DOCSLIB.ORG

Theorising Race and Evolution – German Anthropologie's Utilisation of Australian Aboriginal Skeletal Remains During the Long Nineteenth Century

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Theorising Race and Evolution – German Anthropologie's Utilisation of Australian Aboriginal Skeletal Remains During the Long Nineteenth Century Theorising Race and Evolution – German Anthropologie's utilisation of Australian Aboriginal skeletal remains during the Long Nineteenth Century Antje Kühnast A thesis in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate of Philosophy University of New South Wales School of Humanities and Languages Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences September 2017 1 THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES Thesis/Dissertation Sheet Surname or Family name: Kühnast First name: Antje Other name/s: Abbreviation for degree as given in the University calendar: PhD School: Humanities and Languages Faculty: Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Title: Theorising race and evolution – German Anthropologie's utilisation of Australian Aboriginal skeletal remains during the Long Nineteenth Century Abstract 350 words maximum: (PLEASE TYPE) This thesis investigates the German physical anthropological discourse on Australian Aborigines during the long nineteenth century. It particularly explores, on the basis of contemporaneous German-language scientific publications, the way in which German physical anthropologists utilised Australian Aboriginal skeletal remains for their theorising on human diversity and evolution. One focus lies on the discussion of the Neuholländer or Australier in its various manifestations: ranging from the speculative theorising of the late Enlightenment period to the natural scientific, physical anthropological investigations of the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth centuries. It is shown that German physical anthropologists first relied on, and then continuously reinforced and thereby sustained existing notions of Australian Aboriginal physical and cultural-intellectual inferiority that were conveyed from the beginning of European contact. This bias was extraordinarily powerful, overriding the empirical evidence that challenged these pre-conceived ideas. The profoundly variable nature of humanity demonstrates the underlying fundamental problem; namely, the intrinsic fragility of classifying, typifying and ordering human diversity on the basis of one or another concept of race. This thesis also examines the scientific investigation and interpretation of Australian Aboriginal ancestral remains in the context of the establishment of German Anthropologie as a natural science discipline in the second half of the nineteenth century. Sceptical of the idea of Darwinian human evolution from a common animal ancestor, the first generation of anthropologists used Australian Aboriginal skeletal remains as research material, attempting to rebuke Darwinist hypothesising. In this context, this thesis intervenes into the current historiographical debate about the relation between humanism, liberalism, Darwinism and (anti- or non-)racist approaches to human diversity in the early German physical anthropological community. It is shown in particular, that German anti- Darwinians, who have been credited with following a non-racist approach to the investigation of humanity, only in theory refrained from drawing conclusions about racial hierarchies. In practice, their skeletal investigations, whether undertaken by Darwinists or anti-Darwinians, remained within and furthered the prevalent paradigm of racial hierarchies throughout the time period in question. Declaration relating to disposition of project thesis/dissertation I hereby grant to the University of New South Wales or its agents the right to archive and to make available my thesis or dissertation in whole or in part in the University libraries in all forms of media, now or here after known, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. I retain all property rights, such as patent rights. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. I also authorise University Microfilms to use the 350 word abstract of my thesis in Dissertation Abstracts International (this is applicable to doctoral theses only). …………………………………………………………… ……………………………………..……………… ……….……………………...…….… Signature Witness Date The University recognises that there may be exceptional circumstances requiring restrictions on copying or conditions on use. Requests for restriction for a period of up to 2 years must be made in writing. Requests for a longer period of restriction may be considered in exceptional circumstances and require the approval of the Dean of Graduate Research. FOR OFFICE USE ONLY Date of completion of requirements for Award: THIS SHEET IS TO BE GLUED TO THE INSIDE FRONT COVER OF THE THESIS ORIGINALITY STATEMENT ‘I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project's design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged.’ Signed …………………………………………….............. Date …………………………………………….............. COPYRIGHT STATEMENT ‘I hereby grant the University of New South Wales or its agents the right to archive and to make available my thesis or dissertation in whole or part in the University libraries in all forms of media, now or here after known, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. I retain all proprietary rights, such as patent rights. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. I also authorise University Microfilms to use the 350 word abstract of my thesis in Dissertation Abstract International (this is applicable to doctoral theses only). I have either used no substantial portions of copyright material in my thesis or I have obtained permission to use copyright material; where permission has not been granted I have applied/will apply for a partial restriction of the digital copy of my thesis or dissertation.' Signed ……………………………………………........................... Date ……………………………………………........................... AUTHENTICITY STATEMENT ‘I certify that the Library deposit digital copy is a direct equivalent of the final officially approved version of my thesis. No emendation of content has occurred and if there are any minor variations in formatting, they are the result of the conversion to digital format.’ Signed ……………………………………………........................... Date ……………………………………………........................... This thesis contains images of Australian Aboriginal Ancestral Remains Table of Contents Acknowledgements 4 List of Figures 6 Introduction 7 1 Historiography of nineteenth-century Anthropologie 25 1.1 Anthropologie's "Liberal Paradigm" ............................................................ 26 1.2 Anthropologie's "Antihumanism" ................................................................ 35 1.3 Preliminary remarks on Anthropologie's dealings with Australian Aboriginal skeletal remains ......................................................................... 42 2 Enlightenment concepts of race and human evolution 46 2.1 Pre-scientific concepts of race ..................................................................... 49 2.2 Immanuel Kant's scientific concept of race.................................................. 61 3 Johann Friedrich Blumenbach's Neuholländer 86 3.1 Imagined Neuholländer skulls in the South Seas ......................................... 89 3.2 Neuholländer – savage and dark ............................................................... 102 4 Early perceptions of "the Australian race" and the establishment of Anthropologie as a natural science 128 4.1 Human diversity and origin at the German Naturalists Association meetings (1827-1858) ............................................................................... 129 4.2 Establishment of Anthropologie as a natural science ................................. 151 5 Alexander Ecker's Australier 166 5.1 On Ecker's "Knowledge about the Natives of South Australia ................... 166 5.2 Ecker's (non-) Darwinism ......................................................................... 187 5.3 Ecker's subsequent utilisation of Australian Aboriginal skeletal remains ... 194 6 Gustav Lucae's Australneger 204 6.1 Projecting the skull's "truth and reality" .................................................... 205 6.2 Lucae's Neuholländer skulls and (a)symmetrical heads (1844) .................. 208 2 6.3 Lucae's "real measure" of the facial angle and Aboriginal brains that sit "in the face" .............................................................................................. 215 7 Rudolf Virchow's Stirnfortsatz 226 7.1 Investigating "some characteristics of the lower human races" .................. 227 7.2 Debating the statistics of race .................................................................... 231 8 Hermann Klaatsch's "Australoid" common ancestors 236 8.1 Before Australia – Klaatsch's Neue Anthropologie and the "most interesting material" of the Australier skeleton .......................................... 237 8.2 In Australia – encountering the Ur-Australier ........................................... 252 8.3 Back from Australia
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Race and Membership in American History: the Eugenics Movement
    Race and Membership in American History: The Eugenics Movement Facing History and Ourselves National Foundation, Inc. Brookline, Massachusetts Eugenicstextfinal.qxp 11/6/2006 10:05 AM Page 2 For permission to reproduce the following photographs, posters, and charts in this book, grateful acknowledgement is made to the following: Cover: “Mixed Types of Uncivilized Peoples” from Truman State University. (Image #1028 from Cold Spring Harbor Eugenics Archive, http://www.eugenics archive.org/eugenics/). Fitter Family Contest winners, Kansas State Fair, from American Philosophical Society (image #94 at http://www.amphilsoc.org/ library/guides/eugenics.htm). Ellis Island image from the Library of Congress. Petrus Camper’s illustration of “facial angles” from The Works of the Late Professor Camper by Thomas Cogan, M.D., London: Dilly, 1794. Inside: p. 45: The Works of the Late Professor Camper by Thomas Cogan, M.D., London: Dilly, 1794. 51: “Observations on the Size of the Brain in Various Races and Families of Man” by Samuel Morton. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, vol. 4, 1849. 74: The American Philosophical Society. 77: Heredity in Relation to Eugenics, Charles Davenport. New York: Henry Holt &Co., 1911. 99: Special Collections and Preservation Division, Chicago Public Library. 116: The Missouri Historical Society. 119: The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit, 1882; John Singer Sargent, American (1856-1925). Oil on canvas; 87 3/8 x 87 5/8 in. (221.9 x 222.6 cm.). Gift of Mary Louisa Boit, Julia Overing Boit, Jane Hubbard Boit, and Florence D. Boit in memory of their father, Edward Darley Boit, 19.124.
    [Show full text]
  • Transformations of Lamarckism Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology Gerd B
    Transformations of Lamarckism Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology Gerd B. M ü ller, G ü nter P. Wagner, and Werner Callebaut, editors The Evolution of Cognition , edited by Cecilia Heyes and Ludwig Huber, 2000 Origination of Organismal Form: Beyond the Gene in Development and Evolutionary Biology , edited by Gerd B. M ü ller and Stuart A. Newman, 2003 Environment, Development, and Evolution: Toward a Synthesis , edited by Brian K. Hall, Roy D. Pearson, and Gerd B. M ü ller, 2004 Evolution of Communication Systems: A Comparative Approach , edited by D. Kimbrough Oller and Ulrike Griebel, 2004 Modularity: Understanding the Development and Evolution of Natural Complex Systems , edited by Werner Callebaut and Diego Rasskin-Gutman, 2005 Compositional Evolution: The Impact of Sex, Symbiosis, and Modularity on the Gradualist Framework of Evolution , by Richard A. Watson, 2006 Biological Emergences: Evolution by Natural Experiment , by Robert G. B. Reid, 2007 Modeling Biology: Structure, Behaviors, Evolution , edited by Manfred D. Laubichler and Gerd B. M ü ller, 2007 Evolution of Communicative Flexibility: Complexity, Creativity, and Adaptability in Human and Animal Communication , edited by Kimbrough D. Oller and Ulrike Griebel, 2008 Functions in Biological and Artifi cial Worlds: Comparative Philosophical Perspectives , edited by Ulrich Krohs and Peter Kroes, 2009 Cognitive Biology: Evolutionary and Developmental Perspectives on Mind, Brain, and Behavior , edited by Luca Tommasi, Mary A. Peterson, and Lynn Nadel, 2009 Innovation in Cultural Systems: Contributions from Evolutionary Anthropology , edited by Michael J. O ’ Brien and Stephen J. Shennan, 2010 The Major Transitions in Evolution Revisited , edited by Brett Calcott and Kim Sterelny, 2011 Transformations of Lamarckism: From Subtle Fluids to Molecular Biology , edited by Snait B.
    [Show full text]
  • The Following Essay Was Published in Struggles in the Promised Land , Ed
    [The following essay was published in Struggles in the Promised Land , ed. Jack Salzman and Cornel West (New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997) 21-51. It appears here substantially as published but with some additions indicated in this color .] THE CURSE OF HAM: A CASE OF RABBINIC RACISM? David M. Goldenberg In 1604 Fray Prudencio de Sandoval had this to say about the Jew and the Black: Who can deny that in the descendants of the Jews there persists and endures the evil inclination of their ancient ingratitude and lack of understanding, just as in the Negroes [there persists] the inseparable quality of their blackness. 1 His linking of Jew and Black was not unusual. Indeed, the explicit and implicit comparison of these two peoples is found throughout western literature over many centuries. Leslie Fiedler may have been right when he said, “Surely the Negro cannot relish...this improbable and unwanted yoking any more than the Jew.” Nevertheless, yoked they are, at least in the minds of the rest of the world. At various times and in various places, both peoples were said to be genetically diseased, physically and intellectually inferior, cursed by God, oversexed, more animal than human, ugly, smelly, and, of course, associated with the devil. From Jerome and Augustine, who saw biblical Ham as typologically the Jew while biologically the Black, to the 1930’s American graffito “A nigger is a Jew turned inside out,” these two peoples have been typecast as reflections of one another, and as substitutes for one another in society’s categorization of the Other.
    [Show full text]
  • Beyond the Racial State
    Beyond the Racial State Rethinking Nazi Germany Edited by DEVIN 0. PENDAS Boston College MARK ROSEMAN Indiana University and · RICHARD F. WETZELL German Historical Institute Washington, D.C. GERMAN lflSTORICAL INSTITUTE Washington, D.C. and CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS I Racial Discourse, Nazi Violence, and the Limits of the Racial State Model Mark Roseman It seems obvious that the Nazi regime was a racial state. The Nazis spoke a great deal about racial purity and racial difference. They identified racial enemies and murdered them. They devoted considerable attention to the health of their own "race," offering significant incentives for marriage and reproduction of desirable Aryans, and eliminating undesirable groups. While some forms of population eugenics were common in the interwar period, the sheer range of Nazi initiatives, coupled with the Nazis' willing­ ness to kill citizens they deemed physically or mentally substandard, was unique. "Racial state" seems not only a powerful shorthand for a regime that prioritized racial-biological imperatives but also above all a pithy and plausible explanatory model, establishing a strong causal link between racial thinking, on the one hand, and murderous population policy and genocide, on the other. There is nothing wrong with attaching "racial. state" as a descriptive label tci the Nazi regime. It successfully connotes a regime that both spoke a great deal about race and acted in the name of race. It enables us to see the links between a broad set of different population measures, some positively discriminatory, some murderously eliminatory. It reminds us how sttongly the Nazis believed that maximizing national power depended on managing the health and quality of the population.
    [Show full text]
  • The Hamitic Hypothesis; Its Origin and Functions in Time Perspective Author(S): Edith R
    The Hamitic Hypothesis; Its Origin and Functions in Time Perspective Author(s): Edith R. Sanders Source: The Journal of African History, Vol. 10, No. 4 (1969), pp. 521-532 Published by: Cambridge University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/179896 . Accessed: 08/05/2014 00:32 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Cambridge University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of African History. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 128.95.104.66 on Thu, 8 May 2014 00:32:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Journal of African History, x, 4 (I969), pp. 521-532 521 Printed in Great Britain THE HAMITIC HYPOTHESIS; ITS ORIGIN AND FUNCTIONS IN TIME PERSPECTIVE1 BY EDITH R. SANDERS THE Hamitic hypothesis is well-known to students of Africa. It states that everything of value ever found in Africa was brought there by the Hamites, allegedlya branchof the Caucasianrace. Seligmanformulates it as follows: Apart from relatively late Semitic influence... the civilizationsof Africa are the civilizations of the
    [Show full text]
  • Recognizing the Past in the Present
    INTRODUCTION Recognizing the Past in the Present Sabine Hildebrandt, Miriam Offer, and Michael A. Grodin The past matters, as it continues to reach into the present and infl uence the fu- ture. The acknowledgment that this holds true for the legacies of medicine in the Holocaust has long been denied by the medical professions after World War II, to the point that systematic research into this history only began in the 1980s.1 Too easy was it to point to the results of the Nuremberg Doctors Trial and claim that only a criminal few had been responsible for the atrocities committed by physi- cians in the extermination of those considered unworthy of life and the Euro- pean Jewry.2 Too easy was it to claim that medicine itself had been abused by the criminal regime of National Socialism.3 Research into the complicity of medical scientists, physicians, nurses, midwives, and other health personnel gained mo- mentum only after the perpetrators of crimes—and in academic medicine often their pupils too—had left their positions that they had reclaimed after the war. And the potential failings of the theory of scientifi c medicine itself have come into the focus of historical analysis only late.4 Many threads of this history are currently under investigation, their roots traced back to the time before 1933, and they need to be placed in the larger framework of continuities of persons, thought patterns and epistemology, and legacies that include the trauma of vic- tims, the published results, and the physical remains of Nazi research. These continuities
    [Show full text]
  • Miscegenation” This Page Intentionally Left Blank “Miscegenation” Making Race in America
    “Miscegenation” This page intentionally left blank “Miscegenation” Making Race in America ELISE LEMIRE PENN UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS Philadelphia Copyright © 2002 University of Pennsylvania Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Published by University of Pennsylvania Press Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4011 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lemire, Elise Virginia. “Miscegenation” : making race in America / Elise Lemire. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-8122-2064-3 (alk. paper) 1. American literature—19th century—History and criticism. 2. Miscegenation in literature. 3. Literature and society—United States—History—19th century. 4. Jeff erson, Th omas, 1743–1826—In literature. 5. Racially mixed people in literature. 6. Race relations in literature. 7. Racism in literature. 8. Race in literature. I. Title. PS217.M57 L46 2002 810.9'355—dc21 2002018048 For Jim This page intentionally left blank Contents List of Illustrations ix Introduction: The Rhetorical Wedge Between Preference and Prejudice 1 1. Race and the Idea of Preference in the New Republic: The Port Folio Poems About Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings 11 2. The Rhetoric of Blood and Mixture: Cooper’s “Man Without a Cross” 35 3. The Barrier of Good Taste: Avoiding A Sojourn in the City of Amalgamation in the Wake of Abolitionism 53 4. Combating Abolitionism with the Species Argument: Race and Economic Anxieties in Poe’s Philadelphia 87 5. Making “Miscegenation”: Alcott’s Paul Frere and the Limits of Brotherhood After Emancipation 115 Epilogue: “Miscegenation” Today 145 Notes 149 Bibliography 179 Index 191 Acknowledgments 203 This page intentionally left blank Illustrations 1.
    [Show full text]
  • War Rudolf Virchow Ein Gegner Der Evolutionstheorie ? Philosophia Scientiæ, No S2 (1998-1999), P
    PHILOSOPHIA SCIENTIÆ KLAUS WENIG War Rudolf Virchow ein Gegner der Evolutionstheorie ? Philosophia Scientiæ, no S2 (1998-1999), p. 211-229 <http://www.numdam.org/item?id=PHSC_1998-1999___S2_211_0> © Éditions Kimé, 1998-1999, tous droits réservés. L’accès aux archives de la revue « Philosophia Scientiæ » (http://poincare.univ-nancy2.fr/PhilosophiaScientiae/) implique l’accord avec les conditions générales d’utilisation (http://www. numdam.org/conditions). Toute utilisation commerciale ou im- pression systématique est constitutive d’une infraction pénale. Toute copie ou impression de ce fichier doit contenir la pré- sente mention de copyright. Article numérisé dans le cadre du programme Numérisation de documents anciens mathématiques http://www.numdam.org/ War Rudolf Virchow ein Gegner der Evolutionstheorie ? Klaus Wenig Berlin - Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin Philosophia Scientiae, Cahier Spécial (2), 1998-1999, 211-230 Klaus Wenig Kurzfassung. Rudolf Virchow galt lange Zeit in der Biologiegeschichtsschreibung als Gegner der Deszendenztheorie und damit als Gegner der Entwicklungslehre. Der Aufsatz belegt, daB Virchow der Darwinschen Théorie aufgeschlossen und wohlwollend gegeniiber stand. Als streng empirisch arbeitender anatomischer Pathologe und Anthropologe verlangte er empirischen Nachweis, die „missing links" zu den rezenten Lebewesen. In den wissenschaftlichen Diskussionen um die Verfikation der Deszendenztheorie beteiligte er sich mit Beitrâgen iiber Vererbungsvorgànge. Seine Schriften und Reden belegen seine eigene Einschàtzung, dafi er sich nicht als Gegner, sondern als Freund, nicht aber als Anhànger der Deszendenztheorie verstand. Summary. In the historiography of biology Rudolf Virchow was long regarded as an opponent of the théories of descent and évolution. The présent article argues that Virchow was open to results of the newly developed researches in phylogeny.
    [Show full text]
  • Was Hitler a Darwinian?
    Was Hitler a Darwinian? Robert J. Richards The University of Chicago The Darwinian underpinnings of Nazi racial ideology are patently obvious. Hitler's chapter on "Nation and Race" in Mein Kampf discusses the racial struggle for existence in clear Darwinian terms. Richard Weikart, Historian, Cal. State, Stanislaus1 Hamlet: Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel? Shakespeare, Hamlet, III, 2. 1. Introduction . 1 2. The Issues regarding a Supposed Conceptually Causal Connection . 4 3. Darwinian Theory and Racial Hierarchy . 10 4. The Racial Ideology of Gobineau and Chamberlain . 16 5. Chamberlain and Hitler . 27 6. Mein Kampf . 29 7. Struggle for Existence . 37 8. The Political Sources of Hitler’s Anti-Semitism . 41 9. Ethics and Social Darwinism . 44 10. Was the Biological Community under Hitler Darwinian? . 46 11. Conclusion . 52 1. Introduction Several scholars and many religiously conservative thinkers have recently charged that Hitler’s ideas about race and racial struggle derived from the theories of Charles Darwin (1809-1882), either directly or through intermediate sources. So, for example, the historian Richard Weikart, in his book From Darwin to Hitler (2004), maintains: “No matter how crooked the road was from Darwin to Hitler, clearly Darwinism and eugenics smoothed the path for Nazi ideology, especially for the Nazi 1 Richard Weikart, “Was It Immoral for "Expelled" to Connect Darwinism and Nazi Racism?” (http://www.discovery.org/a/5069.) 1 stress on expansion, war, racial struggle, and racial extermination.”2 In a subsequent book, Hitler’s Ethic: The Nazi Pursuit of Evolutionary Progress (2009), Weikart argues that Darwin’s “evolutionary ethics drove him [Hitler] to engage in behavior that the rest of us consider abominable.”3 Other critics have also attempted to forge a strong link between Darwin’s theory and Hitler’s biological notions.
    [Show full text]
  • Using Facial Angle to Prove Evolution and the Human Race Hierarchy Jerry Bergman
    Papers Using facial angle to prove evolution and the human race hierarchy Jerry Bergman A measurement technique called facial angle has a history of being used to rank the position of animals and humans on the evolutionary hierarchy. The technique was exploited for several decades in order to prove evolution and justify racism. Extensive research on the correlation of brain shapes with mental traits and also the falsification of the whole field of phrenology, an area to which the facial angle theory was strongly linked, caused the theory’s demise. he use of the facial angle, a method of measuring but also the difference between the human “races”.8 Science Tthe forehead-to-jaw relationship, has a long history historian John Haller concluded that the “facial angle was and was often used to make judgments of inferiority and the most extensively elaborated and artlessly abused criteria superiority of certain human races. University of Chicago for racial somatology.”2 zoology professor Ransom Dexter wrote that the “subject of Supporters of this theory cited as proof convincing, the facial angle has occupied the attention of philosophers but very distorted, drawings of an obvious black African or from earliest antiquity.”1 Aristotle used it to help determine Australian Aborigine as being the lowest type of human and a person’s intelligence and to rank humans from inferior a Caucasian as the highest racial type. The slanting African to superior.2 It was first used in modern times to compare forehead shown in the pictures indicates a smaller frontal human races by Petrus Camper (1722–1789), and it became cortex, such as is typical of an ape, demonstrating to naïve widely popular until disproved in the early 20th century.2 observers their inferiority.
    [Show full text]
  • Tracing Objects of Measurement: Locating Intersections of Race, Science and Politics at Stellenbosch University
    TRACING OBJECTS OF MEASUREMENT: LOCATING INTERSECTIONS OF RACE, SCIENCE AND POLITICS AT STELLENBOSCH UNIVERSITY Handri Walters Thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Social Anthropology in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Stellenbosch University Supervisor: Professor Kees (C.S.) van der Waal Co-Supervisor: Professor Steven Robins March 2018 Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za i Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za DECLARATION By submitting this thesis electronically, I declare that the entirety of the work contained therein is my own, original work, that I am the sole author thereof (save to the extent explicitly otherwise stated), that reproduction and publication thereof by Stellenbosch University will not infringe any third party rights and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it for obtaining any qualification. March 2018 Copyright © 2018 Stellenbosch University All rights reserved i Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za ii Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za ABSTRACT This study departs from a confrontation with a collection of ‘scientific’ objects employed at Stellenbosch University in various ways from 1925 to 1984. Eugen Fischer’s Haarfarbentafel (hair colour table), Rudolf Martin’s Augenfarbentafel (eye colour table) and Felix von Luschan’s Hautfarbentafel (skin colour table) - a collection later joined by an anatomically prepared human skull - are employed in this study as vessels for
    [Show full text]
  • Race and Genealogy
    Race and Genealogy. Buffon and the Formation of the Concept of “ Race ” Claude-Olivier Doron To cite this version: Claude-Olivier Doron. Race and Genealogy. Buffon and the Formation of the Concept of “Race”. Humana.Mente: Journal of Philosophical Studies, 2012, 22, pp.75 - 109. halshs-01508913 HAL Id: halshs-01508913 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01508913 Submitted on 14 Apr 2017 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Race and Genealogy: Buffon and the Formation of the Concept of “Race” Claude-Olivier Doron * [email protected] ABSTRACT This article analyses the conditions of formation of the concept of “race” in natural history in the middle of the eighteenth century. Relying on the method of historical epistemology to avoid some of the aporias raised by the traditional historiography of “racism”, it focuses on the peculiarities of the concept of “race” in contrast to other similar concepts such as “variety”, “species” and tries to answer the following questions: to what extent the concept of “race” was integrated in natural history’s discourses before the middle of the eighteenth century? To which kind of concepts and problems was it linked and to which style of reasoning did it pertain? To which conditions could it enter natural history and develop in it? The article argues that “race” pertained to a genealogical style of reasoning which was largely extraneous to natural history before the middle of the eighteenth century.
    [Show full text]