Outcasts from evolution : scientific attitudes of racial inferiority, 1859-1900 / John S. Haller, Jr.
- Haller, John S., Jr., 1940-
- Date:
- [1971]
Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Credit: Outcasts from evolution : scientific attitudes of racial inferiority, 1859-1900 / John S. Haller, Jr. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![6 • Outcasts from Evolution Successive students of classification, men like William Lawrence ( 1783-1867), James Cowles Prichard ( 1786-1848), and Theodore Waitz (1821-1864), took for granted the reality of the five races. Blumenbach's theory was put forth at a time when the origination of man was believed to have been an act of special creation. Even those who later accepted Darwin's theory of evolution were in¬ clined to retain Blumenbach's divisions. This they did by defining the races as forms that diverged from the proto-stock at some early stage in life and which remained separate and distinct for long periods of time to the point of becoming fixed in their characteristics. In fact, most nineteenth-century anthropometrical researches generally accepted the divisions which Blumenbach made of the varieties of man and incorporated his divisions into their own schemata with little hesitation. Rather than dispute the division, they moved on to develop measuring devices which gave additional accent to the previously established divisions. Further¬ more, their instruments established stock differences within each of the major divisions and went on to prove a gradation from the anthropoid through the varieties of man. Although many of the late nineteenth-century anthropologists built upon Blumenbach's five divisions of man, they distorted much of his scientific framework by elaborating on the close relationship between the Negro and the orangoutan. In Blumenbach's opinion Linnaeus had made a fundamental mistake in placing man in the animal kingdom. To infer the close resemblance of the Negro to the orangoutan distorted the basic unity of man and his spiritual and moral integrity. In spite of the African's many misfortunes, Blumenbach reckon[ed] it among the most humane and the bravest men; authors, learned men and poets. Indeed, according to Blumenbach, all men are born, or might have been born from the same man. The Negroes were our black brothers.® From an initial emphasis upon enumeration of the races, the nineteenth-century science of man moved on into anthropometry ^ M. Flourens, Memoir of Blumenbach, ibid., 57, 60; Blumenbach, Observa¬ tions on the Bodily Conformation and Mental Capacity of the Negroes, Philosoph¬ ical Magazine, III ( 1799), 141-47.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b18025729_0027.JP2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
