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1936

"Race" in Europe

Julian Huxley

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Recommended Citation Huxley, Julian, ""Race" in Europe" (1936). Rare Books and Manuscripts. 16. https://digital.kenyon.edu/rarebooks/16

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By JULIAN HUXLEY OXFORD PAMPHLETS ON WORLD AFFAIRS No. 5

'RACE' IN EUROPE

BY JULIAN HUXLEY

OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1 939 'RACE' IN EUROPE THE vague term 'race' has been much misused in modern pseudo-scientific writings and nationalist Nature and Origin of the Group-sentiment propaganda. The meaning of the term is here dis­ F all appeals to which human beings respond, cussed, and the theory of an 'Aryan race' is shown few are as powerful as that of tribal, or-in to be a myth. National types, the 'Nordic' theory aO more advanced stage-of national feeling. Such th~ Jewish question, and the advantages of race~ sentiment is at the basis of life in the modern State. mixture are among the other topics dealt with. It is doubtless founded upon some form of the herd The Pamphlet is based on sections of the book impulse, which receives satisfaction in social animals We Europeans, by Julian Huxley and A. C. Haddon, through the presence of other animals like them­ and grateful acknowledgements are due to Dr. selves. In Man, however, this impulse, like other so­ Haddon and to Messrs. Jonathan Cape. called 'instincts', is not simple and straightforward in operation. The likenesses upon which this 'con­ sciousness of kind' is based are inborn in animals: but in Man they are very largely acquired, being the product of experience and social factors. Very many human activities, aspirations, and OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS emotions have contributed, either naturally or arti­ AMEN HOUSE, E.C. 4 London Edinburgh Glasgow New York ficially, to build up the great synthesis that we term Toronto Melbourne Capetown Bombay a 'nation'; language, religion, art, law, even food, Calcutta Madras HUMPHREY MILFORD gesture, table manners, clothing, an~ sport all p~ay PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY their part. So also does the sentiment of km­ ship, for the family has extended some of its age-old glamour to that wholly different and much newer aggregate, the 'national' unit. I would stress the contrast between family and nation, since the family is an ancient and biological factor, while the nation­ state is a modern conception and product, the result of certain peculiar social and economic circum­ stances. The family has been produced by Nature,

PRINTED IN CREA T BRITAIN the nation by Man himself. Before the Renaissance, that is to say before the 4655,5 'RACE' IN EUROPE 5 4 'RACE' IN EUROPE is our neighbour (Luke x. 25-37), and the very fifteenth century, nations or national States in our basis of Christianity is the proclamation 'There is sense of the word did not exist, though there were neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free: composite human aggregates related to the tribes of for ye are all one in Christ Jesus' (Galatians iii. 28). an earlier cultural stage. For the moment we will Throughout the histo:Y of civilizatio~ the call the sentiment which holds tribes and nations establishment and regulation of group-sentiment together 'group-sentiment'. To call it 'racial' is to among those who are held together .maii:ly by beg a very important question which it is the pur­ political bonds has been .one o~ the chi~f ai.ms of pose of this pamphlet to discuss. It is, however, statecraft. To achieve this the idea of kmship has clear that even in the pre-Renaissance stage group­ been pressed into ever wider service. It has been sentiment was a complex thing, certain elements expanded beyond the family, to embrace the tribe, being derived from the idea of kinship, certain then the loosely knit federation of tribes, and finally others from local feeling, from economic necessity, the yet more extensive aggregate, the nation. from history, from custom, or from religion. The transference of the idea of kinship to the The Brotherhood of Mankind 'group-sentiment' of nations has been fateful for When religions and philosophi~s have clair_ned our civilization. For while the idea of kinship is one and empires have sought to be universal, ~he. idea of the most primitive emotional stimuli, the senti­ of kinship has been extended beyond the limits of ment which it arouses is also one of the most the nation -state. Prelates have been the shepherds enduring. It is for this reason that the authors of of many flocks and commonwealths have become moral and legal codes have frequently found it families of nations. In all ages law, reason, and necessary to protect the State against aspects of religion alike have laid emphas!s on th.e brotherhood group-sentiment which induced hostility to foreign of all mankind. It was an ancient philosopher-poet elements. The Bible is full of allusions to such who said, 'I am a man, and nothing that is human checks. 'The stranger that dwelleth with you shall do I deem alien from myself'; and a murderer who be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt yet earlier asked, 'Am I my brother's keeper?' love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land But especially the common elements that al.I ?1en of Egypt: I am the Lord your God' (Leviticus xix. share have been the theme of the great spmtual 34). 'One ordinance shall be both for you of the leaders. Malachi's question 'Have we not all one congregation, and also for the stranger that sojour­ Father? Hath not one God created us?', the beauti­ neth with you, an ordinance for ever in your genera­ ful treatise on the love of God as inseparable from tions: as ye are, so shall the stranger be before the the love of our fell ow men, known as the First Lord' (Numbers xv. 15). One of the most gracious Epistle General of John, and St. Paul's assertion, 'He parables of Jesus is devoted to the discussion of who 6 'RACE' IN EUROPE 'RACE' IN EUROPE 7 hath made of one blood all nations of men for to which it is often confused-was one of the prepon­ · dwell on all the face of the earth', have all been derating political factors of the nineteenth century. echoed by a myriad voices. The community of In Germany it broke the power of Napoleon and mankind is a sentiment which has particularly later created an empire; it freed Italy from the rule appealed to teachers. 'The same sky covers us all, of Austria and made her a nation; it almost drove the same sun and stars revolve about us, and light the Turk out of Europe and stimulated nationalist us all in turn', said the great Czech educator sentiments among the Greeks and among all the Comenius (1592-1671). peoples of the Balkans. It has also been the main Of all studies the most universal is that which we idea in the formation of the 'succession states' since call science, and with its advent in the seventeenth the War of 1914-18. century the unity of mankind became especially All the movements towards national unity that emphasized. Such was the principle which the were so characteristic of the nineteenth century great French philosopher Blaise Pascal (1623-62) present certain features in common. Among these detected in the continuity of research in the sciences. we would note especially the rise of a myth, so similar 'The whole succession of men through the ages in all these cases that we must suppose that it is a should be considered as one man, ever living and natural way of thinking for peoples in like circum­ always learning.' stances. Among all the newer and almost all the older nationalities a state of freedom from external The Idea of Nationality political domination has been fictitiously supposed Mankind, however, has shown itself to be still to have existed in the past and has been associated unprepared to accept the idea of universal human with a hypothetical ancient unity, itself considered brotherhood, and has often denied it most loudly as derived from an imaginary common inheritance. when maintaining the universal fatherhood of God. The implications of this unity are usually left vague. Tribal, religious, and national sentiment have, time A 'nation' has been cynically but not inaptly defined and again, overruled the sentiment for humanity. as 'a society united by a common error as to its The idea of nationality has yielded as fruit that origin and a common aversion to its neighbours'. patriotism which has proved itself one of the The economic movements of the nineteenth strongest forces known to history, second perhaps century gave rise to unparalleled social and political only to religion. It is hardly necessary to emphasize dislocations. The resulting conflicts have by some the part played by patriotic sentiment in the mould­ been interpreted as originating from an incom­ ing of Europe. The passionate desire for freedom patibility of 'racial' elements in the populations from foreign domination-which we may note is involved. But such incompatibility, if it be a very far from the desire for freedom itself, with reality, must have existed for many centuries in the 8 'RACE' IN EUROPE 'RACE' IN EUROPE 9 populations before these disturbances declared that thou mayest be my salvation to the end of the earth . themselves. Such explanations therefore inevitably . . . That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to lead to an inquiry as to the extent to which the them that are in darkness, show yourselves!' claims to 'racial unity', which are involved in recent When, too, we read in Madison Grant's The nationalist controversy, have a basis in reality. Passing of the Great Race that the greatest a~d most A further question necessarily arises in this con­ masterful personalities have been of N ord1c type nexion. Even if we assume that for any given we can make a shrewd guess at its author's general national unit it were possible to establish a specific appearance! A flaw in his line of thought is that the physical type-which it is not-would there be any very same claims are made by many groups that evidence for the view that it were best that this type are by no means predominantly Nordic: Passages should be fostered and its survival encouraged to claiming leadership of the world can, m fact'. be the exclusion of all other types? In coming to a elicited in abundance from French, German, Italian, conclusion we must remember that every people has Russian, and American literature, to say nothing of ascribed to itself special powers and aptitudes. Such the literatures of smaller groups. Nations, races, claims may, at times, assume the most ridiculous tribes, societies, classes, families-each and all claim forms. There is not one but a multitude of 'chosen for themselves their own peculiar, real, or imaginary peoples'. Some of the most sweeping claims made excellences. This is a common human foible, but for the British, by Kipling for instance, are closely there are times and circumstances when it may similar to the claims made for the tribes of Israel by become an epidemic and devastating disease. the authors of certain Biblical books. The Meaning of 'Race' Truly ye come of The Blood; slower to bless than to ban. Little used to lie down at the bidding of any man. The term 'race' is freely employed in many kinds of literature, but investigation of the use of the word There's but one task for all One life for each to give, soon reveals that no exact meaning can be attached What stands if Freedom fall? to it. The word 'race' is of Hebrew or Arabic origin, Who dies if England live? and entered the western languages late. It was originally used to denote descend~nts of ~ single With The White Man's Burden may be compared sire, especially of animals. Later m the forty-ninth chapter of the book of Isaiah: E~ghsh a~d French it became applied to human bemgs, as m The Lord hath called me from the womb .... And he the phrase 'the race of Abraham' in Foxe's B_ook ~f said unto me, Thou art my servant, 0 Israel, in whom I Martyrs (1570 edition, the first occurrence m this will be glorified .... It is (too) light a thing thou shouldest ... raise up the tribes of Jacob and restore the preserved sense in English) or in a spiritual sense the 'race of of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, Satan' in Milton's Paradise Lost (1667). The word I 0 'RACE' IN EUROPE 'RACE' IN EUROPE I I was not employed in the Authorized Version of the essence of nationality, and sometimes 'race' and Bible, where it is represented by the words 'seed' or 'nation' have been used as almost interchangeable 'generation'. terms. So far has this gone that many nationals, if The word 'race' soon acquired a vagueness that questioned, would_ reply that th~ir compatriots w~re it has never since lost. This vagueness has given all of one 'race', with a proport10n, more or less in­ the word a special popularity with a group of writers significant, of 'aliens', who, by some means or ot~er, who deal with scientific themes, though they them­ have acquired their national status. A v~ry . htt~e selves are without adequate scientific equipment. reflection and knowledge will show that this view is From such writers it has descended to the literature untenable. The belief, however, survives in many of more violent nationalism. quarters where ~t shoul~ hav~ becon_ie extinct, ~ome,­ It is instructive to look up the word race in a good times with the idea of stock substituted for race · dictionary. The vagueness of its usage will at once Our statesmen, who should know better, often speak become apparent. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the 'British race', the 'German race', the 'Anglo­ defines 'race' in general as: Saxon race', the 'Jewish race', &c. Such phrases are 'Group of persons or animals or plants connected by devoid of any scientific significance. The speakers common descent, posterity of (person), house, family, should usually substitute some such word as 'people' tribe or nation regarded as of common stock, distinct or 'group'_ for the word 'race' if they desire to convey ethnical stock (the Caucasian, Mongolian, &c., r.), genus any meanmg. or species or breed or variety of animals or plants, any It was a remarkable consequence of the Great great division of living creatures (the human, feathered, War that, perhaps for the first time in ~i~tory, four-footed, finny, &c., r.); descent, kindred (of noble, peace treaties were dir~cted to:vards. the revlSl?n of Oriental, &c., r.; separate in language & r.); class of the political map, on l~nes ~~ic~ aim at_ havmg a persons &c. with some common feature (the r. of poets, basis in so-called ethmc realities. For this purpose dandies, &c.).' the 'racial' argument was constantly put forwar.d in A word is often none the worse for being inexact terms of what in the current phrase of the time, in its usage; many words indeed are valuable for was called 's~lf-determination', with occasionally this very reason. But it is necessary, in dealing with some regard for the rights of t~e s?~called 'racial' scientific subjects, to distinguish carefully between (usually linguistic or cultural) mmont~es. the terms that we use in an exact sense and those In the discussion which accompamed the settle­ which are valuable for their very vagueness. The ment of the peace treaties there was inevitably much word 'race', if it is to be used at all, should find its confusion of thought in regard to these so-called place in the latter class. 'racial questions'. As an illustration of the l~ngths It has frequently been asserted that 'race' is of the to which such confusion of thought may go, it may l 2 'RACE' IN EUROPE ' RACE ' IN EUROPE l 3 be mentioned that in the discussion on the Polish must be fictitious. In many cases it is, in fact, Corridor it was even suggested as a means of finding demonstrably false even in the very simple and the 'racial' affinities of the inhabitants of the area lowly forms of social organization. To sp.eak of involved, that the question might be settled by con­ 'kinship' or 'common blood' for the populat10ns of sulting the voting lists of the last election! our great complex modern social systems is to talk mere nonsense. 'Race' and 'Blood' We may take a familiar example of a lowly soci~l Associated with the vague idea of 'race' is the organization from the Scottish clans. These, m ' idea, almost equally vague, of 'blood'. The use of theory, were local aggregates of families co~nec~ed this word as equivalent to 'relationship' is itself by kinship and each bound thereby to their ch1~f. based on an elementary biological error. In fact As an historical fact, however, these local umts there is no continuity of blood between the parent included settlers who came from other clans. This and offspring, for no drop of blood passes from the mixture of relationships would naturally, in time of mother to the child in her womb. The misconcep­ crisis, entail a divided allegiance. Such a danger tion is very ancient and encountered among many was overcome by the enforced adoption of the clan peoples on a low cultural level. This false concep­ name. Thus when the MacGregors became a tion gained scientific currency from a mistake of broken clan and the use of the name was forbidden, Aristotle, who held that the monthly periods, which its members averted the evil consequences of their do not appear during pregnancy, contribute to the outlawry by adhesion to other clans. Rob Roy substance of the child's body (Aristotle, De Genera­ (1671-1734), the famous outlaw and chief of the tione Animalium, I, § 20 ). The curious reader will Gregors, adopted his mother's name of Campbell, find Aristotle's error repeated in a work in the and thus became an adherent of the Duke of Argyll. Apocrypha, The Wisdom of Solomon (vii. 2). The Similarly in Ireland there was a system of whole­ modern knowledge of the physiology and anatomy sale inclusion of entire classes of strangers or slaves of pregnancy disposes completely of any idea of a with their descendants into the clan or into its 'blood-tie' or of 'common blood' in its literal sense. minor division, the sept. Those so adopted regu­ Such blood is not 'thicker than water'. On the larly and as a matter of course took the tribal name. contrary, it is as tenuous as a ghost! It is non­ In the exceedingly ancient 'Brehon Laws', which go existent. It is a phantasm of the mind. back at least to the eighth century, there are regula­ But quite apart from this venerable misconcep­ tions for the adoption of new families into the clan tion, and the widespread misunderstandings that and even for the amalgamation of clans. Kinship, arise from it, it is evident that the actual physical or rather what was treated as kinship, could thus kinship, which is frequently claimed as 'race feeling', actually be acquired. It could even be bought. A 14 'RACE' IN EUROPE 'RACE ' IN EUROPE I 5 number of legends of early Greece and Rome tell of those who number Huguenots and Flemings among similar clan fusions. Adoption into the tribe thus their ancestors cannot be distinguished among the constantly becomes a fictitious blood-tie, and among extremely complex mixture which forms the popu­ many peoples of lower culture the ceremony of lation of the country. In particular it may be stated adoption is accompanied by actual physical inter­ that, from the earliest prehistoric times to our own, change of blood. Many analogies in more advanced the wealthy and densely settled south-eastern part cultural units suggest themselves. of England has been the recipient of wave on wave If a Scottish or Irish clan is of 'mixed blood', of immigration from the Continent. The existence what likelihood is there of purity of descent among of anything that can be called a 'race' under such the millions that make up the population of any conditions is mere fantasy. great modern nation? How can there be an 'Anglo­ The special form of group-sentiment that we call Saxon race', a 'German race', a 'French race', and 'nationality', when submitted to analysis, thus still less a 'Latin race', or an 'Aryan race'? Histori­ proves to be based on something much broader but cally, all the great modern nations are well known less definable than physical kinship. The occupa­ to be conglomerations and amalgamations of many tion of a country within definite geographical tribes, and of many waves of immigration through­ boundaries, climatic conditions inducing a definite out the long periods of time that make up their mode of life, traditions that gradually come to be history. This may be well seen in southern France, shared in common, social institutions and organiza­ where in Provence the Greek colonies of Marseilles tions, common religious practices, even common and elsewhere became, at a very early date, integral trades or occupations-these are among the innu­ parts of the population of Gaul. More familiar merable factors which have contributed in greater examples are to be found in the population of the or less degree to the formation of national senti­ British Isles, which has been made up from scores ment. Of very great importance is common of waves of immigrants from the third millennium language, strengthened by belief in a fictitious B.C. until the present time. Britain has thus been 'blood-tie'. a melting-pot for five thousand years! Among the But among all the sentiments that nurture more modern waves was that of the Huguenot feelings of group unity, greater even than the refugees, who fled from France to the eastern imaginary tie of physical or even of historic re­ counties of England, and formed five per cent. of lationship, is the reaction against outside inter­ the population of London after the Revocation of ference. That, more than anything else, has the Edict of Nantes, and the Flemish settlers who fostered the development of group-consciousness. came at a somewhat earlier date to South Wales. Pressure from without is probably the largest Both have long ceased to be separate groups and single factor in the process of national evolution. r6 'RACE ' IN EUROPE 'RACE ' IN EUROPE I 7 their observations. To some resemblances, to others 'National Types' differences, make the stronger appeal. Between two It may, perhaps, be claimed that, even admitting observers attention will tend to be directed to the incorporation into the nation of many individuals entirely different characters in the same population. of 'alien blood', it is nevertheless possible to recognize Furthermore, a general conclusion as to the character and differentiate the true 'stock' of a nation from of any given population will depend on how far the the foreign. It is sometimes urged that the original material examined is what statisticians call a 'true stock represents the true national type, British, random sample'. French, Italian, German, and the like, and that the A traveller who lands at Liverpool, and carefully members of that stock may readily be distinguished explores the neighbourhood of the great industrial from the others. The use of the word or the idea of area by which that port is surrounded, would form a 'stock' in this connexion introduces a biological very different view of the bearing, the habits, the in­ fallacy which we must briefly discuss. terests, the speech, in fine, of the general appearance Certainly, well-marked differences of 'national of the population of England from one who landed at type' are recognized in popular judgement-we all Southampton and investigated agricultural Hamp­ know the comic paper caricature of the Frenchman, shire. Both would obtain different results from one the German, &c.-but it is very remarkable how who landed in London, and all three from the personal and variable are such judgements. Thus our painstaking investigator who undertook a tour of German neighbours have ascribed to themselves a observation from Land's End to John o' Groats. Teutonic type that is fair, long-headed, tall, slender, Observations in Normandy or in Bayonne will give unemotional, brave, straightforward, gentle, and a very different impression of the French from those virile. Let us make a composite picture of a typical made in Provence, while a superficial anthropolo­ Teuton from the most prominent of the exponents gical observer from Mars who had landed in certain of this view. Let him be physically as blond and corners of North Wales might, for a time, easily mentally as unemotional as Hitler, physically as long­ imagine himself among a Mediterranean people, headed and mentally as direct as Rosenberg, as tall and even in some spots among a people of an older, and truthful as Goebbels, as slender and gentle as 'palaeolithic' type. Samples of the mixed population Goering, and as manly and straightforward as of the United States, formed from peoples of the Streicher. How much would he resemble the most varied origin, might give an even more dis­ German ideal ? torted impression of the general social and material As for those so-called 'national types' that travellers conditions of its inhabitants, if the observations and others claim to distinguish, we may say at once were confined to the east side of New York, to the that individuals vary enormously in the results of Scandinavian belt of the Middle West, to the Creole ,

I 8 'RACE' IN EUROPE 'RACE' IN EUROPE I 9 population of New Orleans, or to the country dis­ must obviously be determined largely by the content tricts of New England. and habit of thought. Men's faces have, stamped When, in fact, the differences which go to make upon them, the marks of their prevalent emotions up these commonly accepted distinctions between and of those subjects on which they most often and 'racial stocks' and nationalities are more strictly most deeply think. ~xamined, it will be found that there is very little In point of actual fact, the most crucial factors on m them that has any close relation to the physical which most observers' judgement will depend will characters by which 'race' in the biological sense be dress and behaviour. In dress, the use, degree, can be distinguished. It is more than probable that, and contrast of colour at once attract the eye. In so far as European populations are concerned, behaviour, facial expression, gesture, and speech nothing in the nature of 'pure race' in the biological attract much attention. These, however, are cul­ sense has had any real existence for many centuries tural factors, the results of fashion, imitation, and or even millennia. Whether it has ever had, since education. It is true that attitude and movement the days when man first became man, is a problem and the use of the voice have physical bases. But it which is still unsolved. is, nevertheless, certain that in virtue of their patent transmission by imitation they must be regarded as Nationality depends on Cultural, not Biological, mainly dependent upon a cultural inheritance. It is interesting to note that in Hitler's book Mein Kampf, Characteristics his 'racial' characterizations and differentiations, In considering the characters of different nation­ more especially of the Jews, are based not on any alities it will generally be found that the distinctive biological concept of physical descent-as to the qualities upon which stress is laid are cultural rather essential nature and meaning of which he exhibits than physical and, when physical, they are very complete ignorance-but almost entirely on social often physical characters that have been produced and cultural elements. or influenced by climatic and cultural conditions. Stature is certainly in part a function of environ­ ment. Pigmentation-fairness or darkness-unless The Myth of an 'Aryan Race' submitted to scientific record and analysis, is Apart from these general considerations, certain illusory. How many Englishmen could give an fallacies of unscientific 'racial' conceptions, and in accurate estimate of the percentage of dark-com­ particular the myth of an 'Aryan race', call for plexioned or of short people in England ?-which is separate discussion. in fact a country whose inhabitants are more often In 1848 the young German scholar Friedrich dark than fair, more often short than tall. Expression Max Muller (1823-1900) settled in Oxford, where

I 20 'RACE' IN EUROPE 'RACE' IN EUROPE 2 l he remained for the rest of his life. The high historians into the limbo of discarded and dis­ character and great literary and philological gifts of credited theories. Max Muller are well known. About 1853 he intro­ In England and America the phrase 'Aryan race' has quite ceased to be used by writers with scientific duced ~nto English usage the unlucky term Aryan, 1 as .applied ~o a large group of languages. His use of knowledge, though it appears occasionally in politi­ this Sa~skn~ ~ord contains in itself two assumptions cal and propagandist literature. A foreign secretary --one lm~mstic, that the Indo-Persian sub-group of recently blundered into using it. In Germany the lang~age IS older or more primitive than any of its idea of an 'Aryan' race received no more scien­ relatives; the other geographical, that the cradle of tific support than in England. Nevertheless, it found th~ common an~estor of these languages was the able and very persistent literary advocates who Ariana of the ancients, in Central Asia. Of these the made it appear very flattering to local vanity. It first is now known to be certainly erroneous and therefore steadily spread, fostered by special con­ the second now regarded as probably erroneous. ditions. ~ evertheless, ~round ea~h of these two assump­ Max Muller himself was later convinced by scien­ t10ns a whole library of literature has arisen. tific friends of the enormity of his error and he did . Moreover, ~ax Muller threw another apple of his very best to make amends. Thus in 1888 he discord. He mtroduced a proposition which is wrote: demonstrably false. He spoke not only of a definite I have declared again and again that if I say Aryas, I Aryan language and its descendants, but also of a mean neither blood nor bones, nor hair, nor skull; I mean corresponding 'Aryan race'. The idea was rapidly simply those who speak an Aryan language .... When I speak of them I commit myself to no anatomical charac­ taken up both in Germany and in England. It teristics. The .blue-eyed and fair-haired Scandinavians affected to some extent a certain number of the may have been conquerors or conquered. They may have nationalist historical and romantic writers, none of adopted the language of their darker lords or vice-versa. who~ had any ethnological training. It was given ... To me an ethnologist who speaks of Aryan race, Aryan especial currency by the French author de Gobineau blood, Aryan eyes and hair, is as great a sinner as a linguist (see p. 24). Of the English group it will be enough who speaks of a dolichocephalic dictionary or a brachy­ to recall some of the ablest, Thomas Carlyle (1795- cephalic grammar. 1 1881), J. A. Froude (1818-94), Charles Kingsley Max Muller frequently repeated his protest, but (1819-75), and J. R. Green (1837-83). What these alas! 'the evil that men do lives after them, the good men have written on the subject has been cast by is oft interred with their bones'! Who does not wish to have had noble ancestors? The belief in an 1 The word Aryan was first used quite correctly by Sir William Jones (1746-94) as a name for the speakers of a group of Indian ' Max Millier, Biographies of Words and the Home of the Aryas, languages. London, 1888, p. 120. 22 'RACE' IN EUROPE 'RACE' IN EUROPE 23 'Aryan' race had become accepted by philologists, Both the German and the French views cannot who knew nothing of science-and the word was be entirely true, but both may be partially or entirely freely used by writers who claimed to treat of erroneous. In so far as the cultural origins of our science though they had no technical training and civili~ation can be associated with any particular no clear idea of the biological meaning to be attached physical type, it must be linked neither with the to the word 'race'. The influence of the untenable Nordic nor the Eurasiatic, but rather with the idea of an 'Aryan race' vitiates all German writings Mediterranean. As regards the general physical on anthropology which are now allowed to appear. measurements of the existing population of central If the term 'Aryan' is given a racial meaning at all, Europe, the prevailing physical type is Eurasiatic it should be applied to that tribal unit, whatever it rather than either Nordic or Mediterranean. was, that first spoke a language distinguishable as The Jews Aryan. Of the physical characters of that hypo­ thetical unit it is the simple truth to say that we A consideration of this 'Aryan fallacy' leads us to know nothing whatever. As regards the locality two so-called 'race problems' which are of immedi­ where this language was first spoken, the only toler­ ate political importance-the Nordic and the Jewish. ably certain statement that can be made is that it Beginning with the latter, we find that the Jewish was somewhere in Asia and was not in Europe. It problem is far less a 'racial' than a cultural one. is thus absurd to distinguish between 'non-Aryans' Jews are no more a distinct sharply marked 'race' and 'Europeans'. than are German or English. The Jews of the Bible There is no need to trace in detail the history of were of mixed descent. During their dispersal they the Aryan controversy. It will be enough to say have interbred with the surrounding populations, that while the Germans claimed that these mythi­ so that a number of hereditary elements derived cal Aryans were tall, fair, and long-headed-the from the immigrant Jews are scattered through the hypothetical ancestors of hypothetical early Teutons general population, and the Jewish communities -the French claimed that the Aryan language and have come to resemble the local population in many the Aryan civilization came into Europe with the particulars. In this way Jews of Africa, of eastern Alpines (Eurasiatics), who are of medium build, Europe, of Spain and Portugal, and so on, have rather dark, and broad-headed. The decipherment become markedly different from each other in of the language of the very 'Jewish' -looking Hittites physical type. What they have preserved and -which was certainly Aryan-and the discovery of transmitted is not 'racial qualities' but religious certain Aryan languages in North-West India throws and social traditions. Jews do not constitute a race, a new complexion on the whole question of the but a society with a strong religious basis and origin of the Aryan languages. peculiar historic traditions, parts of which society 24 'RACE' IN EUROPE 'RACE' IN EUROPE 2 5 have been forced by segregation and external pres­ pre~istoric archaeology, and claimed to make Ger­ sure into forming a pseudo-national group. Biologi­ man prehistory-to use his own words-'a pre­ cally it is almost as illegitimate to speak of a 'Jewish emin~ntly national science'. His naive object was race' as of an 'Aryan race'. to show that throughout the prehistoric ages advan ~es in culture had been entirely due to peoples The Nordic Theory whom he identified with the Nordic, Germanic, or The Nordic theory, which is a development of 'Aryan't peoples, these terms being regarded as the 'Aryan fallacy', is in another category. Instead interchangeable, though including not merely Ger­ of ascribing racial qualities to a group which is mans but also Scandinavians. The 'Aryan' cradle to-day held together on a cultural basis, it takes an was conveniently located in the north-European hypothetical past 'race', ascribes to it a number of forest about the Baltic and North Sea coasts. valuable qualities, notably initiative and leadership, This theory is scientifically quite untenable on and then, whenever it finds such qualities in the many grounds. Thus, to take a single point, the mixed national groups, ascribes them to the Nordic earliest of the rough stone monuments (of which elements in the population. It then proceeds farther Stonehenge is a late and highly developed example, and sets up, as a national ideal, a return to purity of c. 1700-1600 B.c.) go back, even in England, at stock of a Nordic 'race' the very existence of which least as far as 3000 B.C. The culture that they is unproved and probably unprovable. represent spread from the Mediterranean to the The real source of all these modern ideas of the Iberian peninsula and thence through France into innate inferiority of certain 'races' is the work of the Britain and beyond to north Germany and Scan­ French Count Joseph de Gobineau (1816-82), Essai dinavia. Yet these monuments, involving high sur l'inegalite des races humaines (1853-5). It is enterprise, considered design, and compl~x social essentially a plea for 'national' history. He advocated organization, were produced by a people devoid of especially the superiority of the so-called 'Aryan metal implements and quite certainly not of 'Nordic' races' (seep. 20). The idea was carried to the most origin. The skulls from the early English burials ridiculous lengths in the work of his countryman associated with these monuments are, in fact, Lapouge, L'Aryen (1899), in which the 'Aryans' usually stated to be of 'Mediterranean' type. were identified with the 'Nordic race'. This ridicu­ Nevertheless, the Nordic theory speedily became lous Nordic-Aryan theory, launched by French very popular in Germany. It made a special appeal writers, was eagerly developed in Germany and to national vanity and was made the basis of pro­ linked with anti-Jewish propaganda. In the begin­ paganda in the pseudo-scientific writings of the ning of the present century the East Prussian Germanized Englishman Houston Stewart Cham­ Gustav Kossinna took up the idea, applied it to berlain and others in Germany, and of Madison 26 'RACE' IN EUROPE 'RACE' IN EUROPE 27 G:ant and other~ in ~merica. Hitler-himself 1my­ it originated or when its important migration took thmg ~ut Nord1c-1s completely obsessed by this place. Several authorities believe that it came fa?tast1c theory. Among the absurdities conlfected originally from the steppes of southern Russia. with .the develop~ent of the theory it is p;:rhaps The contentions which ascribe to the 'Nordic race' sufficient to ment10n that Jesus Christ and( Dante most of the great advances of mankind during ha~e been tur?ed i~to 'good Teutons' by German recorded history appear to be based on nothing writers. The N ord1c theory' has had a vety great more serious than self-interest and wish-fulfilment. effect, n?t onl.Y in servi?g as a basis for the 'Aryan' In the first place, it is quite certain that the great and ant1-Jew1sh doctrmes upon which the Nazi steps in civilization, when man learned to plough, regime is now being conducted, but also as the to write, to build stone houses, to transport his in~pir.ing in.fluenc~ in a great deal of political goods in wheeled vehicles, were first taken in the ag1tat10n which claimed superiority for the 'Nordic' Near East, by peoples who by no stretch of imagina­ in the discussion of legislation determining the tion could be called Nordic, but who seem in point recent revision of the immigration laws in the of fact to have consisted largely of men of the United States. dark, 'Mediterranean' type. Secondly, it is true that The facts of the case are as follows. The 'Nordic great advances in civilization have sometimes been ra~e', like other human races, has no present observed in history when invaders of a relatively existence. Its former existence, like that of all light-skinned type have irrupted into countries popu­ 'p:ire races', is hypothetical. There does, however, lated by other groups-notably in Greece, though exist a Nordic type. This occurs with only a here round-headed as well as long-headed elements moderate degree of mixture in certain limited areas were included in the invaders. But in such cases, of Scandinavia, and is also to be found, though both types appear to have made their contribution, yery mu~h mixed with other types (so that all and the result can best be ascribed to the vivifying mtermediates and recombinations occur), in north­ effects of mixture and culture-contact. Indeed, ern Europe ~rom Britain to Russia, with pockets where the Nordic type is most prevalent, in Scan­ here and there in other countries. On various dinavia, there is no evidence of any ancient civiliza­ grounds we can be reasonably sure that this distri­ tion having been attained at all comparable to that bution is the result of the invasion of Europe by of the Near East, North Africa, India, China, the a group .largely composed of men of this type-­ Mediterranean, or the Aegean. In more modern perhaps m th~ d~g~ee of purity in which the type times the greatest achievements of civilization have 1s now found m limited areas of Scandinavia. This occurred in regions of the greatest mixtures of group in its original form was probably the nearest types-Italy, France, Britain, and Germany, to approach to a 'Nordic race'. It is not certain where mention only four nations. In all these countries 28 'RACE' IN EUROPE 'RACE' IN EUROPE 29 of 'mixed races' it is rare to find pure Nordic types. The great bulk of the population will contain here­ atic element which includes the Slavonic while ditary elements derived from many original sources. hereditary .ele~ents f~om the Mongoloid ~eoples In the highly complex populations of Britain or have crept m via Russia. Jews entered Germany in ~er~any the pure Nordic type, if it ever existed, the first Chris~ian centuries-long before many of the German tnbes had emerged from what is now ~s qm~e irre~overabl~, for the population as a whole 1s an mextncable mixture. The Nordic type may Russia-and it is quite possible that every man who to-day calls himself a German had some Jewish be hel~ u~ as a?- object of policy or propaganda, but this ideal 1s genetically quite unattainable, anc~stors. Ii: F~ance the population is largely and will not affect the biological realities of the Alpm.e, espe:ially m. the centre, but there is a strong situation. Nordic admixture m the north and a prevailing Mediterranean element in the south. The Jews are Furthermore, when we look into the facts of of mixed origin, and have steadily been growing history, we find it far from true that men of pure or more mixed. America is proverbially a melting-pot. even approximately Nordic type have been the The Japanese are also a mixture of several ethnic great leaders of thought or action. The great types. India is as much a product of repeated explorers of Britain displayed initiative, but hardly immigration as Britain, and so on throughout the on~ o~ them was physically of Nordic type: the peoples of the earth. maJonty of the most celebrated Germans, including In Germany to-day, in order to establish 'Aryan Goethe, Beethoven, and Kant, were medium or blood', a man must present a pedigree clear of 'non­ round-headed, not long-headed as the Nordic type should be. Napoleon, Shakespeare, Einstein, Gali­ Aryan', i.e. Jewish, elements for several generations back. The enormous number of cases in which leo-a dozen great names spring to mind which in one parent or grandparent or great-grandparent themselves should be enough to disperse the Nordic of the most thoroughly 'German' citizens has my~h. The word myth is used advisedly, since this proved to be Jewish shows how impossible it is beh.ef frequently plays a semi-religious role, as to secure a 'pure Nordic stock'. Once more, indeed, basts for a creed of passionate racialism. the social and cultural plane is the more important. ' Race-mixture' is Beneficial Germany has benefited a great deal from her Jewish From what has been said, it will be clear that elements-we need only think of Heine, Haber, 'race-mixture' has in the past been beneficial. The Mendelssohn, Einstein. But during the economic British contain strong Nordic and Eurasia tic ele­ depression the competition of Jews in the pro­ ments, with a definite admixture of Mediterranean fessions, in finance, and in retail trade was proving types. In the Germans there is a very large Eurasi- embarrassing, and in the revolution it was con­ venient to treat the Jews as a collective scapegoat, 30 'RACE' IN EUROPE 'RACE' IN EUROPE 3 I who could be blamed for mistakes, and on whom was the size of the blocks of alien culture to be might be vented the anger that must be restrained assimilated which constituted the problem. against external enemies. Racialism is a Myth It is instructive to compare the treatment of the Jews in Germany with that of the 'Kulaks' (that is, So long as nationalist ideas, even in modified well-to-do peasants) in Russia. The Kulaks, by form, continue to dominate the world scene the standing in the way of rural collectivization, were large-scale segregation of areas, each developi~g its an obstacle to the Government's economic plans: own general type of culture, may be the policy to they also provided a convenient scapegoat for any pursue. If unrestri.cted immigration seems likely mistakes and failures that might occur. Their to. upset. s~ch a policy, restriction is justifiable, as persecution was as horrifying as that of the Jews. with Asiatic races in Australia and the United But, at least, it was not justified on false grounds States. But do not let us in such cases make it a of mysticism or pseudo-science. Their existence qrn~sti~n of 'race', or become mystical on the subject, obstructed something which was of the essence of or JUSt1f)'.' ourselve_s ~n false biological grounds. Communist planning, and they had to submit or be T?e v10lent racialism to be found in Europe to­ killed or expelled. The Jews could not even submit; ?ay is. a ~ymptom of Europe's exaggerated national­ because a false ideal of race had been erected to ism: 1t 1s an attempt to justify nationalism on a cloak the economic and psychological motives of non-nationalist basis, to find a basis in science for the regime: they could only suffer at home, while ideas ~nd policies which are generated internally by some few have succeeded in going into exile abroad. a particular economic and political system have real Culture, not 'race', is, again, the crux of the relev_ance only ii; refe:ence to that system: and have American problem. The danger was that the Ameri­ nothmg to do with science. The cure for the racial can tradition might not suffice to absorb the vast mythology, with its accompanying self-exaltation body of alien ideas pouring into the country with and. pers~cution, which now besets Europe is a the immigrant hosts, that the national melting-pot reonentat10n of the nationalist ideal and in the might fail to perform its office, and might crack or pra~tical sphere, an abandonment ~f cl~ims by explode. When immigrants came in small numbers nat10ns to absolute sovereign rights. Science and they could be and were absorbed, from whatever the s~ienti?c spiri~ ~re in duty bound to point out part of Europe they chanced to hail, and in at most the b10log1cal realities of the ethnic situation and two generations they became an integral part of the to refuse to lend sanction to the 'racial' absurdities American nation. Their Alpine or Mediterranean and the 'racial' horrors perpetrated in the name of elements stood in the way of the process no more sci:nce. Racialism is a myth, and a dangerous myth. than their previous Czech or Italian nationality. It It is a cloak for selfish economic aims which in 32 'RACE' IN EUROPE their uncloaked nakedness would look ugly enough. And it is not scientifically grounded. The essence of science is the appeal to fact, and all the facts are against the existence in modern Europe of anything in the nature of separate human 'races' .

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