues that identity was located in the body during the antebellum South and that dominant groups therefore used this idea to separate and categorize races, both on the presence of darker skin dark and on the presence of a notion of genetically inherited racial characteristics. “The Blackest Heart” suggests that there is more to race than skin color. The skin can deceive and is not a method of characterization, classification or separation as is the case for “Tom”. Genetic knowledge is necessary to ensure separation. Second, Pembroke Howard states that the hands that committed the crime are the “cowardly hands.” This description bases the notion of personality and character in a part of the body, the hands, explicitly confirming the idea that identity is located in the body. Finally, fingerprint science is used to discover and unveil the loose hands belonging to "Tom", the slave who went undetected in white society. Here, science is used to classify people and restore order to society, maintaining the dominance that whites had over society before the Southern War. This social order and domination over society is illustrated at the end of the novel when "Tom" is sold down the river despite his mother's efforts to pass him off as white, and "Chambers" is unsuccessfully integrated into society due to of his identity. Black mannerisms (Twain 144). Essentially, the idea that identity is located in the body and in the blood was a large part of the ideology during the antebellum South. Several characters in Pudd'nhead Wilson such as Roxy, Wilson and Pembroke Howard express that this ideology led to the classification of people into a dominant group and asubmissive group. Thus, dominant groups have used knowledge of genetics and the science of fingerprinting to maintain control of society and ensure separation. As noted, the consequences of the link between body identity and racial characteristics and behaviors are evident. However, the implications of the connection between bodily identity and human sexuality – the current civil rights issue of today – are not as obvious. By locating identity in the body, dominant groups in society have once again used science to support the idea that a person's biology, and therefore key aspects of their character, can be read, which resulted in the separation of society into dominant and marginalized groups. During the Stonewall riots of the 1960s and even before, the debate over homosexuality has since become a debate between nature and nurture. While black Africans and black Americans in the antebellum South were considered chattel, deviant sexualities were considered anomalies since these sexualities transcended racial divides. Similar to the dominant groups of the antebellum South, the dominant heteronormative culture of the mid-20th century also used science to justify the classification of individuals and the separation of homosexuals from dominant society. For example, the term “sexual deviant” – at the time referring to individuals with homosexual tendencies – was a diagnosable disorder contained in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association until 1973 (Haggerty 680-681). . Homosexuality was considered and confirmed by scientific institutions as the product of an arrest of development, an arrest that could be treated and cured. Thus, the mechanisms and methods by which white dominant society justified the oppression of black people are similar to the ways in which gays and lesbians were oppressed by dominant heteronormative society. Homosexuals were separated from society and considered anomalies of normal heterosexual behavior. The following statement published in the Gay Histories and Culture Encyclopedia best illustrates the social implications of locating identity in the body: "the pervert was religiously condemned, legally punished, and medically diagnosed, all of which served as a mechanism of social control and regulation of life. individual behavior. Thus, by labeling deviance…nonconforming individual behaviors and beliefs can be restricted, discouraged, eliminated, and punished” (Haggerty 680). Given the above points, society has used science to justify locating identity in the body in order to portray homosexuality as a deviance from heterosexuality. and to oppress the homosexual population. Furthermore, since the publication of Dean Hamer's article "A linkage between DNA Markers on the determines a person's sexuality. . In short, his article held that homosexuality was not a choice, that it was just as biologically determined as eye or hair color (Hamer 1993). However, the gay community, well aware of society's constant and persistent attacks on the gay community, realized the far-reaching implications of the discovery of such a gene and the classification of individuals into sexual categories based on DNA typing and genetic mapping. Others fear that the discovery of a gay gene will be used as a tool of oppression by "a repressive majority and.